It Started in Paradise

A World of Fashion version of “All About Eve” in which one woman is out to beat another in their chosen profession while a younger one is off stage waiting for her chance to replace both. Taking place over a 14-year period, it begins, in 1938, when the chief designer of a once-famous couturier,now wallowing in tradition and an empty salon, performs a coup d’etat and reorganizes the whole establishment. Ruthless, she is successful until her flair for style dwindles, as does the business. Then a younger, more talented girl stages her own coup d’etat. Ian Hunter is around as a financial backer while Marita Hunt, Jane Hylton and Muriel Pavlow as the three designers and Ronald Squire, as a prissy fashion expert delivering some pungent and funny lines a la George Sanders in “All About Eve.”