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This is about as wild and wacky as it gets. Eve Arden, who made a career of playing second banana, is wonderful as a Russian soldier. Jame Wyman, though not a blonde, delivers one "dumb blonde" line after another. Jack Carson is his usual blustery, pompous self. Charley Ruggles is a lecherous old man. Alan Mowbray is a Rush Limbaugh-type broadcaster, who "just got back from the front-the home front." The setting is a hotel room, and all these characters, and many more, create the most hectic, confusing and daffy atmosphere since the Marx Brothers. In fact, "The Doughgirls" is really a female Marx Brothers circus. If you like the characters mentioned above, you'll love this movie.

I saw this when it came out. Although I was only around 7 or 8 years old, I found it a very funny movie. I expect that I didn't understand most of the jokes, but the situation and the constant frenetic action, characters coming and going, must have impressed me. I found Eve Arden's character particularly funny. Firing a rifle salute from a swanky hotel balcony...wow!

Looking at it now, it is clear that it was originally a stage play-characters coming and going on one set. Machine-gun rapid quips, jokes, reactions...if one joke doesn't get you, the next one will. Jane Wyman's dumb Dora character was a stock comedy character in those days (Gracie Allen). It might have been demeaning for her to play, but it made her a star before her later weepies.

The Washington no rooms to rent situation is long forgotten. Absurdist humor has gone out of fashion, perhaps because our society has become so absurd that absurdity is no longer funny. Thus, a lot of the humor of this film and its satire don't register today. Yet, it was quite good for its time, and it is still a hoot to watch today.

Directed by James V. Kern from the Joseph A. Fields play, adapted by Kern and Sam Hellman with additional material from Wilkie Mahoney, this wartime comedy features a terrific cast in yet another story about how the crowded living conditions in our nation's capital during World War II made strange bedfellows and played havoc with relationships.

It all starts when Jack Carson and Jane Wyman get married and try to begin their honeymoon in a Washington, D.C. hotel whose lobby is overrun with people needing a room. Despite their reservation, they discover that their room's bathtub is already occupied by Ann Sheridan's character, who happens to be ditzy Wyman's old chorus line pal. Naturally she's allowed to stay as is their other gal-pal Alexis Smith, who's married to a lieutenant (actress Smith's soon to be husband Craig Stevens).

Things really heat up when Sheridan's husband's (John Ridgely) ex- wife (Irene Manning) shows up, and a gun-toting female Russian army sergeant (Eve Arden) and Carson's lecherous boss (Charles Ruggles) join the mix, further delaying-frustrating Wyman-Carson's consummation.

Alan Mowbray appears as a radio correspondent. Donald MacBride, a judge and Regis Toomey, an FBI man also appear.

Many of the reviews here seem to be posted by people who have no clue as to the time period of history which this film is set in. When you watch an older contemporary film you need to be able to watch it with the mindset of a viewer seeing it in a theater at it's release. If you can't relate to 1944, you don't get this film. If you do it's a true gem.

Warner's threw it's best female leads at this, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Alexis Smith (sans Bette Davis), capped off with Eve Arden in a memorable role, added Jack Carson and the reliable John Ridgely, stirred in Charlie Ruggles, Alan Mowbry and Regis Toomey in brief support and a supporting cast rated A+ It is a manic comedy, but if you don't get the political and historic tongue in cheek it falls flat. If you do, sublime!

I was so busy watching ANN SHERIDAN looking so great that I had a hard time keeping track of the zany plot. She really had a flair for comedy, even this kind of absurd farce, that it's a shame she was never given better scripts. JANE WYMAN plays the sort of dumb blonde that made Marilyn famous (only she's a brunette here)--but she too is saddled with overly dumb remarks that even JACK Carson has a hard time swallowing. And ALEXIS SMITH proves that behind that frozen puss she has a real sense of humor. Catch the scene where she stoops to telling a tale of woe in a Brooklyn accent! Incidentally, her boyfriend in the film is the man she eventually married in real life--CRAIG REYNOLDS.

I don't fault the actors. CHARLES RUGGLES is actually quite good as a businessman attracted to Wyman. And character actor JOHN RIDGELY gets to play a prominent supporting role as Sheridan's fiancé with a good deal of amiable charm and skill. For these reasons alone, the film is worth watching despite the over-baked ham.

But beware of most of the farce, which is directed with the finesse of a sledgehammer bearing down on all the lines, emphasized by big close-ups of the cast in wide-eyed reaction shots in case we don't get the point.

It's another in a number of wartime films (WWII) emphasizing the overcrowded hotel conditions in Washington, D.C. from the very opening shot--similar to "The More the Merrier" and "Government Girl."

Terribly overdone, downright hammy performances from everyone including EVE ARDEN as "a Russian Sergeant York" who shoots her rifle from the terrace. Jane Wyman's character gets annoying after the first few remarks and from then on I kept my eyes on Sheridan. Her reactions are priceless, if a bit over-the-top.

Trivia note: MARK STEVENS has only a couple of lines to say during one of the crowded hotel scenes as Reynolds' Army friend and NATALIE SCHAEFER has no lines at all as a woman holding a baby.