Between Us Girls

Diana Barrymore stars with Kay Francis, John Boles, Robert Cummings, and Andy Devine in "Between Us Girls" from 1942.

This film is a curiosity because of the presence of Diana Barrymore. Watching her in this film, one realizes what she had and what she threw away due to alcohol.

An actress, Caroline (Barrymore) comes home to visit her mother Christine (Francis). She discovers her mom has a beau, Steven (Boles). When he calls Christine, she realizes he thinks her daughter is a child.

Christine finds it funny, but Caroline is afraid that when Steven sees her, he'll think -- well, who knows, that she's an old bag? Older than he thought? I guess. When he arrives, Caroline appears in childrens clothes and a childish hairstyle and bounces around as a young girl. When she tries to hide her publicity photo sitting on the piano, she claims it's Christine's drunken sister.

From what she says - and she's an actress, so she goes on and on -- Steven's friend Jimmy (Cummings) becomes concerned about her and calls on her again. This time, she's practicing a scene as Sadie Thompson in Rain. She pretends to be the aunt.

The movie is loud and frantic, overdone, and to my mind, not well directed. Barrymore appears in the film as an elderly Queen Victoria in a stage production, as a child, as her adult self, and in the end, as Joan of Arc.

I happen to think Barrymore was not only beautiful but a wonderful actress. This just isn't a very good movie. Andy Devine yelled every line. Kay Francis is beautiful but not given much to do. What she does is wonderful. Cummings and Boles were okay, though how neither of them realized the child was the aunt is beyond me. The film was exhausting to watch.

Barrymore appears in the film as an elderly Queen Victoria in a stage production, as a child, as her adult self, and in the end, as Joan of Arc. I don't agree with one poster who said that any ingenue could have played her role. Sadly, I think Barrymore was given opportunity after opportunity and drank them away.

If you have the energy, it's worth it to see her.

My main reason for watching this so-called comedy is that doomed would-be starlet, Diana Barrymore, mentions it in her memoir, Too Much, Too Soon as her big break in Hollywood. She had grown up on Fifth Avenue, with a wealthy background but with a horrible, neurotic mother, Blanche Oelrich who fancied herself a great dramatist and wrote plays under the pen name of Michael Strange. Her father was Hollywood legend, John Barrymore, who had already descended into alcoholism by the time Diane met him in Hollywood. Diana did well in her Broadway debut and was instantly deluged with offers of contracts from all the major studios because the "Barrymore" name was still legendary around the world. Her aunt, Ethel, and her uncle, Lionel, had achieved triumphs on stage and movies.

Diana chose Universal Studio over all over because, as she told her father, "they offered me the most money." But Universal was notorious for never nurturing the careers of its female stars with the exception of Deanna Durbin and Maria Montez.

Her Hollywood career began with frenzied hype, "The most sensational screen debut of the century!" And she hadn't even made a movie yet. Which brings us to "Between Us Girls." This was to be Diana's big launching pad of her talent, a chance to show the world of her extraordinary acting abilities because, you know, she was a Barrymore!

Alas, although given a posh production, Diana is much too frenzied and over-plays her role as a young actress taking a break from Broadway. The most bizarre part of the movie is when she decides to dress up as a twelve year old girl to fool her mother's suitor. We're supposed to believe that Bob Cummings is totally fooled by her cringy performance as a babbling brat. She's as tall as Cummings and acts like a woman trying to act like a teenager. There's also something creepy about how this mature man seems to get the hots for this strange "little girl." None of the characters, except for Kay Francis, are very pleasant. Ethel Griffies (Mrs. Bundy in "The Birds") is so grim and mean it's impossible to feel any amusement at her stark, grim personality. Andy DeVine screams his dialogue because he's supposed to be the agent for Diana.

The worst sequence is towards the end, where Cummings FINALLY realizes what a fool he is as Diana pleads with him to forgive her for making him act like a fool. All this takes place in an interminable car ride that goes on and on with Diana becoming increasingly hysterical: D"Please, please forgive me, sir! I--I, please, please forgive me, will you, will you, huh?" Diana doesn't look like a talented movie performer. Her face was too pudgy and any starlet could have played her role, although she writes that this part was fought over by Ginger Rogers, Deanna Durbin and other major movie actresses.

She was in Hollywood for only two years before suddenly leaving it after Universal offered her roles that she felt were demeaning to the Barrymore name. One of them was a Sherlock Holmes movie which she felt insulted her because the Holmes movie were always the second feature of a double bill--yet, they were very popular and could have given her some popular exposure with fans.

