My Sister Eileen

Ruth McKenney's series of autobiographical articles about siblings from Columbus, Ohio relocated to wacky Greenwich Village was initially turned into a play before this movie version (it later went back to the stage as the musical "Wonderful Town", winning a Tony award for Rosalind Russell), and in 1955 was filmed again as "My Sister Eileen" with the songs. Russell appears here as Ruth (the smart, savvy sister who longs to be a writer) and Janet Blair is sister Eileen (the pretty blonde with hopes of becoming an actress). They move into the noisiest hovel in New York, with a steady stream of foot-traffic and neighbors who barge in without knocking. Some of these characters are colorful, though the comic craziness is pitched a little high, and everyone overacts (cheerfully). Russell (who got an Oscar nomination for her dryly bemused performance) sports an awful potato-chip hairstyle which must have been all the rage in 1942; her double takes and facial exaggerations are often very funny, and she plays well off Blair (they take turns playing the jester and the straight-face). Is it ridiculous and over-the-top? Absolutely. But when the results are this friendly, it's useless to complain. **1/2 from ****

...Or maybe it is "Those Girls"?

This film stars Rosalind Russell as Ruth Sherwood, an aspiring writer, who moves from small town Columbus, OH to New York with her sister, Eileen (Janet Blair), an aspiring actress. Ruth and Eileen's father does not approve of his unmarried daughters moving to the city to pursue their careers, but grandma wholly approves and all but forces her son to let them go. ("Let?"- my understanding is both are adults - but then this is 1942) In New York, with limited funds ($100), the ladies look for a place to live. They end up at this apartment in Greenwich Village where, as a result of lack of sleep and desire to keep looking, they end up agreeing to a trial stay in the basement of the building. The deal is that they can live in the apartment for a month for free and if they like it, the rent will be $45/month afterward. If they hate the apartment, the landlord (Abner Kravitz with a big wig and mustache) will give them $45 for their trouble. The girls decide to stay, but there are lots of problems with this apartment.

The apartment is above a section where they are blasting the rock to build a subway. The girls are occasionally jolted by the explosions. Since Ruth and Eileen are in a basement apartment, they have the street pedestrian traffic walking past their windows. Their neighbors also seem to let themselves in willy nilly into their apartment. Also a previous tenant, Effie, whose career as a prostitute is alluded to, still has her Johns coming to her old place for a "psychic reading." Meanwhile, while all this is going on, Ruth and Eileen are trying to find jobs in writing and acting, respectively.

Eileen seems to have an almost hypnotic affect on men, rending Ruth practically invisible. Ruth ends up meeting the editor (Brian Aherne) of a magazine, The Mad Hatten, a magazine desperately in need of updating. I liked Aherne and Russell together. I thought that Aherne's calm, sophisticated demeanor complimented Russell's more wacky one. Russell and Janet Blair were excellent executing their physical comedy scenes--the conga line with the Portuguese Navy was especially funny--and must have been exhausting!

A final note - because they are short on funds the sisters are reduced to eating the cheapest of foods - spaghetti. This may be the first film that proposes the Atkins diet when Ruth mentions that eating only spaghetti (high carb) is making her fat.

Recommended for fans of classic comedy and carb counters everywhere.

ROSALIND RUSSELL was always at her best in comedies and here she had a role that got her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1942--and it's easy to see why. She's downright hilarious as the gal from Ohio with writing ambitions and a pretty blonde sister (JANET BLAIR) with a penchant for attracting men and trouble.

All the wacky situations stem from their Greenwich Village basement apartment which seems to have more visitors than Grand Central Station. It's all exaggerated fluff, but it works, thanks to a fine cast and sterling performances.

RICHARD QUINE and GORDON JONES do repeats of their Broadway roles, and DONALD MacBRIDE as a policeman who wants quiet on his route is hilarious. JUNE HAVOC makes a brief appearance as a medium who used to live in the girls' apartment. GEORGE TOBIAS, as the opportunistic landlord with the Greek accent, is at his funniest in a colorful supporting role.

My favorite moment is the conga sequence with Russell and Blair trying to get rid of sailors who don't speak a word of English, creating a disturbance that lands Blair in jail. Janet Blair is pleasant as the blonde bombshell but it's Russell who milks the most out of her role and gets all the laughs. She's terrific.

BRIAN AHERNE does what he can with the role of the talkative editor, but it's not much of a part. Still, he adds a certain debonair charm to the role.

Summing up: Notable chiefly as a terrific vehicle for Russell's unique brand of comic talent.

Though this appears to have been filmed entirely on a sound stage, the feel of the original stories comes through. This is the Village as it has been as long as I've lived here.

Please note: I was not born when this movie came out. But maybe my mother, a writer, saw it and decided ti was for her. When I was a child we lived a few blocks from where the stories were set. And for the last decades, I have lived maybe three blocks from there. And how it has changed! And how much for the worse: Rich people, high rents and buying (who'd heard of buying an apartment in 1942?!) Noisy clubs ...

Janet Blair is fine as the title character. Rosalind Russell is very good as her sister Ruth. (The real Ruth, who wrote the stories, married Nathanael West and died tragically at a young age.) Russell is sort of like her Sylvia Fowler character in "The Women." But we can see hints of the broad style that was to come and was to sink her by the time of "Auntie Mame." George Tobias is fun as the girls' fast-talking artistic landlord. Without knowing it at the time, I rented my first Manhattan apartment from the man on whom this character was based. That was 30 years later.

Brian Ahern is OK as the male lead. He's a little stuffy, but he's meant to be. In fact, his character is insufferable. Why Ruth is drawn to him is not made clear.

I loved seeing the organ grinder near the end. I remember them on nearby Waverly Place a decade later when I was a small child! This gives a better view of the Village than any other commercial movie I can think of. It's fun and definitely is recommended..

While this could not be considered a classic by any means, it is very enjoyable and a fun way to spend an afternoon. The humor is on point, but at times I felt like I was supposed to laugh when I didn't feel like laughing. Other than that, it was great. They didn't try to pad out the plot, and the plot that was there ran smoothly.

The ending was slightly implausible and too happy-sappy for me, but for the most part it didn't drag down the quality of the film.

Rosalind Russell was good, as usual, and Janet Blair was good as the sister Eileen. The rest of the characters that drift in and out of the lodgings of Eileen and Ruth (Roz Russell's character) have varying levels of effect. I liked the Portuguese soldiers, but I understand that some of the stereotypes might be considered a little dated. It's still good fun, though.

If you're a Roz Russell fan or a classic film lover, I reccomend this one.