A Girl Must Live

This is almost a Warner Brothers pre-code musical. After the heavy censorship of the 1934 production code, scheming scantily clad gold diggers in American films were a thing of the past - fortunately not so in England!

OK, we don't have Joan Blondell, Busby Berkeley or catchy songs but this is as close to an early thirties Hollywood comedy as possible. There's even an English version of Guy Kibbee.

Being a 'chorus girl' comedy, there are more scantily clad, sexy young ladies than you could ever wish for. The humour is witty, fast-paced and quite racy with enough double entendres to make Sid James blush - and as for the name of Lilli Palmer's character - that's like something from an Austin Powers movie!

The plot is straight out of an old gold diggers movie - chorus girls trying to land a millionaire or blackmail a married man after engineering a sexually compromising situation. The quick-fire script is clever and funny especially in the hands of Lilli Palmer and Renee Houston as the cat fighting best friends. Although Margaret Lockwood isn't quite right for this and as a leading man, Hugh Sinclair is hopeless, dependable old Naughton Wayne more than makes up for their shortcomings.

Future superstar director Mr Carol Reed had recently boarded the rapidly sinking ship that was Gaumont British Pictures. Whilst ultimately failing to save the studio, he did make a few entertaining films there like this. They're not too lavish but like this, they're great fun.

Obviously "the proper" pre-code comedies were made with the background of the American Depression to influence the characters whereas this is in pre-war England. Compared with those old WB movies therefore that struggle against adversity, that hope, that blind optimism is missing. As a consequence the characters are not people, they're just characters in a comedy. Without that dimension of reality you can't empathise or engage with them but this doesn't make this less enjoyable. Despite the presence of Carol Reed, this isn't meant to be a fully developed drama, it's just meant to be funny and it certainly is.

Even so, it's a million times better than the pathetic shadows of the originals which Warner Brothers themselves ended up making at the end of the decade.

When I know that multiple versions exist of a film I am on the point of acquiring, I obviously try to go for the longer edition or, at least, the one which most adheres to the director's original conception (I opted not to say vision here in view of the lighthearted nature of the movie under review – which, as it turned out, proved yet another blunder on my part…but more on this later!). Sometimes, however, I only learn after the fact that a film has been trimmed as, when I added it to my collection, I had no prior knowledge of such a variant being in circulation (often at the expense of the uncut release) to begin with! Needless to say, this film is one such case (running for a brief 68 minutes against the official 92!) – besides, I was under the impression that it was going to be a drama...but then realized the thing was actually a comedy!

Anyway, this is one of the better-regarded efforts in director Reed's early career – yet, being a showcase for catty females against a music- hall backdrop, a fairly atypical one when viewed in retrospect. The end result, while undeniably dated, is reasonably entertaining – serving pretty much as the British counterpart of the clearly superior STAGE DOOR (1937); despite a plethora of talent involved (including scriptwriter Frank Launder and cast members Lilli Palmer, Naunton Wayne and George Robey – the latter best-known nowadays for playing a dying Falstaff in Laurence Olivier's HENRY V {1944}), as with virtually all the British films of its era, this simply does not have the polish one associates with the contemporaneous Hollywood product – with the shrill sound recording, for one, effecting the viewer's intelligibility of the dialogue throughout!

The narrative is simple (read: wish-fulfillment – with heroine Margaret Lockwood, passing herself off as the offspring of a retired celebrity performer, obtaining both a part in a stage-show and an aristocratic husband without half-trying!) but not unengaging; frankly, the funniest line is the one where a dancer remarks that she does not mind if a man looked like (beloved British comedian) Will Hay as long as he had money…and, with this in mind, I should point out that Moore Marriott, Hay's frequent aged partner, is credited here but his entire role appears to have been among the casualties of the heavy streamlining involved!

It's the same kind of stuff, the same flimsy girls, the same silly entertainment shows with the same ridiculous dances, the same stupid men falling for stupid girls, the same bully for a show leader, the same flippant music, just like Hollywood throughout the thirties, but so much wittier, so much more in style, so much more brilliant - the script is a marvel here, and you don't want to miss any morsel of the constantly sharp-shooting dialog for anything, and compared to this, Hollywood appears as all amateurs. The intrigues of the ladies are as clever as in many equally entertaining Hollywood films concentrated into one, and above all, you have a very efficient director here leading all the dances and fights in the still very young Carol Reed, who appears to have a better hand with women than any of the poor gentlemen in the show. It's also one of Margaret Lockwood's early films, in which she is maturing as a great character actress, while she is seconded by Lilli Palmer, who also is still budding here. This is all hilariously exciting and entertaining, and the risk is you will laugh your sides off, especially in the wild goose chase for the mouse, which includes a number of other animal chases, like even chickens. A girl must live indeed, and they all live here and thoroughly well and make the best of it, all vying to make even better of it, all chasing men who are easily deceived, while one of them actually appreciates the deception so much that he falls for the honesty of it.

