CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . of (The Then) Far Future about the Fraud of the Millennium. Though nearly everyone in Tinseltown subsequently plagiarized FASHIONS OF 1934, from Astaire & Rogers (ROBERTA) to Robert Altman (PRET A PORTER, aka READY TO WEAR), none of these Wannabes could see the Forest through Warner's Feathers. Though Warner provoked the Pope to impose a Century of American Film Censorship over these feathers (or lack thereof), Warner's Faithful Prognosticators of the USA's upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti thought that it was worth this risk to reveal that this Once Respectable Nation's Future Emperor Caligula was wearing no clothes at all. Our Endangered Homeland's Modern Day "Little Boots," aka that feather-brained Red Commie Tool Don Juan Rump, is perfectly predicted long in advance by FASHIION's "Sherwood Nash." Mr. Nash even has a Russian Connection through "Countess Mabel," a clear reference to Rump's KGB handler, Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin. (That is, "Countess Mabel" is the KGB's Code Name for Rump, as in "Countess Mabel is meeting with the Big Boss this week, so order more of the cheap baloney.") As this story ends, all the feathers turn out to be diseased, which serves as a final Warner warning of Putin's Plot to liquidate millions of U.S. Citizens by curtailing ObamaCare and transferring the billions "saved" by this Genocidal Mass Murder to the Russian Oligarch "investors" who have a stranglehold now on the American Economy, thanks to the Rump\Kushner Money-Laundering Crime Syndicate.
richard-1787
By 1934, when this movie was made, First National had been absorbed by Warner Brothers and produced mostly small-budget movies, such as this one. It tells the story of a con artist (Powell) who goes to Paris with his artist (Davis) with the intent of copying the designs of the great houses of fashion so that they can sell them to department stores back in the States. Instead, when that doesn't work, they discover the inspiration for Paris' leading couturier, and open their own house of fashion, which has a brief success until things fall apart.If the dates weren't wrong, you'd imagine this was a low-budget knock-off of Roberta, which deals with some of the same themes. It probably owed something to the 1933 musical behind that movie, such as the American woman who lives in Paris disguised as Eastern European royalty.It has none of Roberta's elegance, though, either in its fashions or, more importantly, in the dancing and singing of its leads. The one big dance number doesn't involve any of the principals, just a lot of skimpily-clad women in ostrich feathers. During all the time the musical review is under rehearsal, you would swear you're in New York, and not Paris. Indeed, there is no effort at all to convince the audience that the action is really taking place in the French capital.Powell and Davis are fine, Frank McCue and Hugh Herbert do their standard routines, which are better used in other movies. There's nothing memorable here, and nothing Parisian.
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.
st-shot
William Powell's at his most self assured while Bette Davis makes for a just as sharp worthy partner in this mildly entertaining con game involving Paris fashion rip offs. Powell plays a scheming grifter always looking for a way to make fast cash and finds one bootlegging the latest ladies fashions with the help of graphic artist Davis. When the jig is up in NY they head to Paris and cook up another scheme involving a phony countess and ostrich feathers.Were it not for the charm of William Powell, Fashions of 1934 might well be a cynical mean spirited film of dishonest and disreputable impostors greedily out to make a buck, screw partners, associates and in the case of a character played by Frank McHugh every model he lays eyes on. Powell with his healthy rapid fire audacity though manages to win you over to his side with his enthusiasm for the journey. The well tailored Davis rather than moon over Powell instead shows independence and an option that demands he play his hand with her on equal footing. Reginald Owen as a bombastic adversary and especially Veree Teasdale as the counterfeit countess ably support while McHugh and Hugh Herbert do their standard mugging. William Dieterle's direction lacks subtlety and racy innuendo and the film's rhythm sometimes flags but it does have some dazzling sets ( a house of fashion with full orchestra ) and a couple of impressive Busby Berkeley numbers to make Fashions of 1934 a decent enough entertainment, if not exactly haute couture..