Government Girl

Sonny Tufts, high energy but unorthodox management type, has just arrived in Washington to step up airplane production. Olivia de Havilland, the "government girl" assigned to assist him, quickly realizes that the biggest part of her job is showing Tufts just how D.C. works.

The plot isn't much but it's the kind of material that ought to make a great comedy—part satire, part romance, lots of patriotism and snappy dialog....Unfortunately, this picture mixes in bits of all of those elements but never quite manages to put any of them over the top.

Olivia de Havilland is fine as the title character and it's fun to watch her play broad comedy. There's a great shot of her sitting behind her desk, shoes off, feet up, smoking a cigarette and reading a book. She looks good and it's fun seeing her in modern dress. (Sure, she made plenty of "modern" movies but many of her most famous roles were period pieces. Here she dresses like neither Melanie Wilkes nor Maid Marian, and she looks comfortable.)

However, it just seems like there isn't enough for her actually to do: one of the recurring gags in the film is de Havilland racing across the office then racing back to her desk, having forgotten to put on her shoes. That's kind of funny but no matter how cutely performed it's just not hilarious.

Ann Shirley is rather lively as de Havilland's friend. Shirley and soldier James Dunn are just married, but they can't seem to find a place to live, or even get a little privacy before Dunn's leave is over. They exchange some corny dialog (Shirley: Oh, wouldn't it be awful if ya got killed before our honeymoon? Dunn: For me it'd be just as bad after!) and are generally cute if silly.

Overall, this is of those well-meaning pictures that's pleasant enough but just a bit dull.

De Havilland found herself obligated to do GOVERNMENT GIRL when David O. Selznick borrowed her from Warner Bros. (he lent them Ingrid Bergman) and then sold her services to RKO for one picture. She didn't like the script and it looks as though she got her revenge by overacting the title role, which would have been okay if the material itself was funny. But this lame wartime comedy about overcrowded Washington never quite gets off the ground.

Sonny Tufts does what he can with a thankless role as a bungling, naive politician who has to learn the ropes from his pretty secretary. Agnes Moorehead gets in a couple of good quips as a snobbish Washington matron and Jess Barker is likable enough in a secondary romantic lead.

James Dunne and Ann Shirley tend to overplay their roles as a couple of lovestruck newlyweds eager to find lodgings. Despite its obvious flaws, the film was a moderate success for RKO at the box-office and wartime audiences seemed to go for it. De Havilland fans aren't likely to rate this among her best comedies.

In the Citadel Film Series book on The Films of Olivia DeHavilland, her winding up in Government Girl was a great illustration of how the contract players were treated at the studios. Just like baseball players in those days before the reserved clause was abolished.

As we all know Olivia had worked with David O. Selznick before and she was excited when Jack Warner who just could not see her as anything but arm candy for Errol Flynn and other of his heroic leading men optioned her off to Selznick again. Maybe she would get a part as good as Melanie Hamilton.

But Selznick called off whatever film he was going to do with her and took his option and sent DeHavilland packing to RKO where she was put in this minor league comedy Government Girl. She did the film, hating every minute of it and resolved once and for all to challenge the studio system and its control of its players. Just like Curt Flood later challenging the reserved clause in baseball.

Although she overacts outrageously in a part that someone like Jean Arthur might have been better in, DeHavilland does well in this comedy about wartime Washington, DC. My aunt was such a Government Girl during those World War II and she met her husband who was a 4-F in those years because of a history of tuberculosis. I'd like to think they had such hijinks during those years.

America was truly mobilized then and people like Sonny Tufts who were business executives were called in and gladly served on the home-front, organizing the nation's industrial and agricultural might. He appropriates her hotel room using his big-shot status on a night when Olivia was helping friend and Anne Shirley try to get in some quality honeymooning with her bridegroom James Dunn. And then of course Olivia who knows the Washington power scene inside and out finds out she's going to be Tufts's secretary. But I don't think I need tell you more.

Oddly enough DeHavilland is romanced by Tufts, Jess Barker who later married Susan Hayward and Paul Stewart. Barker is a slimy young man on the make working for a Senate Investigating Committee having to do with keeping the graft at a minimum in the war effort. Senator Harry Davenport employs him for reasons not altogether clear. In real life I doubt Senator Harry Truman employed anyone like Barker.

Through his own naiveté Tufts winds up in a jackpot before the Davenport Committee. And it takes a Government Girl like Olivia DeHavilland to bail him out.

For her legion of fans this was not Olivia's finest hour and a half on screen.

I only saw this movie once on AMC (before they started showing recent "classics". I loved it. Sure, it is a war propaganda film, loaded with patriotism. Sure it is written to the largely female audiences of the time. Sure, it is a pale imitation of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "His Girl Friday". It is still a fun, witty, movie.

It is also possibly the best use of Washington, DC as a location. They get the geography right. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (one of my favorites) has people going in every direction. "Government Girl" keeps everything in its place. Also, it provides an historic look at wartime DC.

Tell me where I can find this movie, as I would love to see it again.

This film describes the dollar-a-year workers who virtually volunteered their time and expertise to the war effort during World War Two. Ed Browne (played by Sonny Tufts) comes in conflict with the established manners and customs in Washington, D.C. Browne's method of operation is founded in the private sector of industry which clashes with the public functions of the government. Historically, many manufacturers had little choice but to take part in the the conversion to war production. Meager profits early in the war of cost plus four percent was little incentive for enthusiasm from all of industry. Even when the profit scheme went to cost plus eight percent, most industries could do much better in peacetime consumer goods. Many yielded to the threat of government sanctions and complied. This movie, however, points to the positive aspects of individuals working for the war effort, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. The most realistic character is "Smokey" (played by Olivia de Havilland. She is dynamic and forceful, but burning government records to support her boss (with whom she is in love) seems somewhat exaggerated. All in all, it is a fairly amusing film, with the bottom line echoed in a United States Senate hearing: "Thank you, government girl."