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This movie was tailor made for Diana Ross, at the height of her career, & it's a must see for all her fans. Sure, it's pure fantasy but it is very entertaining. It's in the campy/angst ridden/clichéd genre of rags to riches movies like "Valley of The Dolls", "Back Street", "Harlow", etc. The movie is overloaded with Ross from the theme song, the (ugly) clothing she designed for it, & the fact that she's in just about every scene. It SCREAMS: 1970'S!!! But of course, Miss Ross was a dominant part of that decade (along w/the mid to late 60's). Billy Dee Williams is very good as her leading man, as he was in "Lady Sings The Blues". Ham-bone Anthony Perkins plays a flaming "Psycho" to the hilt. Take note of Miss Ross in the early part of the film. Gone are the huge hair extensions, overblown eye make up, etc. She looks great. Watch this movie for pure 1970's escapism. By the way, I love the happy ending :)!

Ghetto girl from Chicago wants to be a fashion designer, but her politician boyfriend wants her instead to help him take care of the unfortunates at home (which is more important, after all, than working with coat-hangers, but can't he see that a big salary from the Mrs. might be used to strengthen his campaign?). As good as Diana Ross was in "Lady Sings the Blues", I was restless with that film for a number of reasons (it followed the standard bio-flick pattern, it was heavy-handed and drab). However, "Mahogany" exists purely on adrenaline, and Ross is hyped-up, high on life, and her kicky fashion scenes are both entertaining and gaudy. The love story with Billy Dee Williams is relaxed, Anthony Perkins is loose and campy as a gay shutterbug who puts the moves on La Ross, and the decadent, glamorous surroundings are fun escapism. As for the finale, it is truly gauche...but at least it has the courage to follow through with its happily-ever-after convictions, even if the poverty-stricken crowds cheering at the end have no idea they're being condescended to. *** from ****

Poor inner-city girl (Diana Ross) just wants to be a successful fashion designer but can't get a big break. She finally does get a break, not as a designer but as a model. She becomes world famous and eventually gets the chance to show the world her designs. Oh, and there's some stuff about an up-and-coming politician (Billy Dee Williams) she loves and a homosexual photographer (Anthony Perkins) who "understands the needs of a woman."

Cheesy kitsch from Berry Gordy. The story is trite and the performances are mostly unimpressive. Anthony Perkins does ham it up, which is the primary reason to recommend this. Once his character is gone the movie goes downhill fast. Also features B-movie legend Nina Foch and the film debut of Bruce Villanch. Diana Ross shows her limitations as an actress but at least she does so in hilariously awful fashion. Speaking of fashion, don't eat before seeing this movie or you might lose your lunch at the sights of some of the terrible dresses on display. It was the '70s, baby. Diana sings the theme song ("Do You Know Where You're Going To") that plays throughout the movie. It didn't impress me much at first but damned if it wasn't stuck in my head by the end. It's not a good movie but there is so-bad-it's-good value.

Watch for the ghetto photo shoot scene. As Diana and Billy Dee argue there's this background actor in between them whose eyes just go from one actor to the other as they say their lines like he's watching a tennis match. All of the other actors behind them look away from them, pretending they aren't talking loudly right in front of everybody. But not this guy. I don't know if he was an actual actor or an extra or what but sticking him in the middle of the scene turns a dramatic scene into comedy. A perfect example of the kind of quality that went into making this.

The fashionable word for Mahogany is "kitsch." It's a guilty pleasure that you know is bad, but you just can't help enjoying it. Casting Diana Ross as a fashion model was truly inspiring since it gives her an opportunity to look sensational throughout. This she does with little effort. Billy Dee Williams is fine as her idealistic boyfriend intent on changing the world rather than his clothes, but the most fun is provided by Anthony Perkins whose performance could be subtitled "Norman Bates's Greatest Hits." As the neurotic and gay photographer, he chews the scenery like never before, and gives a sensational performance.

Hot off her turn as Billie Holiday in "Lady Sings the Blues", singer Diana Ross is cast here as Tracy, a secretary in the fashion business who yearns to make it big as a designer. She falls in love with Brian (her "Lady Sings the Blues" co-star Billy Dee Williams), an earnest, well-meaning aspiring politician. But she's focused on her career, which gets a big boost when she hooks up with Sean McAvoy (Anthony Perkins), a flamboyant photographer; she's on top of the world after she makes a splash as a model, but Sean ultimately reveals himself as a vindictive, sleazy, creepy type.

