Hotel for Women

Linda Darnell (Marcia) checks into the Hotel for Women in New York so she can rekindle her romance with James Ellison (Jeff). However, Ellison is more pre-occupied with forging ahead with his architecture career and attending social parties and dating other women who may be beneficial to his client database. Darnell is disappointed and makes plans to leave and head back to Syracuse when an opportunistic date turns up courtesy of fellow Hotel guest Ann Sothern (Eileen). This begins a sequence of events that sees Darnell become an immediate modelling sensation. However, fame can be a fleeting moment.

The picture quality isn't great but it doesn't ruin the film, which is a take on the "Stage Door" (1937) formula and other soap opera stories set in a female residency. This one goes for the high-end glamour spectrum as opposed to the boarding-house scenarios. The cast are good - Sothern being the funniest and liveliest character. Johnny Halliday is suitably cast as the suave womanizer who is Ellison's boss and Elsa Maxwell (Mrs Tilford) is good value as the lesbian matriarch. She has some great lines and sound philosophy about life. My wife and I laughed in agreement when she talked about acquiring stuff in early life and then getting rid of it all in later life. Very true.

It's an easy-going film with a soap-opera drama involving the romance between Darnell and Ellison and a dramatic 3's-a-crowd situation between Darnell, Ellison and Lynn Bari (Barbara). Bang! I didn't see that coming.