Mahogany

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 :)!

Tracy is a secretary and display worker at a large Chicago department store, but she wants to be a fashion designer. Brian is running for alderman hoping he can improve his struggling neighborhood. Photographer Sean thinks Tracy should be a model named Mahogany, and he claims to like her fashions.

I thought Diana Ross did a good job, somewhat charming, very determined to succeed despite obstacles and not willing to let anyone stand in her way. She and Billy Dee Williams were good together. Anthony Perkins started out normal but ended up crazy, which is no surprise considering his most famous role. I liked the theme song and the jazz that was played in some scenes where Sean and Tracy were together. The movie started out good but took a sharp turn downhill about halfway through and showed promise of recovering but didn't really deliver. That's not to say there wasn't quality work, but I just wasn't impressed.

The movie's primary lesson seems to be that success does not always bring happiness. I can say this without a warning because the movie starts with Tracy being a success at something (it's not clear just what) and returns to her days before being 'discovered'.

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.

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.

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.