filmbriefs
Actor · Voice actor

Charles Judels

2
briefs
13:00
average
26 min
in total
On film.briefs2
13:00

The Great Ziegfeld

Robert Z. Leonard · 1936

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) is MGM’s lavish biographical musical about Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., starring William Powell, Luise Rainer and Myrna Loy. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg, it prioritises spectacle over accuracy — staging extravagant musical numbers, deploying hundreds of costumers and technicians, and constructing monumental sets like the 100-ton ‘Melody’ staircase. Though factually loose and dramatically thin, its unwavering commitment to scale, craft and ceremonial grandeur makes it a defining artefact of studio-era ambition.

13:00

Pinocchio

Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norm Ferguson, T. Hee · 1940

A woodcarver's puppet is brought to life and told he must prove himself brave, truthful and unselfish before he can become a real boy, guided — imperfectly — by a cricket appointed as his conscience. Made for $2.5 million as Disney's second feature, the film pushed effects animation further than Snow White had, rendering water, smoke and lightning with a level of realism the studio hadn't attempted before, even as it lost money on first release when the war cut off its overseas markets.