Ross does well in this decent soap opera from music industry mogul / debuting filmmaker Berry Gordy (who stepped in after firing original director Tony Richardson). In fact, she and Williams are quite engaging as they depict all of the various ups and downs in the Tracy / Brian relationship. Offering fine support are Jean-Pierre Aumont, Nina Foch, Marisa Mell, and Beah Richards, but it's Perkins that gives this entertaining trash an effective shot in the arm, playing the kind of role that he was clearly born to play. There's a memorable scene where Sean shows Brian his collection of photographs - and guns.

Making good use of Chicago and Rome locations, "Mahogany" tells a patently predictable yarn (scripted by John Byrum, based on a story by Toni Amber), where the audience is never in much doubt as to how things will develop. Tracy will eventually have to decide what's really important in her life, while Brian finds himself unable to fit into this new world of hers.

"Mahogany" is overall slight but likeable enough, managing to go a fair distance on the strength of the performances. Ross also is credited with actually creating some of the costumes.

Six out of 10.

This movie is a roller-coaster of camp, from start to finish. It is like a bunch of gay men sat down to figure out how to dress up Diana Ross and put her in different outfits all done to a never-ending loop of Diana's own song. The montage of Diana as fashion model is perhaps one of the funniest and campest scenes in a movie, and of course was copied almost shot for shot for the Beyonce montage scene in "Dreamgirls". It has to be seen to be believed.

But no-one can inspire a drag queen like Ms. Ross who never lets plot or story-line interfere with her chances to soft pout or give us long enigmatic looks. The good thing is the plot and story-line is so thin and transparent, she doesn't have to struggle too much. The storyline is simple....girl from the projects with big dreams leaves behind the bleakness of Chicago as she is "discovered" by Anthony Perkins who can't quite figure out if he is gay in the movie (as he was in real life) or straight. He veers from camp to psychotic misogynist sometimes in the same scene. The result is unintentional hilarity.

Part of the rags to riches subplot (if you can call it that) is the Billy Dee Williams character who we know is the true love of Ms.Ross. He is a local activist in Chicago who runs for political office. This part of the story is boring, because Diana isn't dressed up and mincing though every scene. It is also boring because Billy Dee's character is almost as clichéd as the rest of the story. Fighting the white honky sometimes with words but sometimes with fists. He is down-to-earth and hard-working as well as fearless. We are supposed to want him to win. Ms.Ross makes a decision that happiness trumps fame and glory and that is the end...or kind of the end. Actually I don't remember the story, because the camera barely moves from Ross the whole time.

If you love high camp then this movie is for you. At one point Diana Ross says, "I wonder if I'm doing the right thing.." Oh Diana, you are. You are doing the right thing. Fun fact, some of the frocks on display were designed by Ms. Ross, and the whole camp drag-show was put together by her then lover, Berry Gordy.

This move is camptastic!

I took my Aunt to see a special screening of Billy Dee Williams new movie Constellation and we both we're crazy in love with the movie itself. I said I hadn't see black folks look glamorous until now and she rented Mahogony to watch with, because she said it was one of the few other films she could think of. She also had a big thing for Billy Dee.

I really enjoyed Mahogony, it's got that whole 70's vibe going on (well, it was the 70's). Anyway, I could relate to Diania Ross's character (I guess not a whole lot has changed) and Billy Dee was...BILLY DEE. I enjoyed the whole mood and ambiance.

Truly one of the most ridiculous and forgettable movies of the 70s' Blaxploitation film genre, and an utterly embarrassing effort on the part of Motown music mogul Berry Gordy to branch out into Hollywood movie directing. A love story so corny that when watching this today on TV, you can't help but to envision three small black silhouette figures at the bottom of your TV screen making wisecracks after each line of the dialogue has been spoken. In "Mahogany," a young woman has aspirations of becoming a successful fashion designer only to learn a life lesson from her wannbe politician boyfriend that success is meaningless without true romantic love (yeah, right).

