Vogues Of 1938 (1937)

A Manhattan debutante (Joan Bennett) is being forced into a loveless marriage to a wealthy man (Alan Mowbray) by her mother (Hedda Hopper). But on her wedding day she jilts the groom and falls in love with a fashion designer (Warner Baxter), who happens to be married to an aspiring actress (Helen Vinson). Directed by Irving Cummings (DOWN ARGENTINE WAY), this pastiche of a movie is almost a musical but not quite and almost a comedy but not quite. The musical numbers and acts are not organic but seem randomly inserted into the movie like the Cotton Club sequence with black performers that could easily be (and probably was) cut in the Jim Crow South. Shot in the three strip Technicolor process, the film did receive two Oscar nominations: best art direction and best song That Old Feeling that became a standard. There are also some elaborate fashion show sequences which highlight fashions of the day. Frankly, I could have done without the musical numbers (though the Cotton Club number is a highlight). As to the movie itself, it's a painless if predictable watch and the eye popping Technicolor helps considerably. With Alma Kruger, Mischa Auer and Jerome Cowan.