The Doughgirls

Amazing what you can do with the lowly soybean. Not only can you make gasoline out of it but you can make eight year old scotch, caviar, and horseradish. Just think of how many horses that could save.

This movie is a little gem. Jane Wyman is a hoot. After seeing her in nothing but fifties weepies and Falcon Crest her turn as a scatterbrain newlywed bride having her honeymoon interrupted by two of her best friends and then all and sundry shows her as an adept comedian.

Alexis Smith and Ann Sheridan as the girlfriends, Jack Carson (always a pleasure to see) and Eve Arden as the Russian soldier (Cyd Charise had to have watched this movie over and over because her Ninotchka accent is a dead on mimic of Eve Arden but with a more serious tone) round out the perfect cast for this screwball comedy.

This movie is just plain funny. It has fast and sassy snappy patter and just breezes along.

Check out those hairstyles! The clothes! How well photographed it is!

This film might seem odd to modern sensibilities, but let yourself go back to a simpler time where the motion picture code ruled and there was a censor right around every corner. I was rather surprised by a scene involving a bottle of scotch, the bell boy and the room he is told to take the bottle into.

The Doughgirls is fast, fun and funny. Just go along for the ride and you won't be disappointed. Let the hilarity ensue!

I was so busy watching ANN SHERIDAN looking so great that I had a hard time keeping track of the zany plot. She really had a flair for comedy, even this kind of absurd farce, that it's a shame she was never given better scripts. JANE WYMAN plays the sort of dumb blonde that made Marilyn famous (only she's a brunette here)--but she too is saddled with overly dumb remarks that even JACK Carson has a hard time swallowing. And ALEXIS SMITH proves that behind that frozen puss she has a real sense of humor. Catch the scene where she stoops to telling a tale of woe in a Brooklyn accent! Incidentally, her boyfriend in the film is the man she eventually married in real life--CRAIG REYNOLDS.

I don't fault the actors. CHARLES RUGGLES is actually quite good as a businessman attracted to Wyman. And character actor JOHN RIDGELY gets to play a prominent supporting role as Sheridan's fiancé with a good deal of amiable charm and skill. For these reasons alone, the film is worth watching despite the over-baked ham.

But beware of most of the farce, which is directed with the finesse of a sledgehammer bearing down on all the lines, emphasized by big close-ups of the cast in wide-eyed reaction shots in case we don't get the point.

It's another in a number of wartime films (WWII) emphasizing the overcrowded hotel conditions in Washington, D.C. from the very opening shot--similar to "The More the Merrier" and "Government Girl."

Terribly overdone, downright hammy performances from everyone including EVE ARDEN as "a Russian Sergeant York" who shoots her rifle from the terrace. Jane Wyman's character gets annoying after the first few remarks and from then on I kept my eyes on Sheridan. Her reactions are priceless, if a bit over-the-top.

Trivia note: MARK STEVENS has only a couple of lines to say during one of the crowded hotel scenes as Reynolds' Army friend and NATALIE SCHAEFER has no lines at all as a woman holding a baby.

Directed by James V. Kern from the Joseph A. Fields play, adapted by Kern and Sam Hellman with additional material from Wilkie Mahoney, this wartime comedy features a terrific cast in yet another story about how the crowded living conditions in our nation's capital during World War II made strange bedfellows and played havoc with relationships.

It all starts when Jack Carson and Jane Wyman get married and try to begin their honeymoon in a Washington, D.C. hotel whose lobby is overrun with people needing a room. Despite their reservation, they discover that their room's bathtub is already occupied by Ann Sheridan's character, who happens to be ditzy Wyman's old chorus line pal. Naturally she's allowed to stay as is their other gal-pal Alexis Smith, who's married to a lieutenant (actress Smith's soon to be husband Craig Stevens).

Things really heat up when Sheridan's husband's (John Ridgely) ex- wife (Irene Manning) shows up, and a gun-toting female Russian army sergeant (Eve Arden) and Carson's lecherous boss (Charles Ruggles) join the mix, further delaying-frustrating Wyman-Carson's consummation.

Alan Mowbray appears as a radio correspondent. Donald MacBride, a judge and Regis Toomey, an FBI man also appear.

... but it was funny--a nice diversion. This film featured six couples who end up sharing the honeymoon suite during the WWII housing shortage. Jane Wyman and Jack Carson are one of the couples who are married by a Justice of the Peace and end up at the hotel. Ann Sheridan and husband John Ridgely are the married couple who are currently staying in the honeymoon suite and have a hard time leaving when Wyman and Carson show up. Later, Alexis Smith and (real-life) husband Craig Stevens show up as an engaged couple who want to marry before Stevens leaves for his next military assignment. Eve Arden is a Soviet solider who just shows up (and maybe is staying in the room too? I don't know. There were so many people in there). Charles Ruggles rounds out the cast as Carson's boss, but later ends up as Wyman's boss.

Carson, who is supposed to be on his honeymoon with Wyman, refuses to stay in the suite because of all the extra people. Wyman's character, is a complete dim-wit and doormat. Sheridan and Smith walk all over her. It seems that the three ladies are also acquainted with one another, which is most likely the main reason why Wyman won't kick them out. Wyman's character, in my opinion, is the only sour note in the film, because her character is so irritating. She brags about her haircut to multiple people in the film and it's terrible. She has that matronly poodle cut hair style that so many women during the 1940s-1950s adopted which instantly aged them 10-15 years. Sheridan and Smith, while definitely wearing 1940s hairstyles, look much more sleek and sophisticated. Sheridan, Smith and Arden were my favorite characters in the film.

This movie was so frantic and had so many different characters and situations that at times, it was hard to follow what was going on. However, overall, it was funny and a great way to spend an hour and a half. This type of film fulfills the exact role I want from my movies: escapism. When I watch a movie, I want to be able to forget about all the awful things I heard/read about on the news that day. Even if it's not an absurd movie like The Doughgirls, and is something more serious like a noir, I am still able to escape. Noir films are so stylized that you're swept up into their world.

Frenzied comedy with a dated situation, the housing shortage during WWII in DC, but an amazing cast of brilliant actresses. The golden era of Hollywood had a wonderful surplus of female stars but rarely were so many teamed in one film. The film has many funny lines and they are expertly delivered by the ladies.

It's no surprise that Ann Sheridan is wonderful she was always an outstanding comedienne, skillful with a quip or a withering look.

Alexis Smith gets shortchanged somewhat with the best lines but has a very cute scene on a pretend witness stand and is up to whatever good lines come her way plus she and Ann are ultra glamorous, as befits stars of the period no matter what time it is in the movie day or night or their economic situation they are dressed to the nines and dripping in eye popping jewelry.

Jane Wyman manages to make her character, who can only be described as a borderline idiot, sweet and endearing rather than annoying or irritating which would have been easy from a less talented actress. The role is not something that was alien to her at the time, a feather headed dame, but considering her later work and persona which was much more sober if you only are familiar with that phase of her career this comes as a pleasant surprise.

Even as funny and strong as this trio is they don't stand a chance whenever Eve Arden swoops in as a Russian commando and steals her scenes without breaking a sweat. With undisguised glee she tears into her character with abandon and wipes everybody out of the picture.

On top of all that there's still Charlie Ruggles and Alan Mowbray adding fun touches in support.

A delightful way to spend a couple of hours that this is so obscure is a head scratcher. Sadly it's never been released on any format, hopefully one day it will at least see the light of day on the Warners on demand website.