. . . 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.

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.

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..

Warner Bros. had a major actress within their midst with the addition of Bette Davis. However, they didn't know what to do with her during her early years there so they tried to primp her "feminine" image by putting her in a movie about fashion thieves in a type of plot that seemed made to order during the Thirties.Seeing how dolled up she looks here (with that platinum, shoulder length wig, caked on make-up and and those screaming dresses), it now becomes unthinkable to even imagine her having been picked up by MGM (where Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Adrian dresses ruled supreme) because she would have been completely miscast in every ultra-melodramatic movie given to her there. Not that Davis wouldn't do her own share of melodramas, but for the attention they gave to the creation of iconic screen goddesses dressed in impeccable gowns and inaccessible, airbrushed looks as they left the real, heavy acting to a side, it would have been a matter of time before Davis would have been devoured by that studio or even relegated to second-fiddle.It's why she fared better in the grittier dramas that Warner Bros. pushed out, but this particular movie wasn't where her talents became the main focus -- she gets very little to do even in key scenes. She is teamed well with William Powell, however, and I wonder why wouldn't they be matched up again in another movie but that's a secondary issue. FASHIONS is, however, quite an entertaining movie with a lightweight plot and performances in the good sport vein, with Veree Teasdale a secondary standout as a Hoboken native who poses as a Russian countess and rival to William Powell. Also of note is the fashion show done in the style of the times, and the musical number with Busby Berkeley's blonde beauties who look exactly alike and are dressed in lush ostrich feathers.The good thing about FASHIONS is that it comes right before her loan-out to RKO and her career-turning OF HUMAN BONDAGE. When seeing how little quality time she has on camera in this movie, one can only think this is the same woman who at twenty-five would explode out of her mold and rip up the screen as Mildred Rogers.