... who actually only directs one number, because William Powell is the whole show. Powell really only did the fast talking hustler routine at Warner Brothers, and this was one of those films. Here he plays Sherwood Nash, initially a stock broker. You find out all you need to know in the first scene where he is on the phone selling and buying stock as somebody comes in his office. Only to find out the guy is there to take the phones. They were cut off three days ago.
So with Nash and his buddy Snap (Frank McHugh) out of an office and furniture and phones, they go looking for a new racket. Meeting up with down and out yet talented fashion designer Lynn Mason (Bette Davis) whose designs are great but can't get her foot in the door because she is unknown, Nash gets an idea. He steals shipments of garments coming from Paris to New York and produces cheap knockoffs. Naturally the big name dress stores are annoyed to get phone calls from irate socialites whose nannies are parading around in the same dresses that they have. So then Nash goes to the fashion houses and makes an offer - Why spend all of this money on fashions from Paris when Nash can supply them at a fraction of the cost.
So everybody is in on the grift. Some reviewers are saying - "Who cares about fashion, this is boring!". But the high fashion is just a McGuffin. William Powell's Nash could be swindling anything. It's how he confidently maneuvers any obstacle that is the delight. Plus, remember this is still the height of the Depression. Most people felt they had been swindled to some extent. It was probably fun for movie goers to see rich people swindled for a change. 30s Warner Brothers got that.
The one number that Berkeley directs is supposed to be a fashion show towards the end that nobody sitting in a room with the chorines could appreciate due to all of the camera angles and close ups involved. This is still the precode era so the girls are revealing more than their doctors probably got to see. The tune "Spin A Little Web of Dreams" is very melodious and memorable. It will get stuck in your head.
Watch it for Powell and those great Warner Brothers contract players, watch it for the Berkeley number, and watch it for Bette Davis, who decades later still talked about how she seethed at being made up like a clothes horse during this film.
So with Nash and his buddy Snap (Frank McHugh) out of an office and furniture and phones, they go looking for a new racket. Meeting up with down and out yet talented fashion designer Lynn Mason (Bette Davis) whose designs are great but can't get her foot in the door because she is unknown, Nash gets an idea. He steals shipments of garments coming from Paris to New York and produces cheap knockoffs. Naturally the big name dress stores are annoyed to get phone calls from irate socialites whose nannies are parading around in the same dresses that they have. So then Nash goes to the fashion houses and makes an offer - Why spend all of this money on fashions from Paris when Nash can supply them at a fraction of the cost.
So everybody is in on the grift. Some reviewers are saying - "Who cares about fashion, this is boring!". But the high fashion is just a McGuffin. William Powell's Nash could be swindling anything. It's how he confidently maneuvers any obstacle that is the delight. Plus, remember this is still the height of the Depression. Most people felt they had been swindled to some extent. It was probably fun for movie goers to see rich people swindled for a change. 30s Warner Brothers got that.
The one number that Berkeley directs is supposed to be a fashion show towards the end that nobody sitting in a room with the chorines could appreciate due to all of the camera angles and close ups involved. This is still the precode era so the girls are revealing more than their doctors probably got to see. The tune "Spin A Little Web of Dreams" is very melodious and memorable. It will get stuck in your head.
Watch it for Powell and those great Warner Brothers contract players, watch it for the Berkeley number, and watch it for Bette Davis, who decades later still talked about how she seethed at being made up like a clothes horse during this film.