Girls About Town

We follow a couple of girls - Kay Francis (Wanda) and Lilyan Tashman (Marie) - as they are given different escort assignments by their agent Alan Dinehart (Jerry). They work as a pair and share an apartment obviously paid for by the wealthy clients who have made payment to them. You get what I'm saying? Things change for one of them when assigned as escorts onto a boat containing wealthy Eugene Pallette (Benji) and Joel McCrea (Jim).

The film is a comedy and the lead women are good in their roles. Pallette is sometimes inaudible and incomprehensible with that peculiar squawking he does, whilst McCrea is there for eye candy. There are a couple of side plots going on and all-in-all it is an enjoyable film.

"Girls About Town" is a pre-code film with sensibilities that simply would not have been allowed once the toughened Production Code was enacted in mid- 1934. This is because although the film never said so in so many words, the picture is about some women of rather easy virtue who make a living off men. Wanda (Kay Francis) and Marie (Lilyan Tashman) are professional escorts who are often hired to hang out with old men and flatter them while the group is out on business dinners. It never exactly says it in the film, but most adults watching the film most likely assume that the ladies got all their furs, jewels, maid and other luxuries by sleeping with the men.

This film finds the girls paired up with a couple rich guys, Jim (Joel McCrea) and Benjamin (Eugene Palette). However, a couple odd things happen--Jim falls for Wanda and Benji turns out to be total cheapskate and Marie has to work very, very hard to get Benji to buy her anything. However, in a funny twist, Marie and Benji's wife work together--to get him to stop being so stingy. So what's to become of all this? Well, see the film and find out for yourself. It's well worth it, as the script is pleasant and fun. In particular, it's quite fun seeing Benji get his comeuppance!

This film is about two professional gold diggers - Marie has her heart in her work (Lilyan Tashman), Wanda doesn't (Kay Francis). The two women are paid handsomely to entertain men who are in town to do business with their employer and to soften them up so they are more receptive to striking deals with that employer. This film has more introspection than many precodes, possibly due to the presence of George Cukor as director. He really did a great job in "women's films" such as these. At any rate, Wanda is on the lookout for the love of her life and most improbably finds him during one of her "assignments" - Lansing businessman Jim Baker (Joel McCrea). However, she can't marry him until she obtains a divorce from her long estranged and lazy husband (Anderson Lawler). With experience in marriage to such a shady predatory character, you'd wonder why she would want to give matrimony another try.

Kay Francis has made many such films - the good girl in bad girl's clothing - but few films remain that show Lilyan Tashman and what she could do with a meaty precode role. This is one of them. As Marie she manages to look out for herself, be charitable to a friend in need, and even help the wife of a stingy client reunite with her husband (Eugene Palette). The two women even turn out to be great friends, trading fashion tips of all things. As always with Lilyan, there are the wonderfully delivered catty remarks. Sadly she died in 1934 of cancer at the age of only 37. Check this one out to see one of the biggest names in precode film in a pretty good movie (Kay Francis), and one star that did not shine quite so brightly, but added spice to any role she was given (Lilyan Tashman).

No one says it in the picture and it's not in anyone's review, but aren't the girls in the title hookers? Thought so. Of course, this is a pre-code film and I guess it was acceptable to depict them rather than actually come out and declare same. I wasn't alive in the 30's, but that's how I read it.

That said, "Girls About Town" is a very funny picture with a good script and an even better cast. Kay Francis is one of my favorites, very feminine and demure, even as a, well, I already covered that. She was ably assisted by Lilyan Tashman, a comedienne who had a tragically short career in movies. Lots of energy and not bad looking. Joel McCrea is window dressing as he sleepwalks through his part but Eugene Palette holds up the male side of the fun. Louise Beavers is on hand with a bigger role than she is usually given. Tough luck for her she was a black in Hollywood in the 30's.

The picture gets a little far afield towards the end. I always get the impression writers come up with a clever idea for a story but often can't figure out how to end it and go for a predictable lameness, Exhibit A being "Harvey". But in my book "Girls About Town" had already earned its spurs, to mix a metaphor.

"Girls About Town" from 1931 is a pre-code starring Kay Francis, Lilyan Tashman, Joel McCrea, and Eugene Palette.

Pre-codes are fun because you don't know how they're going to end - once the code came in, if you were a woman and committed adultery, you died; if you were a tramp, you died. If you had a career, you gave it up because your life was empty without a man.

In this film, Francis and Tashman are Wanda and Marie who make their living as escorts for rich men. So they spend their time on yachts, they wear furs and jewels, and we assume they sleep with these guys.

That's implied but when the men want to go up to the girls' apartment, their maid (Louise Beavers) sits in the window so the girls can say, "That's mother. She's waited up for me. You'd better not come up" or words to that effect.

The women are paired with the very wealthy Benjamin (Palette) and the young, handsome assistant (McCrea). Wanda is very attracted to Jim (McCrea) but stuck with Benjamin; Tashman finds Jim a miserable bore. So they switch, and Jim and Wanda fall in love.

Benji meanwhile, for all his big bucks, turns out to be a tightwad. Later Tashman enlists some help to get him to part with what's in his wallet.

Fast-moving film with delightful acting, particularly from Tashman, who is a riot. Gorgeous clothes, too. Louise Beavers has a great turn as the maid - she's devoted to the two women and has no problem telling Wanda off. But when there's a guest in the house she acts like a real subservient maid. Very funny.

Highly recommended. A lively movie.