Les reines du music-hall

For Marilyn Monroe fans this is a real treat. Before she hit the BIG time, Monroe made this 1 hour B movie at Columbia and puts in a relatively assured performance despite this being so early in her career.

Sure, her performance wasn't going to win an Oscar but she is self-assured and natural in front of the camera. Leaving aside a couple of duff line deliveries Monroe sparkles in this movie and brightens it up somewhat.

Although relatively light-weight and inconsequential, this cheapo is actually pretty well produced and looks and feels of higher quality than most quickie filler films.

At the end of the day, this is really going to appeal only to fans of Marilyn Monroe wanting to see her in an early role, but is enjoyable nevertheless and a pleasant way to waste an hour.

Peggy Martin (Marilyn Monroe) and her mother Mae (Adele Jergens) are both burlesque chorus girls. Bubbles LaRue keeps pushing Peggy to go out with clients but Mae forbids it. Peggy is tired of her mother's protectiveness but when Bubbles comes at Mae, Peggy is the one punching back. Bubbles quits. Mae is asked to do the solo dance but she gives it to Peggy. A new star is born. In the audience, Randy Carroll is taken with her.

This is early Monroe. She was still a relative nobody at the time. I doubt that she got top billing during its initial run even if she's the nominal lead. It's fascinating to see her before her sex goddess persona. She is still an ingénue. She has her overpowering beauty but her pouty sex goddess is still under construction. In that light, Randy is not good enough. It's hard to cast a suitor for a future legend. All I know is that Randy is not good enough. I don't see enough heat in the relationship and that drags down the film. It's still fascinating to watch a pre-goddess Monroe.

The plot explores the idea of being accepted as a chorus girl. Will the upper class set acknowledge such a lowlife species? The story is trivial but holds an interest as Marilyn Monroe (Peggy) carries herself well in one of her early entries. Thankfully, we see her deliver her lines without that irritating baby-talk that became her trademark. She talks properly in this film! So, it's a treasure if only for that.

There is a good segment where Adele Jurgens (Mae) shows off some dance moves – probably the best moment of the film. The music is OK, Marilyn Monroe sings a couple of songs, but nothing too special.

The flimsy story wraps itself up over the course of an hour, but we watch it for Marilyn Monroe.

I don't know about you, but I'm a big MM fan. Not a overly huge or fanatical one mind you, but I have seen all her major pictures several times and have seen most of her smaller ones. For a long time Ladies of the Chorus was off of my radar screen. It's not seen often, video stores in my area don't have it. I missed the airings on cable or where ever. For years, I heard that this was a B picture, and one of her first pictures and not a special MM movie. So I figured this was another one of those small chances to see Marilyn similar to her early Fox appearances like "We're not Married" I was wrong, the critics were wrong, and people talking about the movie were wrong. MM is a featured player here in this B picture, it was great fun to see, she does some musical numbers (even if it wasn't her singing I didn't really notice) it was fun to see and I'm glad I made the effort to track down this movie and buy a copy.

Today many people think that MM began her career at the bottom as a small part player, the blonde bimbo in many films like ASPHALT JUNGLE and ALL ABOUT EVE, who in time slowly rose to stardom. In fact, thanks to her sponsorship by her lover, the top-agent Johnny Hyde, very earlier in her career, 1948 to be exact, MM was cast in a major co-starring role as Adele Jurgen's daughter in this 60+ minute Columbia Pictures B movie. It was not a success and her contract at Harry Cohn's studio was dropped. MM then moved on to a Fox contract.

Given this film's feeble script and the twenty day shooting schedule, she can't do more than a competent job as a burlesque queen's daughter in a movie that avoids any suggestion of that tawdry world and the striptease. The dances and songs shown here are all mediocre, as is Phil Karlson's direction. In the beginning, MM was professional; she worked hard with was she's been given to play. She does her best in the few mother/daughter scenes with Jurgens who looks much too young to be believable as her mommy. Neither was MM helped by Columbia's casting of her leading man, Rand Brooks (Scarlett O'Hara's first husband in GWTW), who is particularly wooden and unattractive as the love interest.

A few years later, Marilyn did some rhinoplasty to fix nose and chin, but even in this minor effort she is still very beautiful and appealing. MM was determined to become a star, and when her moment came she was ready. She had paid her dues as this minor effort proves.