William Powell heads a house of fashion known for its knock-offs of Parisian gowns, and utilizes the assistance of a former lover turned phony duchess (Veree Teasdale), whom he immediately recognizes upon their meeting. This upsets his "Girl Friday" and current love interest (Bette Davis), but they reach their goal of putting on a fantastic fashion show where threats of a lawsuit ensue for fraud.
This intended follow-up to the success of "Gold Diggers of 1933" is basically a second string romantic comedy with one huge Busby Berkley musical number, "Spin a Little Web of Dreams", an outlandish combination of feathers, human harps and a set that goes on forever. (In other words, clothes that every woman would probably drool over but never find an opportunity to wear). It is worth seeing entirely for that and its fantastic cast-in addition to Powell, Davis and Teasdale (an almost forgotten clothes horse who was quite an adept scene-stealer), there's also Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh and Reginald Owen (truly droll as Teasdale's stuffy husband), lots of witty pre-code wisecracks and innuendos, and a romantic view of the world that probably never existed yet is still fun to dream about.
McHugh is very funny as he keeps trying to find places to have "private" time with different chorus girls and keeps getting caught as sets fall over, move or are lifted. While mothers of young girls complained about not wanting their daughter to grow up to be a "human harp", you can't help but wonder if it is because they secretly desired to be the ones covered in the feathers themselves.
This intended follow-up to the success of "Gold Diggers of 1933" is basically a second string romantic comedy with one huge Busby Berkley musical number, "Spin a Little Web of Dreams", an outlandish combination of feathers, human harps and a set that goes on forever. (In other words, clothes that every woman would probably drool over but never find an opportunity to wear). It is worth seeing entirely for that and its fantastic cast-in addition to Powell, Davis and Teasdale (an almost forgotten clothes horse who was quite an adept scene-stealer), there's also Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh and Reginald Owen (truly droll as Teasdale's stuffy husband), lots of witty pre-code wisecracks and innuendos, and a romantic view of the world that probably never existed yet is still fun to dream about.
McHugh is very funny as he keeps trying to find places to have "private" time with different chorus girls and keeps getting caught as sets fall over, move or are lifted. While mothers of young girls complained about not wanting their daughter to grow up to be a "human harp", you can't help but wonder if it is because they secretly desired to be the ones covered in the feathers themselves.