In her memoir, she describes an already thirst for too much drink while in Hollywood and after she left it, she went through nearly a million dollars in trust funds, movie money and other resources before sinking into poverty. Her choice of male partners were certainly masochistic, with one of them breaking her jaw, knocking out her teeth--but she still went back to him.

Diana committed suicide at the age of 37 shortly after the publication of "Too Much Too Soon" and a big mystery that remains is why she didn't stick it out in Hollywood and become a respectable character actress in quality films. Acting was not really in her genes although she pretended it was as she lamented not being offered movie roles that were worthy of the Barrymore name. Her only claim to fame was that she was--a Barrymore!.

After having read Diana Barrymore's biog "Too Much Too Soon, and seeing this movie, I have definitely come to the conclusion that Ms Barrymore, lacked any kind of "drive" as an actor. She is "adequate", at best. Throughout her career as an actress, whatever she did, be it stage or screen, was for the money, never for love of acting. I do not fault her parents at all. She was a spoiled brat, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, who had PLENTY of opportunities come her way. Despite her uncontrollable alcoholism, she was given many, many chances to succeed as an actress (stage, movies, TV, even burlesque) and blew them ALL away. She was difficult, undependable, excessive, self-destructive, accustomed to being bailed out of her own messes, and never developed a talent for acting, period. It was the family "name" that opened doors for her, not her talent (or lack of). The public, back then, just wanted that Barrymore legacy to continue, especially after John Barrymore's death. I wholeheartedly DOUBT she would have developed into a "star" of any caliber, no matter what her parents did or didn't do. From a child to woman, she didn't know what she wanted. And when she DID get what she wanted, she got bored & just made it very difficult for everyone around her. Nix to Diana Barrymore movies.

Definitely downmarket reworking of The Major and the Minor was meant to be the launching pad to stardom for doomed wild child Diana Barrymore.

She shows promise which had she been able to wrestle her demons and not self destruct might have lead her to a decent career. She and the slipping Kay Francis make an excellent physical match as mother and daughter and Diana handles the comedy demands of the script well but leading man Bob Cummings is no Ray Milland and director Henry Koster is by no means Billy Wilder.

Also the original's sense of whimsy has been replaced by a thudding foolishness which robs the situations of much of their charm.

This is kind of a curio. It has an excellent cast, and some good scenes, but overall, it's a bit of a miss. I find it interesting mainly because it features Diana Barrymore, who I've read about, but never seen on film. She was pretty good, and probably could have had a successful career, and possibly been a big star, if her private life hadn't been so chaotic. From what I've read about her, she's a perfect example of what happens when parents totally neglect their children. Her famous father, John, and her mother, Blanche, pretty much ignored her all of her life. It must have been very difficult for her growing up. John has always been one of my favorites, but he sure was a terrible father to her.

She shows real talent in this film. It is sort of a road company "The Major and the Minor," but she's good. In the opening scenes, she plays a Queen Victoria type (or maybe it is the Queen herself), and does so convincingly. At the end of the film, she plays Joan of Arc, again convincingly. She seemed to have the Barrymore talent, and showed she was good in character parts. She also had a knack for comedy. I was impressed by her, and wonder what she could have done with a really good part. It's too bad that she went down her father's path of too much booze, too many bad romances, and a generally self-destructive lifestyle. Her autobiography, "Too Much, Too Soon," was well named, I guess. If things had been different, I bet she could have been a star, and/or a good character actress.

One of the best points of the film, as with so many old Hollywood movies, good and bad, is the number of excellent supporting actors it has. Bob Cummings is the co-star, Kay Francis and John Boles are the second leads, and Andy Devine, Walter Catlett, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams head the character actor list. Those character actors could elevate any movie, and they usually did. They were fantastic in the great films, really putting them over the top, and they helped save the mediocre or poor pictures. I'm sure audiences of the day brightened when their faces came on the screen. This was towards the end of Kay Francis' career, and it is a bit sad seeing her here. She had been a very big star in the '30s, and was now being given only supporting parts. Must have been hard to take. Ditto John Boles, though he wasn't ever quite as big as she was (but he did have an impressive career). I've always liked Bob Cummings, and he was pretty good at comedy himself (remember "Love That Bob?"). He was also good with Hitchcock, and in Anthony Mann's "The Black Book."

Anyway, it's worth a look. Not a great film, but interesting (as is Kay Francis' house in the movie, which looks a little like Boris Karloff's digs in "The Black Cat"). And Diana Barrymore shows some real promise. Whew!- maybe it's better not being famous.