Carol Reed directed this fast moving farce in 1939 about three showgirls: Margaret Lockwood, Renee Houston and Lilli Palmer who vie for the attention and possibly marriage, of the Earl of Pangborough (Hugh Sinclair).Margaret initially escapes from a Swiss finishing school, by climbing down knotted bedsheets, nearly straining her leg in the process.The headmistress is the redoubtable Martita Hunt, (Martita played a similar role in The Man in Grey in 1943) She is assisted by Muriel Aked who played a deputy head to Margaret Rutherford in "The Happiest Days of your Life" (1951).Before escaping, one of the débutantes suggests to Margaret she adopts the stage name of "Leslie James" as her mother, of that name, was a famous music hall star and it will give Margaret a "leg up" in the profession.Armed with this alter ego, Margaret finds a boarding house (thinly disguised as Bedford Square in Holborn, London) run by and full of mainly odd theatrical folk, (there is a sole sanitary salesman there).Among the "resting" actors are two bitching showgirls, Renne Houston and Lilli Palmer who aggressively compete with each other and try to ensnare any eligible man who has a few quid in his pocket.One of these is a romantic, elderly but married fur salesman, Horace Blount, who may finance the burlesque show.Horace is played by real life music hall star, George Robey.Renee and Lilli's rivalry rapidly descends to physical violence and theft in their efforts to best each other and win a rich patron.Margaret, on the other hand, is the perfect lady and establishes her well mannered moral credentials early on when she explains to the other débutantes in Switzerland that the reason she is escaping from the school is that her recently widowed mother cannot afford the fees any more.She will get a job to repay the school for the outstanding balance she owes.

Naunton Wayne (minus Basil Radford), for once appears as a smooth talking conman and pickpocket who gets to play a funny drunk scene with the director of the show, Joe Gold.Naunton is allowed to show his versatility as an actor aside from his usual partnership role he adopted in the several films with the aforementioned BR.He even appears to like women!The Earl of Pangborough's savvy aunt is the aristocratic Helen Haye who is given a few comic lines for a change.Although Margaret tries to land the Earl her strategy is far more subtle than the overt tactics used by the other two feuding girls.

This is no lush Hollywood musical and the show tunes are mediocre but you do get to see Margaret and the girls in revealing costumes doing high kicking singing and dancing routines.The ending was too rushed and could have been lengthened by letting the story unfold at a more even and natural pace.For this reason I rated it 6/10.If you would like to see Margaret in a full film musical try "I'll Be Your Sweetheart" as it has many old time (circa 1900) music hall songs familiar to many viewers.

Incidentally in "A Girl Must Live", does anyone know the identity of the brunette showgirl whose bathing costume was too revealing for the other girls who hoped to swim at Pangborough manor?.If so post here please since the IMDb.com full list of the cast only gives the names of the principal actors and she was therefore uncredited.Although she did have one line to say, boy! was she attractive! A bit of research by me reveals her name is Judy Gray.She only has one credited role on IMDb.com which is "Josette" in "Alibi" (1942)Any other info, would be appreciated.

It' s one of those "three girls in search of rich husbands" plots that were so popular from at least SALLY IRENE AND MARY through HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. Margaret Lockwood runs away from boarding school to go on the stage. At her boarding house, she meets Renee Houston and Lilli Palmer, Soon enough, the object of their affections arrives in the person of Hugh Sinclair; unlike others examples of the plots, they're all in competition in between scanitly-clad chorus number. But everyone is on the make, from Hugh Sinclair sowing his wild oats to Naunton Wayne as a pickpocketing hustler to George Robey as a cheating husband. The girls are not friends; they're catty, greedy and too wise for their own good

It's director Carol Reed's fourth of seven movies with Miss Lockwood, and he directs for speed and laughs with a cynical and naughty air impossible in Hollywood since the production code had closed down sexy comedies. Everyone speaks fast to make the show come in at less than 90 minutes, and even when the plot kicks into high gear, it's very funny: a pleasure from start to finish.