Motown singing legend (and Gordy's onetime lover) Diana Ross stars in the title role as Tracy Chambers, a black woman from the slums of Chicago who's starving for success in the fashion design industry. After suffering repeated rejections of her fashion sketches in her hometown of Chicago, she finally gets her big break when a white fashion photographer extends an invitation to her to work with him as a model in Italy. Torn between her relationship with her boyfriend, along with his political ideals, and the golden opportunity of making a significant step in achieving her dream of becoming a successful fashion designer, she opts for the latter and abruptly departs for Rome.

Although a pop singing icon, as the movie's hit theme song ("Do You Know Where You're Going To?") will attest, Ross' acting abilities in this movie however leave a great deal to be desired. Although few would argue that the ostentation of the European fashion industry, the setting for most of this movie, is fitting for her real-life persona as that of the narcissistic Motown diva.

Anthony Perkins appears as a prominent but emotionally imbalanced fashion photographer named Sean who under the guise of being Tracy's mentor, and similar to another Italian benefactor that she encounters later in the movie, has lecherous ulterior motives up his sleeve. Obviously typecast in this role, stemming from his legendary performance as the deranged Norman Bates from Hitchcock's classic horror movie "Psycho" a decade-and-a-half before, he plays the movie's psychotic villain. His unrequited attraction for Tracy results in some very unpleasant and devastating consequences, making her start to realize that success in the European fashion industry ain't exactly all that it's cracked up to be.

Billy Dee Williams plays Brian, Tracy's altruistic boyfriend, who, with his own aspirations, has ambitions of becoming the alderman of the Chicago ward where Tracy herself resides. As the consummate movie matinée idol, and in somewhat of a reprise from the previous movie in which he co-starred with Ross, "Lady Sings the Blues," he does suffice in "Mahogany" as the handsome leading man. However, in scenes where he's embroiled in altercations with construction workers while conducting political campaigns in the streets of Chicago--and besting the roughnecks in street fights--are a tad "Hollywoodish" to say the least and far more humorously cheesy than action-packed.

But above all else, what makes the movie such an unadulterated piece of camp (or crap) is the ludicrous, naive theme it perpetuates—"Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with." In what was presumably meant to be the climax of this movie, and to the background of heavy sentimental orchestral music, Brain emphatically delivers this line to Tracy amid a heated lovers' quarrel. In the original version of the movie, and in Gordy's infinite wisdom as the movie's director, the asinine line was even captioned on the screen at the very end of the film, and also used as a tag line to promote it when it was first released back in the mid-70s. (However, modern-day TV editors have wisely omitted it from the screen at the film's end, presumably because of its inanity.)

Recently, this movie has been re-aired regularly on the newly established "Bounce" channel, a TV network that exclusively showcases black programs. (Unfortunately, many of the movies, like "Mahogany," are of B-grade.) However, time has done this movie a great deal of harm. Actually, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" would be a more fittingly venue for "Mahogany," as you could bet the house that the three fellas over there would have undoubtedly had a field day with such absurd cornball.

You've got to know when to take a movie seriously and when not to. This is definitely a film not to take seriously. You don't watch this movie for the plot you watch it for the 70s retro look. The over the top fashions, some designed by Diana Ross herself are hysterical and totally fun to check out. Anthony Perkins has never been better in this over the top performance of one very strange photographer who can't quite decide whether to make the moves on Diana Ross or her 70s superstar smooth as hot chocolate boyfriend Billy Dee Williams. And how about that hit single, Do You Know Where You're Going To being played throughout the movie? This movie plays like one long Carol Burnett show spoof. Funky, and fine and oh so 70s. You gotta check it out!

This is a fashion immersion, a star-promoting vehicle, rather like watching snakes at the zoo: fascinating but deadly. I didn't actively dislike it, and I did watch it all the way through. Mahogany is totally rooted in it's time, and in many ways--script, acting, music--it's fairly dreadful. Diana Ross, who has accomplished much of value in her lifetime, probably would rather erase this tacky romance from her resume, but there you are. And if you're reading this review, you are halfway to being trapped.

The Big Question is: should Diana choose her aging lover in Paris, including the promise of fashion immortality and unimaginable riches--or should she fly back to Chicago for the love of a good man and cook his dinner on a regular basis? After all, it is Billy Dee Williams. And Tony Perkins is around too,, probably strung out on something dangerous, making the film a few years after Psycho, still cruising on Norman Bates, so there's the added attraction of watching his shifty eyes never know quite where to land. This is one of those films that might be defined as one "for a very special kind of audience." I do believe it lacks general appeal.

