Pin Up Girl [VHS] [1944]

This is one of those 1940s movies loaded with patriotic fervour and aimed at a particular audience. In this case american theatres of war. The Yanks do this kind of thing well and the G.I's lap it up - especially if the stars pay them a personal visit when promoting the film. 'Pin up girl' is an elderly movie nowadays but my copy is so well transferred to DVD it might have been made last month! The sound is less shrill than is often encountered in a film of this age but here surprisingly good - although only two track mono. It is a very colourful, technicolour production (bit of a surprise here as this sort of film in the 1940s was often shot in black and white - see 'Orchestra wives' etc. etc.) There is a boy meets girl storyline - as usual - designed solely to support the movie's patriotic nature, but none the worse for that. Betty Grable is easy on the eye and the music (lots of this) from the big band of Charlie Spivak adds to the enjoyment. Seen now, it is easy to see that the whole production does'nt miss a trick with the flag-waving atmosphere of the period. The final scenes of five minutes or so with some 100 uniformed girls being musically drilled on stage, would do justice to the toughest parade ground Sergeant! It's all great entertainment, rather Busby Berkleyesque in places, and well worth eighty minutes of your time!

A mildly entertaining piece of Wartime silliness, Betty Grable plays a pin-up girl who can't resist 'making things up' (but 'when you let a person believe something that isn't so, it's lying'). A good score showcasing Charlie Spivak and his orchestra, and some excellent musical numbers. And some good gags. The plot isn't up to much, but it is good fun, and the guy who plays Eddie Hall is a real star. Oh, and Chief Briggs's 'women, I hate 'em' has to be seen to be believed. I always die laughing watching parts of this. Not as bad as it is sometimes made out to be.

Skewering her real life role of a pin up girl, this 1944 movie stars Betty Grable as Lorry Jones a pretty and feisty young girl who works for the USO and is heading for Washington DC. Aboard the train, a conversation with friend Kay (Dorothea Kent) reveals that the pair isn't headed for the USO, but will instead take jobs as stenographers.

On the way, the pair decides to visit New York, where they see Molly McKay (Martha Raye) flirting with Guadalcanal hero Tommy Dooley (John Harvey). Later, Lorry claims to know the hero to gain admittance to the packed Club Chanteuse. The Club itself is a grand affair; a huge swing band plays on a giant stage that stretches from floor to ceiling, whilst the actual show consists of singers, dancers and even roller-skating routine featuring the Skating Vanities!

When Tommy eventually turns up at the club, he is immediately besotted with the cute Lorry. But Molly - the real star of the Club Chanteuse - is secretly seething; she knows that Molly is a fake so she asks her sing a song from the show. Lorry gets back at Molly when she belts out the tune as if she sang it every night on stage, even with back up singers!

Lorry and Kay continue on their journey to Washington DC and eventually bump into Tommy who coincidentally is looking for a stenographer - of course he picks Lorry. Of course Tommy can't tell who Lorry is because she's wearing glasses and has her hair in a bun, and every time he looks at her, she's looking back at him with crossed-eyes!

The story is silly and trite and almost non-existent, and it's all merely an excuse for framing the elaborate musical numbers, which are centered on the three-tiered bandstands where Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra sit. Indeed most of the action takes place in the nightclubs where Lorry and Tommy mostly hang out.

Obviously made for all the GI's, the film has an innocent quality combined with a sort of fierce patriotism and you really get the sense that the film is pushing the merits of the allied war effort. There's no doubt that Grable is sparkling and bubbly and she does a good job with the singing and dancing, even though the role is a bit of a caricature. But you can easily see how much she contributed to the war effort.

It's interesting to watch films such as this - not just for the flashy musical numbers, which sometimes border in the gaudy, but also for the social relevance, and for the forties nostalgia. Although Pin Up Girl may not be the best example of a War musical - the film is slight and is basically restricted to the pattern of boy-meets-girl and they live happily ever after - it's still a welcome and harmless diversion - just like the 1940s pin-up girls were a distraction for lonely soldiers of World War II. Mike Leonard July 06.