Our story starts at the Cosmos Club in Trieste, Italy where Count Amalia (George Zucco) and Rudi (Robert Young) are getting drunk and talking about the difference between the rich and the poor. Rudi believes that the rich are innately better than poor people, while the Count believes it all comes down to luck as to whether you're born rich or poor. He also theorizes that he could take a poor person, dress them up fancy and stick them amongst the rich and no one would be the wiser.
To test that theory the Count ends up in the lowliest of dive bars where he "randomly" chooses the entertainer Anni Pavlovitch (Joan Crawford) to send to an exclusive resort in Terrano, Italy. He throws a lot of money at her, dresses her up, gives her a backstory, and pays for two weeks at the resort.
And it just so happens that Rudi is there with his fiancé and her parents (the fabulous Billie Burke is her mother).
Anni is determined to take this opportunity to find a rich husband; and although she is attracted to the town's postman Guilio (Franchot Tone), she settles on Rudi for her meal ticket ... and she doesn't care that he is engaged.
Anni is a thoroughly unlikable character. She's a heartless, greedy home-wrecker that becomes a jerk when she's around servants (who all recognize her as a phony.) She even turns on Maria (Mary Philips), a maid at the hotel who used to run with Anni back in "the old days". She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and I found myself rooting for her failure / humiliation.
Rudi is also an unlikable character. Rich and snotty and superior. In fact, most of the cast are just unpleasant people. The only vaguely likable ones are Rudi's fiancé, but she's so meek and mousy; and Gulio, but something has to be wrong with him in the head to find Anni attractive.
By the way, the red dress in the title is a gaudy beaded thing that Anni picked up when the Count was prepping her for the charade. She is discouraged from wearing it her first night at the resort because her friend / the maid Maria suggested it was tacky. She eventually wears it her last night at the resort and it gets the reaction you'd expect.
I love me some Joan, but I didn't love this film. This was my second (and last) time watching it.
To test that theory the Count ends up in the lowliest of dive bars where he "randomly" chooses the entertainer Anni Pavlovitch (Joan Crawford) to send to an exclusive resort in Terrano, Italy. He throws a lot of money at her, dresses her up, gives her a backstory, and pays for two weeks at the resort.
And it just so happens that Rudi is there with his fiancé and her parents (the fabulous Billie Burke is her mother).
Anni is determined to take this opportunity to find a rich husband; and although she is attracted to the town's postman Guilio (Franchot Tone), she settles on Rudi for her meal ticket ... and she doesn't care that he is engaged.
Anni is a thoroughly unlikable character. She's a heartless, greedy home-wrecker that becomes a jerk when she's around servants (who all recognize her as a phony.) She even turns on Maria (Mary Philips), a maid at the hotel who used to run with Anni back in "the old days". She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and I found myself rooting for her failure / humiliation.
Rudi is also an unlikable character. Rich and snotty and superior. In fact, most of the cast are just unpleasant people. The only vaguely likable ones are Rudi's fiancé, but she's so meek and mousy; and Gulio, but something has to be wrong with him in the head to find Anni attractive.
By the way, the red dress in the title is a gaudy beaded thing that Anni picked up when the Count was prepping her for the charade. She is discouraged from wearing it her first night at the resort because her friend / the maid Maria suggested it was tacky. She eventually wears it her last night at the resort and it gets the reaction you'd expect.
I love me some Joan, but I didn't love this film. This was my second (and last) time watching it.