Girls Can Play

In Girls Can Play Rita Hayworth is in another of her apprentice film where she is the girlfriend of racketeer John Gallaudet. She is the catcher on a women's softball league team which his chain of drugstores sponsors. The drugstores however sells untaxed booze which undercuts the competition. Presumably in this state there is no State Liquor Authority to enforce the laws or there are no laws. Exactly what Gallaudet's racket was is rather unclear.

But Rita knows too much and it gets her killed. She is third billed in this B film from Columbia where the stars are Charles Quigley and Julie Bishop. Quigley is a sports reporter who wants the crime beat and Bishop is a girl on the softball team with an arm like Dizzy Dean.

The story is not terribly coherent, maybe it was butchered in the editing department. Rita shows some personality here and you know big things were going to come her way. This is also a chance to see Guinn William as something other than a hood or a lunkhead. Williams plays a homicide cop who works with Quigley.

It's a real stretch to give this Columbia "B" film six stars. It's quite hokey, with some amateurish acting by two of the male leads. But, the women's softball is just good enough to get it on first base. In Julie Bishop and Rita Hayworth, or their doubles, Columbia found some leads who could swing a bat and throw a ball. And, there's enough of the softball action with them and some other girls, to give this film some life and a lift.

The title refers to the ball diamond, and without it, the rest of this story and film would be such a drag and bore that most people would turn it off after just a few minutes. Charles Quigley plays Jimmy Jones, a sports writer who wants to be a crime reporter. But his lines are so dull and dumb, one wonders how he ever managed to be hired as a reporter at all. I think the writers were trying to give the impression that he was a naïve, but bright-eyed kid and hopeful. But he doesn't look the part of a young guy. His acting is very amateurish. Another major character is John Gallaudet as the bad guy, Foy Harris. But he's wooden half the time, and the rest of the time he waffles between self-assured and paranoid.

Joseph Crehan plays Jones's boss, Brophy. He's supposed to be an editor on the Hollywood paper. The only male character worth his salt is Lieutenant Flannigan, played by Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams. It says something of a studio and film when a character actor who is known for supporting roles as a dumb ox, tough cookie, or not too bright sidekick, is cast as one of the smartest characters in the film. Still, the screenplay gives him some lines that would make one wonder if he really did know a circle from a square.

Guinn's role, with that of the three leading women help carry the film. None of the female parts leap out, but in this case that's good because their acting is fair. It's most of the male roles that stand out because they are so poorly written and acted.

Anyway, this is a crime film of sorts, that is most interesting and saved by its time and footage with the women softball players, on and off the field. The only name that most movie buffs will recognize form this B film is Rita Hayworth who plays Sue Collins. She almost makes it to the end of the film. The film's not billed as a comedy, but some of the humorous dialog helps it a lot.

Here are the best lines in "Girls Can Play."

Jimmy Jones, "Maybe there's a criminal angle in the back of this ad. Something like that." Brophy, "Then I'd send a reporter. This is something even a sports writer can do. Beat it!" After Jones leaves, "That guy is just dumb enough and stubborn enough to make a swell news hound someday."

Ann Casey, "How would you like to be a hog riveter's wife in Cedar Rapids?"

Lieutenant Flannigan, "And Jimmy, keep on bein' dumb. I'm supposed to be stupid, but I'm still the youngest lieutenant on the force." Jimmy Jones, "I'll do that."

Lieutenant Flannigan, "Oh, no hurry. You and I are both dumb, so we work slow."

Lieutenant Flannigan, "We got a lotta pieces, son, but the edges don't quite fit."

John Gallaudet is a bootlegger, counterfeiter, a murderer, and probably cheats at checkers, but police lieutenant Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams can't get the evidence on him. Fortunately Gallaudet is also running a girl's baseball team, and sports reporter Charles Quigley sees a way to get the goods, the scoop, and also team pitcher Julie Bishop.

There's also catcher Rita Hayworth to look at in shorts; she's Gallaudet's girl friend. Co-writer-director Lambert Hillyer decided it would make a nice change of pace from the usual night-club setting, and it does in this otherwise unexceptional Columbia Pictures programmer. With Patricia Farr, Fern Emmett, and Ann Doran.

... there was this prescient little piece that involved girls' professional baseball.

The whole thing starts when the sports reporter of a local paper, the creatively named Jimmy Jones (Charles Quigley), is sent out to interview girls standing in line applying for a modeling job at a photographer's studio for a human interest piece. The girl he strikes up a conversation with, Ann (Julie Bishop), doesn't get the job, so she decides to go back to playing girls' professional baseball, playing for a team sponsored by the local drugstore. The reporter thinks that the owner of the drugstore, Foy Harris, might be into something shady because he used to be a gangster. Jimmy's boss doesn't like the angle at first because the drugstore means big ad dollars to the paper. Jimmy's suspicion is heightened more when, while talking to Harris in his office, somebody opens the door and points a gun at Harris and doesn't kill him only because Jimmy knocks the gun from his hand. The would-be assassin then gets away. Jimmy tells Harris he'll keep the gun as a souvenir and begins to investigate.

What follows is an interesting tale involving a telegram that seems to be in code, the man who tried to kill Harris being found on a train dead by poison, and a cross-dressing criminal. The players are just average in their roles with one exception - a very young Rita Hayworth as a member of the girls' baseball team and Harris' girlfriend. She is a real stand-out in this Columbia B in both beauty and screen presence. But don't let the rather mediocre performances steer you away from this, as the pace is fast moving and the premise a unique one. Besides Hayworth, the minor role of the reporters' always insulting but somewhat admiring editor is well played and reminds me of the kind of roles that Walter Connolly would often play at the same studio (Columbia) during the 30s.

In the first scenes I thought it was going to be just another silly boy meets girl type of vehicle. However, the plot becomes thicker and thicker and develops quite nicely. A newspaper man is sent out to get a story about one of the girls trying to get a job and meets Julie Bishop who he romances. He is more interested in getting the story on a shady character. Rita Hayworth was an up and comer of about 19 when this was released in 1937. She played her part with real maturity and ability. She had natural beauty even then and is seen wearing shorts as part of a girl's softball team. Not a big deal but thought I should mention it. Rita is an innocent girl but is involved with a gangster type pretending that he is a businessman. He is waiting with his cronies to make a lucrative deal which is a phony, then split. The two girls are on the same softball team and end up in danger from the gangsters. That's about all I can say without this being a spoiler. You've got the idea. By the way Guinn "Big Boy" Williams is in this as the police lieutenant. This movie was quite a bit better than I had expected and was well worth watching.