This is a preposterous drama with some sophisticated comedy involving two sisters who moved to New York City and struggle to find employment and romance. Judith Wood and Dorothy Hall don't exactly live at the type of boarding house that the girls in "Stage Door" lived in, but it's very similar to that stage play which became a hit movie in 1937. This one has been completely forgotten, but as directed by Dorothy Arzner is a fascinating antique.
Hall plays the dizzy June (with Wood as the more sensible Mae), proposed to her first week at work by boss Paul Lukas who fires her when she tells him that she has a boyfriend. Charles 'Buddy' Rogers is the happy-go-lucky guy who dumps her for another woman, and when Wood runs into Lukas, they hit it off and she gets him to give her sister her job back. It seems that a romance between them is likely, but Hall manages to get engaged to him all over again, only for Rogers to show up.
Very lavish and delightful in the pre-code shocking sort of way, this has all the trappings that you would expect in a film about young girls in the big city during the depression, but nothing really happens that's overly scandalous other than one night when Hall doesn't come home. Her voice, reminiscent of Betty Boop, does become a bit grating after a while. Quite tame by pre-code standards, but with subtleties of various elements that had censorship groups working hard to get the code through so movies like this wouldn't be corrupting young girls from small towns. The writing is clever, but unfortunately, the weak plot prevents it from being completely successful, although Arzner does have a great eye for detail.
Hall plays the dizzy June (with Wood as the more sensible Mae), proposed to her first week at work by boss Paul Lukas who fires her when she tells him that she has a boyfriend. Charles 'Buddy' Rogers is the happy-go-lucky guy who dumps her for another woman, and when Wood runs into Lukas, they hit it off and she gets him to give her sister her job back. It seems that a romance between them is likely, but Hall manages to get engaged to him all over again, only for Rogers to show up.
Very lavish and delightful in the pre-code shocking sort of way, this has all the trappings that you would expect in a film about young girls in the big city during the depression, but nothing really happens that's overly scandalous other than one night when Hall doesn't come home. Her voice, reminiscent of Betty Boop, does become a bit grating after a while. Quite tame by pre-code standards, but with subtleties of various elements that had censorship groups working hard to get the code through so movies like this wouldn't be corrupting young girls from small towns. The writing is clever, but unfortunately, the weak plot prevents it from being completely successful, although Arzner does have a great eye for detail.
