The Petty Girl

I thought this was a pretty good culture clash movie. From 1950, a time when American women were starting to be able to show some leg and midriff, this movie shows quite well what older folks thought of these new hussy's, and how young people started not caring what the old folks thought. I'm sure this movie will mean little to those under 40, who have known nothing except bikinis on the beach, but for those old enough to remember such things, it was an interesting time and is well represented here.

But I suppose the culture clash aspect might translate to modern day youth. VERY few girls or women had tattoos or pierced belly buttons in the 1960's or 70's, and I'm sure today's young ladies couldn't care less about what grandma thinks about their "tramp stamps" and nose rings.

To say this movie is "quaint" is an understatement (a man and woman kissing in a parked car was considered disorderly conduct), but don't be surprised if people say the same thing about Pulp Fiction 50 years from now. And if I'm still alive when I'm 100, I'll be checking on those newest Pulp Fiction comments to find out if I'm right.

I saw "The Petty Girl" the other day, and it was my first time viewing the film. While Bob Cummings came through big as the artist in search of a model, I was captivated by the golden-haired beauty and charm of the late actress, Joan Caulfield ("Blue Skies," "Dear Ruth"). She was gorgeous. I liked her in "Blue Skies," with her blonde hair worn in a pompadour, and such an innocent look that I admired greatly. But in "The Petty Girl," she went beyond my expectations. She looked great in the blue bathing suit she wore, and her hair was in a pony-tail tied with a gold and, later, a blue scarf. It was the best that I have seen her in the few movies I've seen her do. I wish she would be better remembered by today's movie enthusiasts (critics). She was so radiant in her prime. But that's Hollywood. They want the public to remember the ones with the greatest fame as opposed to those whose careers were short or were transferred to television, like Joan's was. She will always be the beautiful, innocent blonde from the '40's. Some videos of her are in order. RIP, dear one.

I saw this film in 1950 when I was 15 years old. It was so long ago that I cannot comment on its artistic merits or defects. What I can say is that,whether it was because I was 15 or more likely that it brought an air of light and colour to a London which was drab and grey and still littered with bomb sites, it left an unforgettable impression on me that has lasted for over 50 years. What I do remember is that Robert Cummings played his part with a very pleasant lightness of touch and that Joan Caulfield exemplified perfectly the type of pretty girl that George Petty would have enjoyed painting. Perhaps it was guileless by modern standards but it also represented an era of relative innocence. I only wish that I could obtain a copy to see if my impression was justified.

Any red blooded normal American male will love this movie. The movie is a celebration of God's greatest physical creation, the female form. I guess there's some kind of plot to this movie that I didn't pay too much attention to. All of the main actresses are dropdead gorgeous. It's celebrates the pinup art popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It showcases how beautiful women were often used in advertising to generate interest. A practice that under our more strict rules that we have today is no longer permitted. I would describe the movie as a "light" musical. There's only about three or four songs in the entire movie but they fit in well with the plot. I'm glad I was able to find this terrific film on DVD to add to my 3000 DVD/Blu-ray collection.

The most fascinating aspect of THE PETTY GIRL (1950) for me is the use under the credits and in some early scenes of actual pin-up girl paintings by George Petty. These are pretty provocative renderings of voluptuous females showing plenty of skin while adorned in sexy outfits. The long bare legs are a dominant feature. The Petty Girl illustrations were a lot like the Vargas Girl pin-ups that were popular around the same time (and also featured in Esquire Magazine), although the Vargas girls were much sexier and flirted more blatantly with nudity. Still, the Petty Girl drawings seen in the film struck me as something that might have pushed the boundaries of the Production Code then dictating Hollywood's depiction of sexiness. I wonder if there was any battle between the censors and the studio (Columbia) over this.

The film's protagonist, George Petty (played by Robert Cummings), is supposedly based on the actual artist. At the time of this production, Petty had been drawing these girls for Esquire Magazine since 1933 and would continue to do so for another six years. The film, however, has contrived a situation where he's supported by a rich patroness who has convinced him to give up pin-up girls and stick to "highbrow" art—landscapes and portraits. We are supplied with the unlikely notion that the highbrow art is "commercial" and makes him rich, while the pin-up girls are just for fun. (Apparently, the reverse was true for the real Petty.) When Petty meets Victoria Braymore (Joan Caulfield), a female professor from a stuffy, conservative New England college who is visiting New York, she's not offended by his pin-up art at all and insists that it constitutes his "real" art and he should stick to that. She eventually models for him in a blue bathing suit and, in a truly bizarre twist, stars in a burlesque show based on his pin-ups. None of this makes any sense and the film takes a fatal turn away from the art milieu for its entire middle section when the action shifts to Braymore College and Petty follows Victoria there (she's the descendant of the college's founder) and attempts to woo her and paint her. He even takes a job as busboy in the faculty kitchen in order to be close to her. There's a long, pointless slog of a "slapstick" sequence on a sailboat that neither of them is able to successfully pilot. We're away from the New York art-and-music scene for such a long time that the film loses its bearings.

The Technicolor photography and set design are very beautiful. The songs by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer are easily forgotten. The supporting cast includes the unlikely pair of Melville Cooper and Elsa Lanchester, although both are actually pretty funny. Joan Caulfield plays Victoria and she isn't bad. She's lively, charming, and nice-looking, but she just doesn't have the pulchritude of a proper Petty Girl. Someone sexier was needed. If they'd simply altered the character enough (i.e. dropped the superfluous college connection), Marilyn Monroe would have been perfect. (Check her out in ALL ABOUT EVE that same year.) Same problem with the many young women recruited to play Petty Girls in the burlesque show (one of them being a 20-year-old Tippi Hedren). None of them look remotely like Petty pin-ups. I just wish they'd devised a more suitable comic plot around a successful pin-up artist, completely unashamed about what he does, and the complications that ensue in his love life. Interestingly, Cummings later starred in a sitcom, "The Bob Cummings Show," with just that kind of premise, only he played a cheesecake photographer, rather than an illustrator. (In the film, Petty does indeed use the word, "cheesecake" to describe his pin-up art.)