Mahogany

Much of the blame for the decline of Tamla-Motown as a source of great pop records has been allotted to founder Berry Gordy's ceaseless struggle for mainstream mass acceptance. The same glossy decadence permeates this Gordy produced/directed movie, wherein Motown's Diana Ross is the poor little black girl who achieves her fashion designer ambitions via a Rome-based modelling career - plus a golden-hearted sugar daddy - only to throw it all away for a return to the ghetto and Commitment in the form of her First Love. Total sacrifice to commerciality and the ethics of Dreamerica leave only the script's very occasional flash of wit and Anthony Perkins' deliciously loony fashion photographer on the credit side.