Mahogany
(DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: B-
Some
films are so wacky that you have to see them to believe them. As they get older, they get wackier, so along
with Dreamgirls, Paramount is finally issuing the infamous Diana Ross star
vehicle Mahogany on DVD. Her film debut Lady Sings The Blues was a big commercial and critical success (see
the review elsewhere on this site) and expectations were high, especially when
the great British director Tony Richardson was hired to direct this film
originally.
Unfortunately,
producer/Motown founder Berry Gordy thought felt his work did not meet the high
standards he was setting for Ross’ career and fired him. So who did he have replace Richardson as
director? Himself!
Yes,
Gordy took over making his directing debut and this was still years away from
Music Video, so here he was trying to work his magic on a film the way he had
on an endless legacy of hit songs and albums.
So what happened? Many are still
trying to figure out that one, but we’ll try.
Ross
plays Tracy, a fashion designer trying to make it in the highly competitive and
highly profitable upscale clothes industry.
We meet her going to school and struggling in a poor neighborhood to
survive in flashback after an opening scene where her clothes are a hit and she
suddenly has one of Joan Crawford’s wigs on.
It is so bad that the residences around her are scheduled for
demolition, something that is being protested by a politician in the making named
Brian (Billy Dee Williams, reteaming with her
from Lady) and she gets the chance
to move on thanks to her meeting with figures in the industry she meets.
She
becomes a secretary for Miss Evans (Nina Foch, who had just played fashion
house designer Madame Trevi on Kolchak:
The Night Stalker) in a non-creative employ, but it is not long before she
meets a top fashion photographer (Anthony Perkins) Sean McAvoy who mistakes her
for a model immediately. Slowly, a
professional and personal relationship begins to form and she is on her
way. The price for this sudden
success? She is stuck with him and the
star name he gives her: Mahogany!
Before
you know it, Perkins is in Norman Bates/Psycho
mode, which rubs off on Tracy/Ross, Billy Dee is still trying to hold on
to their relationship as well and all hell is about to break loose. Besides becoming a camp classic with a gay
following debating if Perkins or Ross was the bigger diva, you get some crazy
scenes with Perkins and Williams, an early scene where Tracy is being stalked
and her reaction shows her street credibility as both a laugh as well as
Gordy’s way of giving her street credibility beyond her Pop/Soul hits, Then
there is the choice of being a millionaires or going back to the “ghetto” to be
with Williams.
Even at
the end, instead of a directing credit to Gordy, we get the cast listing and
“Costumes Designed by Diana Ross” as if she was in control of the whole thing,
though it is obvious whose male fantasy this is. The screenplay by John Byrum, based on Toni
Amber’s story, pretends to be a pro-feminist piece, but it is so full of it
that half of the film’s problems stem from the contradictions. Despite this, it is a very consistent in
basic narrative if not in ideology.
Ross
overacts, though she is not miscast like she would be in The Wiz and would show again her real acting ability in later
work. Williams’ continued to shine as a
star into the Star Wars franchise,
while Perkins co-wrote the great detective film The Last Of Sheila and revived Psycho
as a franchise of sequels. Gordy never
directed again, continued to make hit records, brought Ross through the Disco
era and had more hits together before she left for a then-record contract to
defect to RCA Records. All survived
nicely and though the film was no big hit, we’ve seen much worse and this looks
really good as compared to many features we have seen lately. At least it was ambitious.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a little softer than it should be for
a film so nicely shot in real anamorphic scope Panavision by David Watkin. There is no doubt that this is a really good
looking film, partly because of the previous hit, partly because Motown and
Paramount were trying to do an upscale production that distinguished itself fro
the Blaxploitation productions of the time.
The result is a big screen film that owes as much to melodrama as Soul
Music and is a one-of-a-kind romp we will never see again.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is passable, but the score by Michael Masser is better than I
remembered and if it exists in should be reintegrated with the original optical
theatrical monophonic sound. This is
most apparent in the one thing that the film has going for it that is its one
shining, inarguable success. It’s theme
song.
With
Masser’s music and production plus lyrics by the great Gerry Goffin, Do You Know Where You’re Going To?
became yet another #1 smash for Ross and is really one of the great movie
themes, even if the film was not so good.
Thanks to Ross’ work on Lady,
her voice gained deeper nuance and phrasing, adding to one of the great Pop
voices in American Music. Already
hitting the top with Touch Me In The
Morning and making one of her most important albums ever loaded with duets
by a close personal friend, Marvin Gaye, she had achieved a new plateau in her
career. Like all good movie songs, it
sold the idea of the film.
Despite
whatever Gordy was thinking or how silly the film gets, there is enough of the
theme about not leaving your soul behind for success (popular in many films at
the time, like That’s The Way Of The World, reviewed elsewhere on this site)
that it spells out “selling out” in some ways that makes sense. Sadly, it is convoluted with a male fantasy
that cancels out too much of that message, but without the song most would have
found this film a bigger joke and all involved know it.
For such
a camp classic and with all the big names involved, the only extra is a stills
section, despite DVDs like Shanghai
Surprise and Showgirls offering
commentaries about their own film’s camp value.
However, Mahogany is not that
simple and there is much to discuss seriously about it and its precedents of
the use of music in film (specifically hit records) pre-MTV and Spike Lee has
even used it in his film teaching. Why
not interview Ross and Williams? What
about a trailer or more on the so9undtrack or recording the music?
Either
way, if you have never seen Mahogany
and you need some really good laughs, don’t miss it!
- Nicholas Sheffo
