Finally, I get around to posting that notoriously bad film set in the 1930s starring Burt Reynolds and Madaline Khan. Didn't you already do that, you ask? No, silly, I'm talking about the musical one: At Long Last Love. When I say notoriously bad, I mean it. City Heat was just run-of-the-mill bad; this one earned a place on numerous “worst of all time” lists.
But the furs are lovely.
At Long Last Love – The Film
The film is a Cole Porter jukebox musical set in 1935. It is about two pairs of just the sort of vapid rich people you find in many ‘30s comedies: Michael (Burt Reynolds) and Brooke (Cybill Shepherd) and Kitty (Madeline Kahn) and Johnny (Duilio Del Prete). They have the standard meet-cutes and proceed to do the musical romance thing. The plot, sets, fashion, and tone are all very 1930s period authentic. It all looks great, but the movie is just terrible.
At Long Last Love – The Furs
Quick open with Brooke in a feather-trimmed cape. Purely for the sake of a full accounting if anyone might be interested.
Turns out Kitty and Brooke are old friends from school. If I'm going to nitpick anything about the fur fashion in this film, it's the same thing I've seen in other period pieces shot in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The furs are more from the time they were shot than the time they are set in.
While white fox fur stoles weren't big in the ‘30s, this one gets a decent amount of screen time.
Next is fur number two, a white fox wrap worn by Kitty. This one is slightly more likely to have shown up in the ‘30s.
This one also gets lots of attention, though that is because it's part of a musical number. So, we'll file that one under “be careful what you wish for.”
Brooke's white fox stole shows up briefly one more time.
The film caps off with another more-likely-to-be-worn in the ‘70s fur, a blue fox stole worn by Brooke. Though I won't complain, we don't get a lot of blue fox on screen, so I'll take it where I can get it.
Like the white fox wrap, the blue fox stole is also worn during a tune, so it also gets a lot of screen time.
One more very brief piece of unrealized potential. The ladies end up in a high-end shop where this huge chinchilla fur cape is seen. No, it's not worn.
Thanks to a couple of the furs showing up for musical numbers, the film clocks in at a decent 10 minutes worth of furs, providing an 8% ratio. So, you're getting a pretty good deal on that front; you just have to keep the fast forward key handy lest you be exposed to the rest of the film. The fact the furs are more modern (for the '70s) than the period isn't a big deal, fox fur was popular in both times, so I'll float them a “close enough” on that front.
Ultimately what can the legacy of At Long Last Love really be? Popcorn GIFs! With fur!
Fur Runtime: approx 10 minutes
Film Runtime: 123 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 8%
Find-a-Fur: At Long Last Love, 1975
(all times are approximate)
- 11:50 – feather trim
- 33:46 – background fox
- 39:50 – 41:02 – white fox stole
- 46:35 – 47:20 – ”
- 1:16:28 – 1:19:55 – white fox wrap
- 1:20:15 – white fox stole
- 1:33:20 – blue fox stole
- 1:35:30 – 1:37:14 – ”
- 1:45:25 – chinchilla cape hanging in a shop