In 1975, Diana Ross was just about the most famous black woman in the world. No other performer of color had ever reached her pinnacle of success and celebrity--not Josephine Baker, not Ella Fitzgerald, not Lena Horne. And so with "Mahogany," her second motion picture, Ross' mentor/lover (and, now, director) Berry Gordy fashioned an extravagant "hymn to how glorious it is to be Diana Ross", as reviewer Rex Reed put it. Not since the glory days of Joan Crawford's dewy-ewed close-ups had a star been so lovingly photographed; never considered a classic beauty, Diana Ross is astoundingly luscious in this film. Like all great screen divas, Ross is in nearly every scene, and when she's not, her presence still is. She plays Tracy Chambers, a spunky Chicago ghetto girl with her eye on becoming a great fashion designer. Tracy falls in love with Brian (Billy Dee Williams), an earnest politician, but his social conscience is at extreme odds with her desire for fame, fortune and the good life. Enter Sean (Tony Perkins), the world's most famous fashion photographer, who discovers Tracy, whisks her off to Rome, and prego! Mahogany, the supermodel, is born. (Sean calls Tracy "Mahogany," you see, because she is also "dark, beautiful, rich and rare.") When in Rome, Tracy/Mahogany indulges in la dolce vita, drips candlewax on her nude body at a Roman orgy, becomes the renowned fashion designer she always dreamed of becoming, and also becomes the kept woman of filthy rich Jean-Pierre Aumont...but, she soon learns, "Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with." If you haven't already guessed, despite the chic Roman locales, there's more corn here than in the state of Kansas. However, Diana Ross simply dominates the screen; it's a shame and a sin that her acting career never fulfilled its promise (due in large part to the mostly negative reviews "Mahogany" initially received), because she's precisely the larger-than-life, iconic figure that Hollywood's been lacking for so long. She's a natural and incredibly likable actress--all the more remarkable, considering her "difficult" off-screen reputation. Having said that, "Mahogany" IS best viewed as camp--the cornball dialogue, outrageous costumes (designed by Diana herself) and over-the-top performances ensure its cult status. But there is a degree of art here, and it lies squarely on the dark, beautiful, rich, rare shoulders of Miss Diana Ross.

Here's the thing -- if you watch the movie having never interacted with these sorts of people, you think it's a joke, campy. But the shallow childishness and materialism is right on target. So is the sense of entitlement simply for being considered attractive. Now, take that junior high school maturity and throw a lot of money at it in the big city, and you get Mahogany. The movie at least has the good sense to show the struggle for minorities is different than for Whites.

All that said, I never thought bony, bug-eyed Diana Ross was all that attractive, but she's a good enough actress to pull it off. Billy Dee Williams is his usual smooth self. The 70s was a different era, where Black actors in particular started to finally get more roles than domestics, prostitutes, the occasional teacher or scientist, and ambassadors from some made-up African country. It's sad that by the 80s and 90s, roles like these had dried up, relegated to the modern versions of fast-talking clowns as evinced by Eddie Murphy and Will Smith.

Now, is the movie over-the-top? At times, sure. But it's no more silly than Peyton Place or the VIPs, and it's a lot less campy than Valley of the Dolls. At times, it captures the youthful spirit of adventure and ambition, and the sequence when Tracy arrives in Rome is a cliched montage that nonetheless is able to show us new images of old architecture. Yes, the story unfolds as a soap opera, but again, if you know people like this, that's how they choose to live their life. Most get used up and burnt out quick, but that rarely teaches them anything useful. They're caught up in a kind of fantasy that sometimes pays off.

I'm a huge Diana Ross fan in all her diva glamour, beauty and talent, so I really enjoyed "Mahogany," even though it's a dated, somewhat campy movie when viewed nowadays. This movie is pure '70s! Diana plays Tracy, a gorgeous, ambitious, aspiring fashion designer stuck in drab Chicago. She develops a romance with Brian (Billy Dee Williams at the height of his charming hunk fame), a local politician, but when she meets Sean, a stark raving mad, famous fashion photographer, he recruits her to start a new career as an international model in Europe. Tracy must figure out what price she's willing to play to pursue her personal dreams and happiness.

