All Girl Revue

Short about what happens when girls (women) are allowed to rule an unnamed town for a day. June Allyson is the mayor and sets out to make the city more pretty (!!). It seems a famous (unnamed) opera singer (Beverly Kirk) is visiting the town that day and they want to make it perfect for her.

The short itself is harmless fun. 95% of the dialogue is sung and all the songs are tuneful it instantly forgettable. It also has a truly jaw-dropping tap dancing number in a train station. This also has some forgotten female dancing and singing acts. So it's fun as a harmless little short and also as a reminder of some really great female singers and dancers.

The headline states: "Girls Take Over" - "Fair Sex To Rule City For A Day." The story begins, "Oodles of fun," said her honor, the Mayor, in her first official interview at the city hall this morning. The girls will assume all the responsibilities of the city administration for one day."

To open the "show," we hear the mayor (a very cute June Allyson) and three other ladies sing, "We Have To Make The City Pretty." Later, we hear two other songs, one by Edith Brandell and other by the operatic Beverly Kirk, and then see two dance numbers. There is quite a bit to offer in just eight minutes....like watching a mini-musical.

It's very dated looking and sounding, of course, but it's cute in a way. Allyson came off the best, so it was no surprise that she was the only one who was or became a star. She had that quality. This was part of the "The Roaring Twenties" DVD.

THE GIRLS HAVE taken over the town and this is a musical. With those two premises' being established, the one reeler short landed on its feet, hit the ground running and stayed its course to the end. (So Schultz, how's that for using multiple clichés?)

WHEN WE FIRST viewed this on Turner Classic Movies a few days ago, we must confess that we were ignorant of the fact that the perky and beautiful young woman who was cast as "the Mayor" was perky and beautiful June Allison. Hers is the only name that we recognize in the credits and her performance bode well in showcasing what would be her definite "Star Quality."

PERHAPS SOMEONE GOT the idea to do this by crossing the standard "Boys Day at City Hall" plot with the females only policy as displayed in the film version of the Clare Booth Luce play, THE WOMEN (MGM, 1939). (Just a hunch, Schultz.)

OTHER THAN THAT, there is not really a lot to recommend this and it seems to race along at a very merry rate, but not fast enough for Schultz and myself. Perhaps a little 1940's style 'cheesecake' and good old fashioned titillation would have livened things up a bit.

The only reason for watching this very dated musical short is the chance to see JUNE ALLYSON just a few years before she made her big movie star debut in "Best Foot Forward" at MGM.

This is a drab looking Warner musical short with June as the Mayor for a Day who wants to "Make the City Pretty" and joins the other gals for a reception to honor the arrival of Madame Beverly, an opera singer (BEVERLY KIRK). There's also a musical moment at Grand Central where a chorus line of girls do a tap routine imitating the shuffling noise of a train getting set for departure.

None of it is really interesting enough to make it an item I'd recommend, but fans of June Allyson will be able to sit through it just to watch the perky actress before stardom.

I really enjoy the Vitaphone Variety shorts and have been trying to find as many as I can to watch. Unfortunately this one isn't the best, it's the weakest entry I've seen thus far.

But it is still worth watching to see June Allyson before she was famous.

The songs and dancing revolve around a ridiculous storyline. June becomes mayor for a day and her goal is to make the city pretty. Her three advisors, suggest putting curls in their hair, getting better clothes, cleaning up the slums and hanging drapes over the city garbage cans.

June also decides that she wants to put a mirror in the mayors office to help 'pretty the city'.

Oddly as the ladies are leaving the office we can see that there already is a floor length mirror in the office.

They're on the way to the train station to meet an Opera singer who will be given the key to the city. And of course it's just a showcase to highlight the singing of Beverly Kirk.

All in all, it was interesting to watch this oddball historical short.