Pillow to Post

Mildly amusing wartime programmer about housing shortage for service couples. Jean (Lupino) finagles an army officer (Prince) to pose as her husband so she can get restricted housing in a motel court. Naturally, "who sleeps where" type complications ensue as they work to keep up appearances. The pace picks up as the difficulties mount, ending finally in madcap farce.

The cast tries hard to make familiar material for the time work. Still, seams do show, especially with Lupino's sometimes over-eager performance. Clearly, she's anxious to show she's as good at comedy as she is at dramatics. Then too, when movie buffs think Greenstreet, comedy doesn't come to mind. But here he plays an unlikely over-weight colonel to pretty good effect. (Note how the script deals with this fudging of army fitness standards.)

The colorful mix of supporting characters includes a mischievous little Robert Blake, a busybody Ruth Donnelly, a bug-eyed Willy Best, and an addled Stuart Erwin. Together, they manage to keep the chuckles coming. The movie, however, doesn't rise to the first rank, perhaps because the elements don't blend into a seamless whole—you can almost see the characters and situations being assembled. Nonetheless, it's a generally entertaining glimpse into what titillated audiences coming out of the big war.

This film hasn't been put on VHS or DVD. I saw it on the Turner Classic Movie channel in early July, 2007. What starts out to be a rather predictable wartime "B" light comedy, emerges shortly as a full-blown screwball comedy of the most delightful sort. Ida Lupino, of all people,shows that she can do comedy as well as Carol Lombard. After her years at Columbia, Warner Brothers finally discovered her broad acting talent. (Would that Columbia and MGM had discovered the comedic abilities of Lucille Ball decades earlier.) This low-budget gem, based on a play, reveals quite a bit about wartime America's economy and socio-economic structure. But mostly it's about a romantic entanglement and mistaken identity, two much-used devices that need first rate acting to pull off. Here, it happens. Even Sidney Greenstreet manages his atypical role in an impressive way. I don't know why the producers decided to insert a meaningless nightclub scene featuring two minutes of Louis Armstrong "and his orchestra," but perhaps this was just a way to attract more viewers. By the way, this is one of Willy Best's best films. He was finally given something to do in a movie that didn't involve Charlie Chan. Paul Harvey and William Prince also handled their roles admirably. In short, this is a long- forgotten winner.

Sweet, silly little trifle is merely an excuse to see Ida Lupino get a chance to put the heavy dramatics aside briefly as a career girl who becomes more pixelated as the complications pile up.

The story addresses the wartime housing shortage and some of the subterfuge that had to be resorted to just to have a decent place to rest your head at times. Of course misunderstandings abound.

Ida is charming and adept at comedy, William Prince is fine but it's a shame that since she rarely did comedy she didn't have a chance to costar with one of the master of the form like Cary Grant or Clark Gable. Sydney Greenstreet is funny as Prince's commanding officer as always relishing a chance to also break from the villain role and play comedy.

All together a cute little ride with nothing important to say but a nice little picture nonetheless.

This wartime romcom is about Jean Howard (Ida Lupino), the daughter of an oilfield supplies company owner. Though she is feminine and delicate, she volunteers to handle field sales and sets off to deal with roughnecks out west. This fish out of water story is secondary to the humor that evolves from a falsehood she employs.

She needs a room to operate out of, but like almost every other commodity, rooms are scarce and (practically) rationed. Out of necessity, she pretends to be the wife of an army lieutenant to get accommodations in an auto court. Then she sets off to find a lieutenant to play along with her charade. She finds Don Mallory (William Prince), who becomes trapped in her lie.

Lupino and Prince have excellent chemistry. This is a cute film that is well written. Though its stage play roots are evident, the screenplay is very entertaining. It also does a good job of demonstrating wartime exigencies and the resulting culture.

Willie Best plays the role of Lucille, the all-purpose fixit-man and gopher for the auto court. He is mystified by some of the goings-on that surround the Mallory household. Though his part may be seen as stereotypical, he rises above it and delivers many of the best lines of comedy.

Watch for Sydney Greenstreet as a commanding officer and Louis Armstrong who performs with his band.

This is about the first comedy film that I have ever seen Ida Lupino appear in and she was fantastic. Always knew Ida was multi-talented as an actress, director and producer. In this film Lupino (Jean Howard), "The Devil's Rain",'75, appears as a young gal who wants to work in her father's oil business and decides to become a traveling sales gal, which at the time was unspeakable in that type of business. Jean has to find a proper place to sleep on her travels, and since it was war time, she decided to get hold of a Lt. in the Army who would have living quarters for wives. This lucky Lt. was portrayed by William Prince, (Lt. Don Mallory), "Nuts",'87, who unwillingly helped Jean make this a reality. Another big shock in this film is the appearance of Sydney Greenstreet,(Col. Michael Otley), "Flamingo Road",'49 and of course, the "Maltese Falcon", with Humphrey Bogart. In this role Col. Otley is Don Mallory's Commanding Officer and they live together in the housing unit. It is a very enjoyable funny film and was probably a big shocker for people in 1945, it sure takes a person way back in the PAST.