"Mahogany" is sexy, glamorous, not very deep, and shows some of the sexism and racism of the fashion world of the time. It's a showcase extraordinaire for Ross, who is feisty, passionate, chic and glamorous, qualities in very short supply these days. She is so much more interesting than most of today's bland actors. A true star. The fashion shoot montages ooze glamour and sexiness, so if the script is a bit shallow and predictable, who cares? Enjoy Diana Ross schooling everyone on how to be fabulous.

Every time this movie is shown, I watch it-because I love the soundtrack- the fashions- Marshall Field's Dept. Store and 1970's. However, the writing is trite and cornball- the acting is terrible and writing is predictable.

A rags to riches story of a young woman from the Chigago projects who longs to become a fashion designer who has an on and off again relationship with a political activist boyfriend who doesn't do much to encourage her aspirations. Through an encounter with a fashion photographer in the department store she works with she ends up in Rome as a model.

It has many of the tropes of when it was made: that if a woman succeeds it has to be a Pyrrhic victory, that the success of her man should be put above her own without considering that it might be possible for both to succeed in their respective interests.

The ending is unclear. Is she giving up her dreams to be with her man? It doesn't seem to present the possibility of a bright future that the makers intend.

Ultimately this story comes off as kind of standard for the era - watchable but not memorable. It seems more of a vanity project for its star, Diana Ross, than something made for the audience.

Mahogany isn't nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. Though it isn't a great movie, it is worth watching at least once if only for the scenery. The fact that Diana Ross never looked more beautiful certainly makes the movie a bit more palatable.

Easily one of the worst blaxploitation movies to come out in the 1970s. Diana Ross plays Tracy a poor black woman who hopes to become a famous fashion designer. She meets handsome Brian (Billy Dee Williams) a political activist. They fall in love (of course) but then she meets a famous fashion photographer named Sean (Anthony Perkins). He wisks her away to Rome to model fashions and she immediately becomes world famous (just like real life). She starts designing her own fashions but discovers success means nothing without having someone you love to share it with. It all leads to a ridiculously predictable finale.

What's wrong with this movie? Except for the beautiful title song ("Do You Know Where You're Going To") everything! It's badly written with tons of stupid lines. The direction is just dreadful--scenes are badly shot AND edited! The fashions are hilariously ugly (but this was the 1970s so...). The acting is hopeless--Perkins just redoes his "Psycho" role again, Ross (who proved she could act) looks lost and Williams walks through his role. Just tune in for the opening credits (for the song) then turn it off. Predictable, stupid and largely forgotten. A 1 all the way.

This slick but predictable tale of fashion-world fame resembles, by turns, a diluted version of Valley of the Dolls. Only in this valley, the only doll is black beauty Diana Ross, piloting the whole vanity vehicle like a Sherman tank. She plays Tracy Chambers, a gorgeous secretary from the mean streets of Chicago who finds fame and fortune (but alas--poignant sniffle--not happiness) as Europe's top model/designer, Mahogany ("Meeeee! Mahogany!"). As her lovely theme song flows from the soundtrack, Ms. Ross throws a tantrum in a fountain (which ends up on a Revlon billboard); does a wax-covered striptease; and wears a number of eye-popping, often hideous fashions that she designed herself, including a Sea Monkey costume and a sugar glider made out of pantyhose. But ultimately, what she really wants is love--as does every woman is this sort of film since the invention of the movie camera.

Limp though it may be, there is some enjoyment to be had for camp devotees. The photography and music are breathtaking. The cast looks great; the acting is okay, considering that everyone is forced to mouth silly, soapy dialogue about love and selfishness. There are a fair number of unintentional laughs, too, but by the end, you just won't care anymore. Really, Mahogany is about audience gratification. Basically, the film tells us that success is "Nothing But Heartaches" (to quote Diana--sorry, couldn't resist), so you may as well stay home and clean the oven. And if you believe that idiocy, I've got some prime Florida realty to sell you.

This is a coming of age film. Black films of that era focused on topics that involved the very worst of the Black community. This was one of the first films of the 70's that championed self-improvement and empowerment.

Gordy successfully attempts to move beyond "Blackplotation" films of that time. In doing so, the film genre and the community it describes is what comes of age.

If you listen to the dialog Williams and Ross had as they walked through the shelled out community and then walked those same contrived, multi-million dollar Townhome/condo communities today you will have a much greater appreciation for this forward thinking, insightful film, Mahogany.