Rosie, the Riveter

"Rosie the Riveter" is a cute B-movie that is set during WWII. It stars Jane Frazee as the title character, a young lady who goes to work at a defense plant but has a serious problem finding a place to sleep. This actually was a serious problem during the war, as many small towns boomed--filling with thousands of workers and not enough housing for them all. It's the subject of several comedies of the day, such as "The More the Merrier" as well as this film. Well, Rosie and her friend come up with an interesting solution--share the room with a couple guys. The guys will get it one shift, they will get it the next. However, Rosie's very prim and proper boyfriend would not approve so she spends much of the film hiding it from the guy. Additionally, there is a LOT of tension between the various roommates. How it's all resolved is cute and enjoyable. Just understand...this is not nor was it intended to be anything more than a low-budget comedy with modest pretensions. It does the trick but is not exactly what I'd call a must-see film. Cute and enjoyable.

The image of Rosie the Riveter is one of the indelible Norman Rockwell covers. The issue of the Saturday Evening Post dated May 29,1943 had her, in overalls and bandana, sleeve rolled up, flexing her arm: "We can Do it!" talking about women in the workplace, talking about women in defense plants, taking the place of men who were now in the armed forces and making a dent in the wartime labor shortage. In 1943, women made up 65% of the aircraft industry work force, compared to less than 1% before the war.

Rockwell didn't invent Rosie. She was the invention of a Pittsburgh artist named J. Howard Miller. Complete with slogan, he used her on a recruiting poster for Westinghouse.

All of which has little to do with this movie. Oh, Jane Frazee and Vera Vague work in an aircraft plant, but that makes up two shots and a total of about two minutes. The movie is about wartime housing shortages, like the better remembered THE MORE THE MERRIER. Rosie and Vera show up at Maude Eburne's house, where they have each paid for a room. So do Frank Albertson and Frank Jenks. This Solomonic baby is cut in twain by the girls having the room in the evening, while the men, who are on the swing shift, have it during the day.

This wartime Cox & Box routine is eked out by the usual sputtering romantic comedy between Rosie, who has a wet blanket of a fiance, and Albertson, a couple of musical numbers, and the sort of comedy that goes on in a household, including a teen-ager who feels if she doesn't have three dates every evening, her life will be ruined, a married daughter who moves back in every three weeks, complete with piano, and a nicely rendered variation of the Stateroom scene from A NIGHT AT THE OPERA.

With high urban housing costs, this may have some connection to a young modern audience, but while it is a nicely performed comedy under the direction of the under-rated Joseph Santley, it is a thing of its time. Fans of old movies will enjoy it, but the lack of any remembered star will limit its nostalgic value to those who appreciate great character comedians of the period, like Lloyd Corrigan, 'Alfalfa' Switzer, and Tom Kennedy as a piano mover who has been in and out of that house with that piano so often, he's learned to play the instrument.

This is a breezy musical about the housing shortage in wartime America, circa 1944. As usual Jane Frazee is a delight to watch and listen to and here she is paired with the female Jerry Colonna, Vera Vague as the work/roommate. Rosie and her pal squabble with two guys over the only remaining boardinghouse room in town and Rosie, after "working overtime on a B-19" down at the plane factory, eventually warms up to Frank Albertson (not your typical young juvenile lead, this was wartime after all) and everything works out for the big finale sung at the work site. Three or four nice tunes and some light comedy (a couple of very funny moments - all the teenagers seem to be a lot more mature about their romantic relationships than the adults and they stay up all night doing the conga!)make this an easy hour to pass.

"Rosie the Riveter" is a cute B-movie that is set during WWII. It stars Jane Frazee as the title character, a young lady who goes to work at a defense plant but has a serious problem finding a place to sleep. This actually was a serious problem during the war, as many small towns boomed--filling with thousands of workers and not enough housing for them all. It's the subject of several comedies of the day, such as "The More the Merrier" as well as this film. Well, Rosie and her friend come up with an interesting solution--share the room with a couple guys. The guys will get it one shift, they will get it the next. However, Rosie's very prim and proper boyfriend would not approve so she spends much of the film hiding it from the guy. Additionally, there is a LOT of tension between the various roommates. How it's all resolved is cute and enjoyable. Just understand...this is not nor was it intended to be anything more than a low-budget comedy with modest pretensions. It does the trick but is not exactly what I'd call a must-see film. Cute and enjoyable.