My main reason for watching this so-called comedy is that doomed would-be starlet, Diana Barrymore, mentions it in her memoir, Too Much, Too Soon as her big break in Hollywood. She had grown up on Fifth Avenue, with a wealthy background but with a horrible, neurotic mother, Blanche Oelrich who fancied herself a great dramatist and wrote plays under the pen name of Michael Strange. Her father was Hollywood legend, John Barrymore, who had already descended into alcoholism by the time Diane met him in Hollywood. Diana did well in her Broadway debut and was instantly deluged with offers of contracts from all the major studios because the "Barrymore" name was still legendary around the world. Her aunt, Ethel, and her uncle, Lionel, had achieved triumphs on stage and movies.
Diana chose Universal Studio over all over because, as she told her father, "they offered me the most money." But Universal was notorious for never nurturing the careers of its female stars with the exception of Deanna Durbin and Maria Montez.
Her Hollywood career began with frenzied hype, "The most sensational screen debut of the century!" And she hadn't even made a movie yet. Which brings us to "Between Us Girls." This was to be Diana's big launching pad of her talent, a chance to show the world of her extraordinary acting abilities because, you know, she was a Barrymore!
Alas, although given a posh production, Diana is much too frenzied and over-plays her role as a young actress taking a break from Broadway. The most bizarre part of the movie is when she decides to dress up as a twelve year old girl to fool her mother's suitor. We're supposed to believe that Bob Cummings is totally fooled by her cringy performance as a babbling brat. She's as tall as Cummings and acts like a woman trying to act like a teenager. There's also something creepy about how this mature man seems to get the hots for this strange "little girl." None of the characters, except for Kay Francis, are very pleasant. Ethel Griffies (Mrs. Bundy in "The Birds") is so grim and mean it's impossible to feel any amusement at her stark, grim personality. Andy DeVine screams his dialogue because he's supposed to be the agent for Diana.
The worst sequence is towards the end, where Cummings FINALLY realizes what a fool he is as Diana pleads with him to forgive her for making him act like a fool. All this takes place in an interminable car ride that goes on and on with Diana becoming increasingly hysterical: D"Please, please forgive me, sir! I--I, please, please forgive me, will you, will you, huh?"
Diana doesn't look like a talented movie performer. Her face was too pudgy and any starlet could have played her role, although she writes that this part was fought over by Ginger Rogers, Deanna Durbin and other major movie actresses.
She was in Hollywood for only two years before suddenly leaving it after Universal offered her roles that she felt were demeaning to the Barrymore name. One of them was a Sherlock Holmes movie which she felt insulted her because the Holmes movie were always the second feature of a double bill--yet, they were very popular and could have given her some popular exposure with fans.
In her memoir, she describes an already thirst for too much drink while in Hollywood and after she left it, she went through nearly a million dollars in trust funds, movie money and other resources before sinking into poverty. Her choice of male partners were certainly masochistic, with one of them breaking her jaw, knocking out her teeth--but she still went back to him.
Diana committed suicide at the age of 37 shortly after the publication of "Too Much Too Soon" and a big mystery that remains is why she didn't stick it out in Hollywood and become a respectable character actress in quality films. Acting was not really in her genes although she pretended it was as she lamented not being offered movie roles that were worthy of the Barrymore name. Her only claim to fame was that she was--a Barrymore!.
