CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

preppy-3 Swindler Shewood Nash (William Powell) is stealing fashions from Paris under the designers noses. Lynn Mason (Bette Davis!) helps him and falls for him. There's more to the plot but I was basically so bored I could have cared less!The plot is silly with stupid dialogue and painfully unfunny comedy. This would be totally unwatchable if it weren't for a few things. Powell is great in his role. It's a nothing role but he pulls it off. Davis (this was made before she hit it big) is great despite having nothing to work with. Also she looks interesting in peroxide hair! The fashions by Orry-Kelly are actually pretty interesting. I don't think they'd ever work in reality but they're fun to look at. And then there's a beautiful elaborate ballet worked out by Busby Berkeley that is just incredible to watch. These elements make this worth catching...but it's still just a minor little musical. I give it a 4.

NYLux This amusing concoction is worth the money because of two dyed blonds and one extravagant, divine musical number. The bleached Bette Davis as a fashion designer smitten with the antics of professional crook William Powell, who appears too well dressed and polite to be totally believable in the job. Bette actually manages to look great as an ornamental sidekick to Powell, but underneath the determined designer girl we can detect the power house that will culminate in her unsurpassed rendition of Queen Elizabeth with Errol Fllynn years later.The second bleached blonde is Verree Teasdale who plays a fake Russian grand-duchess from Newark, NJ, who not only manages a phony accent and some extraordinary clothes and jewels for every scene, but has also managed to convince "Baroque" the king of Parisian fashion that she is the real thing and worth marrying, this feat alone deserves an Oscar, at the very least.Drag-Queens beware: This is an undiscovered treasure performance,that can give enough material for a national tour show, including her musical name itself which is a cocktail of sound effects: How many Es can you squeeze in one word? Her off-key, fluffy delivery of the lyric to the song "Spin a Little Web of Dreams" has all the components for a drag anthem, in any language, and huge cross over potential as impromptu cabaret number. The 'Broadway Follies" sequence itself, directed by Busby Berkeley, is the other real reason to watch this film. For one thing, this scene has illustrated the cover of that most necessary book on film : "Holywood Babylon" and although there is absolutely nothing Babylonian about it, except perhaps the excess of ostrich feathers, there is a horde of platinum blonds festooned with endless variations on the 'white ostrich feathers fan motif' moving and dancing in hypnotic coordination. Some are actually part of the harps that others play, they curve at the harp's end like the wooden sculptures of sail vessels for a fetish-furniture look that is perfection. The scene includes an overhead shot that demonstrates the complex flower patterns that can be achieved with all this female trouble.There is also a fashion show. This one obviously influenced Cukor's in "The Women" when all those nice ladies go to 'Fraks', but is actually much better. For one thing we see a painting before the model comes out wearing an adaptation of the design. The first one is Cardinal Richelieu, followed by a model wearing an evening gown inspired on his cape, but the others are more generic of different periods, the adaptations are all very 30's and all considerably better than that weird stuff out of Halloween that comes out in "The Women" as supposedly 'haute couture'. In the movie itself, Bette had discovered that Baroque was buying old books on fashion to inspire his designs, so we know it was her idea to develop that into a fashion- show-extravaganza, and she watches it approvingly from what looks like an opera box, opera glasses in hand. That shot catches her in a more regal pose than the grand-duchess could muster through the film in its entirety, and the impact of that image puts all those ostrich-fan bearers in perspective too: this woman is no one's ornament and she sure could be a queen anytime she wanted to.This movie is a most for Bette Davis fans, musical comedy lovers and all those interested in the historical development of camp. Highly recommended!

bkoganbing The next to last film in William Powell's hiatus at Warner Brothers between his long stints at Paramount and MGM was Fashions of 1934. He got to work with two Warner Brothers institutions for the one and only time, Bette Davis and Busby Berkeley.Powell probably knew he would be leaving shortly and plays his part in his usual charming manner. Davis had the trapped look of a wild animal who wanted desperately not to be where she was. Things would drop into place for her later in the year with Of Human Bondage.Powell had to do a lot to make his character likable, quite frankly he's an out and out crook. He moves from one racket to another in the fashion business, from stealing designs to then working for the folks he's stealing from. He cons and blackmails people into partnership, all and all, a despicable figure. But it's William Powell so you almost forget to hate him.One who doesn't is Davis who would dearly like to see him give up his evil ways, but you certainly would think the odds were against that even at the end of the film.Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal wrote the theme for Fashions of 1934 which was Spin a Little Web of Dreams. It was used as the background for one of Busby Berkeley's more opulent numbers from the cinema. It was Berkeley's contribution to the film.The fashion industry would have seemed a natural for a Berkeley type extravaganza. I'm surprised that so mediocre a film resulted from the idea. But a pair of bored and mismatched stars didn't help the proceedings.Best in the film is Frank McHugh as Powell's assistant in scheme and Hugh Herbert the ostrich feather magnate.

MartinHafer I really wanted to love this movie. After all, it starred William Powell and Bette Davis--two of my all-time favorite actors. Yet despite this, it was a pretty miserable little film.First, it was really tough to care about William Powell and company. While in the past they have "skirted the edges" of the legal system in some films, here they were simply thieves. This isn't exactly endearing! Second, there wasn't a whole lot of movie. It was only about 75 minutes long and much of this was spent watching some Busby Berkely numbers. As a result, acting and plot development could have definitely stood some work. Plus, I doubt that people that like Berkely's style films and people that like light comedy are one in the same--many people wanting more comedy would hate the over-the-top dance numbers and the few people who actually think Berkely's numbers were worth watching may not like comedy.Third, the basic plot involving high fashion is just dull. Who cares about a lot of rich fools who like to walk around with ostrich feathers sticking out of their dresses?! The overall package just isn't very entertaining. In fact, it's downright dull. Do yourself a favor and find pretty much ANY other Powell or Davis movie!