Too Many Girls

Too Many Girls is an interesting film for the above reason and is worth the look also. But while a long way from the worst film musicals, it is not a particularly great film either. There are definitely things that do salvage it. Desi Arnaz is very charming in his role and gives it his all, though his singing can sound strained because of the register. The songs make for very pleasant listening, I Didn't Know What Time It Was is the best number and is a classic, though other than that none really are among Rodgers and Hart's best. Hal LeRoy beguiles with his dancing and toe-work, and you have to love the comedy comebacks of Eddie Bracken as well as the vocal talents of Frances Langford and the dancing of Ann Miller. The football footage is interesting too, the film does look nice if not quite audacious and look out for Van Johnson. Too Many Girls has all those good things but is for me a very flawed film. When there aren't any songs, much of the film is weak with draggy pacing, a pretty dispensable story and stilted dialogue. The direction and choreography are definitely competent- the Conga at the end is an absolute riot and anything danced by Ann Miller is fun enough- but are not particularly memorable and could have had more passion. Lucille Ball's Connie is too exaggerated, and while the singer providing her singing voice has a beautiful silky voice- much better than Ball's, whose I can't stand, especially in the dire Mame- it is one of those instances where you can actually tell it's not the actor/actress singing. And Richard Carlson is unbearably wooden here too. Overall, not a bad film, not a good one either, kind of a difficult one to judge actually because there is some entertainment value there are a lot of noticeable bad things too. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This film was made in 1940. We were just about to go to War with Japan & people had just barely survived the Great Depression. Most people wanted fun escapist movies. The music is great! Of course it's full of fluff. The audience preferred it that way! Ask your grandparents, they'll tell you what life was like in 1940. My grandmother had a job seating people at the Admiral theater in Seattle, Wa. Actually West Seattle, which at the time was considered a separate area from Seattle. She told us that the customers loved Musicals and Westerns. The perfect escape for a Saturday afternoon. The theater's were full for every show and only cost a dime. I think if we were to quit picking apart these films and just enjoy them for the the times they were created, we could learn a lot about life in the 40's. Try to see what we have in common with that era instead of looking for the differences. We are much too cynical and if we can't enjoy a silly film like Too many Girls, we haven't come as far as we think we have. Submitted by Little Blue

Too Many Girls offers the viewer and opportunity to see George Abbott direct one of his own hits from Broadway for the big screen. If the film does have a problem is that Abbott did it too much like a photographed stage play. When Abbott got to recreate Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game for the screen he didn't make that mistake with them. This film plays a whole lot like early musicals such as Rio Rita, The Desert Song, Animal Crackers, and Cocoanuts.

On Broadway Too Many Girls ran for 249 performances and coming over from the Broadway production were Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnaz. Playing the leads here are Richard Carlson and Lucille Ball and yes, Lucy and Desi did meet on the set of this film.

It's a college musical and in plot and location Too Many Girls plays a lot like the Gershwin Brothers, Girl Crazy. This time it's the woman who is the wild child who goes to the rustic university, in this case it's Pottawatomie College in Stopgap, New Mexico. Lucille Ball plays the Paris Hilton type and she kind of surprises her father Harry Shannon when she says she wants to attend his alma mater. Of course it's a ruse so she can be near her latest flame, Broadway playwright Douglas Walton who has a ranch there.

But Shannon is up to her tricks and hires four All-American football players to transfer there and act as bodyguards, the four being Carlson, Arnaz, Bracken, and Hal LeRoy. It takes a great deal of suspension of disbelief to see Bracken and LeRoy as football players.

Also on hand are Frances Langford and Ann Miller who contribute their talents to the film. I also don't understand why with a singer like Langford around she wasn't given the lead. Lucy's voice is dubbed by Forties radio singer Trudy Erwin who was a vocalist for a spell on Bing Crosby's radio show.

And Ball/Erwin get to do the two main numbers in the film. Most of the score from Too Many Girls came over from Broadway and Rodgers&Hart wrote You're Nearer in addition for this film. You're Nearer and the show's big hit from Broadway I Didn't Know What Time It Was which is a favorite song from Rodgers&Hart for me. Patti Page did a great record of it.

Too Many Girls could have had a better screen adaption, but it still remains a gem from what was the height of the collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

Great dancing by Ann Miller and some fellow; Langford looked kind of puffy; Desi was cute and so was Bracken. All the cast seemed energetic and there was good ensemble choreography. Wish it was in color! The surprise was Richard Carlson who looked really hunky in those days...Lucille Ball was great from the beginning...really a beautiful woman with plenty of comic talent!

With obvious clumps of studio foliage, this movie must have certainly cost very little to make: however, it does have a few saving graces (Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Frances Langford amongst the girls; Richard Carlson, Desi Arnaz, and Eddie Bracken amongst the boys; a handful of good songs from the Rodgers and Hart show - including 'I Didn't Know What Time It Was'). Between the musical numbers it drags quite badly and seems pretty stilted - some of the script has lines like: 'we're handing our strip back'/'you mean you're going to play in the nude?'; 'I'm looking for the Stunted Hag.'/'No, this is the Hunted Stag.'; 'You know, that college that doesn't give its right name - Smith.' and so on.

The tale of a wayward girl going to her father's cheapo alma mater and shadowed by four Ivy League students is not that original, or done in a particularly interesting way. But, at the few moments when the music kicks in, it just about saves itself from oblivion.