A Girl Must Live

It is a shame that the sound quality is poor on this film. It means that many sequences, especially at the beginning which sets the scene, are unintelligible and so you don't know what is going on. Lines are delivered incomprehensibly - I defy anyone to understand what the landlady is talking about. We also get a sub-plot with Naunton Wayne (Hugo) but God knows what it's about. You watch the film and work it out but goodness knows what all those relations, plots and interactions are all about. We get terrible accents that keep changing and the 2 catty girls - Renee Houston (Gloria) and Lili Palmer (Clytie) are just interchangeable due to their looks and this can confuse the plots. Who is doing what? Again, this improves during the course of the film. You won't really understand the story based on what is being said but you can pick it up by just watching even if certain segments just seem baffling.

I thought everyone was speaking in an English accent in this film but that the accents were inconsistent and constantly changing until my wife said at the end of the film that one girl was Scottish and the other German. She was actually correct. So, don't expect that people are just speaking in posh English when you can make things out. There are accents going on as well.

I can see that the film is quite funny and I would have definitely scored it a higher mark if it was more clearly audible. It's a gold-digging story with sequences nicked from Hollywood's more famous efforts such as the Gold-Diggers series, Stage Door and 42nd Street. Note Palmer's complete copy of the Ginger Rogers character in 42nd Street by attending an audition with a dog, and the whole Ginger Rogers catty like interactions in Stage Door. But, so what. The interaction between the 2 rival girls is amusing.

One thing I have just read on another review is about the name of the character of Palmer - Clytie Devine. Is this a completely obvious reference to a divine clitoris and I just didn't notice!

The film stars Margaret Lockwood (Leslie) as a schoolgirl who runs away to be a star. There is no way she is a schoolgirl just as there is no way her other schoolmates in the dormitory are schoolgirls. They are all grown women. Anyway, it's a comedy so there is a romantic angle that needs to get resolved and of course, it does.

Anyone who has seen Gregory LaCava's 'Stage Door' will be familiar with the 'aspiring-actresses/chorus-girls-living-in-a-boarding-house-and- competing-for-the-attentions-of-rich-men' theme that is also presented here. I came to this because it was a Margaret Lockwood film I hadn't seen, but it was full of welcome surprises: Carol Reed directed at a fast lick that has been compared to Preston Sturges,the musical numbers wouldn't have been out of place in 'The Boyfriend', Lilli Palmer is a comic-erotic revelation, the laughs come thick and fast with perfect timing,racy dialogue that somehow evaded the censor, and plotting that has a neo-Wodehousian symmetry. Of course, you have to like this kind of thing in the first place, but this is one of those unsung British films of the 30s that need to be restored to their full glory and given a commentary to boot. "What's for lunch?" "Well, it was 'ot pot. Now it's just pot."

I beg to differ with the other review on this film,it is something special.For a start directed by Carol Reed at the start of his career.Just look at the cast Lockwood,Palmer Houston supported by Harrison,Marriott and making one of his rare film appearances George Robey.Once the film gets past the opening sequence in the finishing school it really hits its stride.There are so many funny lines that you missed them on the first viewing .aAn example"the rice pudding wasn't very popular""we will have it for curry tomorrow",The constant badinage between Palmer and Houston is hilarious.Lockwood being the straight woman in all of this.The musical numbers are not meant to be that great but the lyrics are really funny .Even if you are not Btitish give this a try,i don't think you will be disappointed.

Carol Reed directed this fast moving farce in 1939 about three showgirls: Margaret Lockwood, Renee Houston and Lilli Palmer who vie for the attention and possibly marriage, of the Earl of Pangborough (Hugh Sinclair).Margaret initially escapes from a Swiss finishing school, by climbing down knotted bedsheets, nearly straining her leg in the process.The headmistress is the redoubtable Martita Hunt, (Martita played a similar role in The Man in Grey in 1943) She is assisted by Muriel Aked who played a deputy head to Margaret Rutherford in "The Happiest Days of your Life" (1951).Before escaping, one of the débutantes suggests to Margaret she adopts the stage name of "Leslie James" as her mother, of that name, was a famous music hall star and it will give Margaret a "leg up" in the profession.Armed with this alter ego, Margaret finds a boarding house (thinly disguised as Bedford Square in Holborn, London) run by and full of mainly odd theatrical folk, (there is a sole sanitary salesman there).Among the "resting" actors are two bitching showgirls, Renne Houston and Lilli Palmer who aggressively compete with each other and try to ensnare any eligible man who has a few quid in his pocket.One of these is a romantic, elderly but married fur salesman, Horace Blount, who may finance the burlesque show.Horace is played by real life music hall star, George Robey.Renee and Lilli's rivalry rapidly descends to physical violence and theft in their efforts to best each other and win a rich patron.Margaret, on the other hand, is the perfect lady and establishes her well mannered moral credentials early on when she explains to the other débutantes in Switzerland that the reason she is escaping from the school is that her recently widowed mother cannot afford the fees any more.She will get a job to repay the school for the outstanding balance she owes.

Naunton Wayne (minus Basil Radford), for once appears as a smooth talking conman and pickpocket who gets to play a funny drunk scene with the director of the show, Joe Gold.Naunton is allowed to show his versatility as an actor aside from his usual partnership role he adopted in the several films with the aforementioned BR.He even appears to like women!The Earl of Pangborough's savvy aunt is the aristocratic Helen Haye who is given a few comic lines for a change.Although Margaret tries to land the Earl her strategy is far more subtle than the overt tactics used by the other two feuding girls.

This is no lush Hollywood musical and the show tunes are mediocre but you do get to see Margaret and the girls in revealing costumes doing high kicking singing and dancing routines.The ending was too rushed and could have been lengthened by letting the story unfold at a more even and natural pace.For this reason I rated it 6/10.If you would like to see Margaret in a full film musical try "I'll Be Your Sweetheart" as it has many old time (circa 1900) music hall songs familiar to many viewers.

Incidentally in "A Girl Must Live", does anyone know the identity of the brunette showgirl whose bathing costume was too revealing for the other girls who hoped to swim at Pangborough manor?.If so post here please since the IMDb.com full list of the cast only gives the names of the principal actors and she was therefore uncredited.Although she did have one line to say, boy! was she attractive! A bit of research by me reveals her name is Judy Gray.She only has one credited role on IMDb.com which is "Josette" in "Alibi" (1942)Any other info, would be appreciated.

It' s one of those "three girls in search of rich husbands" plots that were so popular from at least SALLY IRENE AND MARY through HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. Margaret Lockwood runs away from boarding school to go on the stage. At her boarding house, she meets Renee Houston and Lilli Palmer, Soon enough, the object of their affections arrives in the person of Hugh Sinclair; unlike others examples of the plots, they're all in competition in between scanitly-clad chorus number. But everyone is on the make, from Hugh Sinclair sowing his wild oats to Naunton Wayne as a pickpocketing hustler to George Robey as a cheating husband. The girls are not friends; they're catty, greedy and too wise for their own good

It's director Carol Reed's fourth of seven movies with Miss Lockwood, and he directs for speed and laughs with a cynical and naughty air impossible in Hollywood since the production code had closed down sexy comedies. Everyone speaks fast to make the show come in at less than 90 minutes, and even when the plot kicks into high gear, it's very funny: a pleasure from start to finish.