Calendar Girl

For me the main reason to see this film is Allan Dwan's wonderful direction. He has the good sense to park it and point it when the action dictates, e.g. in the musical sequences, but he also takes the opportunity to explore every inch of a very complicated set with the camera: up and down the stairs, out the back from low and high, in and out the front door, all around the top studio apartment, and towards the end an enormous crane shot of the house fronts.

And he gets good performances out of the cast. I don't agree with the other comments about the acting. The women are all excellent (Jane Frazee in the lead, Irene Rich as the landlady) and Gail Patrick is downright sensational as the cousin from Boston. Victor McLaglen and James Ellison as the Boston sleaze-bag are both excellent; Kenny Baker works hard at it; Franklin Pangborn always a delight: only William Marshall as the composer is a bit wooden, but then he is the designated sap in the script.

All in all a very nice ensemble piece with good music too. The firemen's ball number is hilarious.

Quick note on the print I viewed: not the best picture or sound quality, but apart from a view small cuts, complete. It can be found on Disc 1 of the 50 Movie Pack of Musicals DVD.

The story is so-so, predictable for a musical. A songwriter and a artist share a flat in an artists-friendly establishment. One is in love with the girl next door but the other enjoys stringing her along.

Someone is wealthy but he doesn't like people to know. And the girl next door has a father with a fiery temper.

The songs are rather catchy and pleasant, and singers such as Kenny Baker and Janet Martin move them along. Attempts at comedy come off well as does the (slight) drama as the story unfolds.

'Calendar Girl' is a cheaply-made B picture from Poverty Row but, for all that, it isn't bad, and will keep you entertained.

This is not a well known musical but includes several excellent songs written by Jimmy McHugh. The principal vocalists include Bill Marshall, Jane Frazee, Janet Martin and specially Kenny Baker. The latter's tenor is shown off to good effect and he is capably joined in duets with Janet Martin, one of the several young players under contract to Republic who disappeared with the decline in the studio system. It is a multi-star cast including Victor McLaglen as a Fire Chief, Irene Rich as a Boarding House owner, Gail Patrick as a wealthy Bostononian and James Ellison. The story involves the trials of young hopefuls in the music/dance world, Martin, Frazee, Marshall, etc. and Ellison, a wealthy young artist from Boston. Martin plays a predatory female after Baker a young song plugger while there is a triangular mixup between Frazee and two potential suitors, Marshall and Ellison and Patrick. Highly recommended as a much better than average small musical from Hollywood just before television started to cut into the profits of the movie studios.

Overcrowded and generally undistinguished Republic musical. Nonetheless, it does have its moments, like the opening hook with Frazee frazzling the boys, or McLaglen's feisty fireman spicing up the screen. Too bad the rather frantic musical scenes don't reach highlight status; after all, the flick has its hopes as a musical. And what's with the many distracting characters just popping in and out without any set-up -- I wish we got to know some better. Then too, what's the big deal between Boston and New York that takes up too much dialogue time. After all, there are many other states sitting among audiences then and now.

The plot itself turns on which guy Frazee will end up with, Ellison or Marshall. Frazee is aptly lively and sweet, but her two suitors are on the forgettably bland side. (Good thing Ellison went on to matinee cowboy movies.) And get a look at the fully-clothed calendar girl so scandalous for 1900; a Playboy version it ain't, but then styles and mores do change.

Anyway, I think the screenplay could have used a lot of sorting-out and a better musical score, if that were possible given scheduling demands. As is, the flick's overall obscurity is not surprsing. All in all, it's not surprising that Republic specialized in cheap cowboy flicks during this same period. So, "Hi-Yo, Silver"!

Jane Frazee, huh? Well, who'd have thought the Prelinger site would ever get around to some of the neatest little fillers available? Johnny Downes, Jane, Donald O'Connor ( I live in hope)a few of the names that took the sting from the expression B Movies. Okay so the memory plays tricks, all that used to glisten wasn't, etc, me I just sat back and enjoyed the unexpected treat. If there was ever a fault it was the fact that few, if any, of this kind of 'musical' ever featured material likely to have a life outside of the actual movie. Reams of songs which rarely appeared on a disc so that after watching 'Calendar Girl' you probably left the cinema whistling something from 'Show Boat'. Still a treat to see it, though.