choreography moved the dancers in kaleidoscopic patterns that accentuated the architecture, creating a wonderland guaranteed to lift the spirits even of filmgoers who’d had to choose between a movie ticket and dinner.

Later, Warner Bros. tried to become more sophisticated in its use of modernism, even attempting to get Frank Lloyd Wright to design the sets for The Fountainhead (1949), from the Ayn Rand novel about an architect who behaved rather like Wright himself. While Wright was willing, his demands for money and right of approval were notable, even at a studio that dealt with Bette Davis every day. Edward Carrere was finally chosen to create a pastiche of Wright that was the subject of George Nelson’s wrath in an Interiors article. Nelson criticized Carrere’s work as a misunderstanding of Wrightian principles, justly pointing out that some designs would be unbuildable in real life.

In 1954, Warner finally got modernism right with a new version of A Star Is Born; set designer Gene Allen and set decorator George James Hopkins created a Malibu beach house for Judy Garland’s