Pin Up Girl

Pin Up Girl
1944 - 20th Century Fox
Directed By Bruce Humberstone



SYNOPSIS

Two waitresses at a USO club in Missouri head off to Washington DC to be stenographers for the Navy. One of the girls, Lorry Jones (Betty Grable,) decides they should stop off in New York City. She fashions herself a new identity as musical comedy star Laura Lorraine and meets Tommy Dooley (John Harvey) a famed hero of the battle of Guadalcanal. After a few weeks, the two girls are in DC working when Dooley shows up and Lorry is assigned to be his stenographer. Lorry puts on a pair of glasses and fools Dooley, while moonlighting as Laura Lorraine.

MY THOUGHTS

It's clear this patriotic war-time film wasn't shown to our armed forces because there was no mass surrender to the Nazis and Japanese in 1944.

If the film was designed as a piece of fluff to keep people's minds off the war, why have every moment of screen time filled with men in uniform? Pin Up Girl is not overly patriotic other than the constant military presence.

The two big pluses of the film are: it's beautifully shot in Technicolor, and the somewhat forgotten big band sounds of Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra. Both help to keep the film from being totally terrible.

The band sounds great but the songs performed are totally forgettable, especially the lyrics for Grable and Martha Raye.
Raye appears along with Joe E. Brown, who are supposed to be comedic relief, but the script lacks any humor.

The script also has some major flaws.
1. Dorthea Kent, who plays Betty Grable's friend completely disappears from the second half of the film without explanation. Same goes for Tommy Dooley's war buddy.

2. Betty Grable donning a pair of glasses to fool Tommy Dooley is even harder to believe than Superman fooling Lois Lane.

3.When Dooley discovers the truth, instead of a conversation where Grable explains herself or even a hug or declaration of love or anything... we're treated to a 5 minute all-girl marching drill team on stage. Then the movie ends, leaving us hanging.

I'm guessing the studio gave the screenwriters just a few hours to turn this into a movie:



and it shows... and yes Grable's famous photo does appear in the film several times.
The photo has become legendary. The film forgettable.