Ziegfeld Girl is a 1941 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, Tony Martin, Jackie Cooper, Eve Arden, and Philip Dorn.

Three women, Sandra Kolter, Susan Gallagher, and Sheila Regan are among those selected to join the cast of glamorous "Ziegfeld girls", and become friends.

Sandra, a European beauty, is spotted and recruited while accompanying her violin virtuoso husband Franz to his audition for the show's orchestra.

But after learning that Frank is married to a wife who loves him, Sandra reconciles with Franz and abandons her career to support him on a concert tour.

Sheila, a working class elevator operator from Flatbush, Brooklyn, is torn between her love for truck driver Gil Young and her suddenly wealthy life as a showgirl, including a Park Avenue apartment, press coverage, and expensive gifts from rich male fans.

[6] In July 1938, The Hollywood Reporter noted that that Joan Crawford, Eleanor Powell, Margaret Sullavan, and Virginia Bruce were being considered to star in the film.

[7] However, when production was delayed by approximately two years, the cast was changed, with Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner appearing in the principal female roles alongside Powell.

"[11] The film marked actor James Stewart's last role for MGM before he enlisted in the United States Army during World War II.

[14] To effectively capture the sequence in which Turner's character, Sheila, collapses on a staircase, twenty six takes were completed before director Leonard was satisfied.

[15] In the original cut of the film, Sheila dies in the theater in the finale, but the ending was re-cut to leave her fate ambiguous after test audiences responded unfavorably to her character's death.

[15] The closing scene in which Turner's inebriated character descends a grand theatre staircase before falling at the bottom of the steps has been described as "one of the most memorable climaxes ever put on film.