Women of Glamour

Virginia Bruce, one of those WOMEN OF GLAMOUR who go out to parties with rich (and generally inebriated) guys like Reginald Denny when they aren't dancing in some nightclub chorus, becomes a model for rich, moody artist Melvyn Douglas, and falls in love with the surly lout (who is a good guy, because he does not paw her like the usual surly artist). Even though she comes up short in the breeding/class department, will she end up with the guy, even though society disapproves?

This is one of those mid-30s, slightly on the cheap remakes, that littered the schedules of the studios in those days. In this case, the Production Code makes a hash of the original plot of the Frank Capra opus, Ladies of Leisure, and Virginia Bruce makes a well-dressed, but nonetheless messy hash of the role that was originally portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck. What's left is some nice sets, some nice dresses, some rather campy "Unite Against the Oppressors" artwork purportedly painted by Douglas, and a plot that goes nowhere in particular. The movie isn't terrible, but it is rather dull, and it is not screaming out for rediscovery. Bruce, Douglas and Denny all have done the shtick they do here in far better films.