How to Be Very, Very Popular

Betty grable, and what appears to be a marilyn monroe knockoff, sheree north. Two beautiful women, at a college graduation, hiding out from a mob boss. It's all pretty silly. The awesome charles coburn is doctor tweed, and fred clark is in here as marshall. Alice pearce (from bewitched!) is in here as miss sylvester. Bob cummings is the college student who doesn't seem to really belong there. The girls kind of hide out with the college students, some silly sub-plots. The story lines are way over the top, but it's good to see grable and clark in their roles. Sadly, alice pearce will die so young at 48 from cancer. Apparently, the real m. Monroe refused to take part in this film, and this was also the last film role for grable; she, monroe, and fred clark had just made how to marry a millionaire. It's fun, but goofy. So goofy, they hardly ever show this one. One of the films where north allegedly filled in for a marilyn monroe.

This film is sadly embarrassing for many reasons, perhaps the most glaring, initially, is its complete disrespect and misuse of Betty Grable whose scenes really are few and far between. Both Grable and the terrific Sheree North are wearing raincoats for most of the film, the latter only coming to life (she is hypnotized for most of the 'epic') during one sex-sational dance number. Grable's legs are seen once or twice, but there is no song, no number for her to do...YET, amidst the rubble, Grable's growing craft as a comedienne are visible momentarily. The culprits in this disaster are the inept writers and, of all people, director Nunnally Johnson (didn't he know any better?). The dialog is a blithering mess... and the plot meanders across a landmine of sloppy character developments and plot machinations. Robert Cummings and Tommy Noonan are pretty awful in dreadfully written parts. Orson Bean and Alice Pearce occasionally show a bit of humor. Sheree North, a fine dancer and, later in her career, one of the most under-appreciated and excellent actresses ('No Down Payment' as an example) can merely show her adorable self. The plot plods along with no sense, and has an ending that is disgracefully sloppy for a professional unit. (Whatever plot came from Howard Lindsay's play is missing). Had Johnson tried an out-and-out farce, it might have been a little funny, because the cast understands comedy. But this entire 'romp' thumps down to a disastrous level. Pity the talented two blonde stars. One merit - you can see, briefly, the lovely Charlotte Austin who went on to a very slight film career.

Anemic non-musical remake of 1934's "She Loves Me Not" stars Betty Grable and Sheree North as "hoochie koochie" dancers in San Francisco who take it on the lam after witnessing a shooting at their dive in Chinatown; seeking refuge in a college fraternity house, North is inadvertently hypnotized by an amateur psychology major. Written by producer-director Nunnally Johnson, who based his screenplay on Benjamin Glazer's '34 version, which was itself an adaptation of both Ed Hope's book and Howard Lindsay's play, later reworked in 1942 as "True to the Army" (!). With such a lopsided pedigree, it isn't any wonder why the finished results are so tepid. Terrible acting, ugly décor, poor cinematography (from the usually-reliable Milton Krasner), and lunkhead attempts at 'modern' humor cause this Twentieth Century Fox dud to look like hand-me-down goods. It also served as Grable's final bow--some actors just know when it's time to get out (and one can hardly keep from laughing when chorine Betty is described as a dancer in her twenties!). Unrelievedly noisy and dull. * from ****

With all the violence and utter filth passing as "art" coming out these days (and I don't mean the sexual sort, I mean actual filth- like graphic displays of meanness in all it's forms), how can anyone say THIS is a bad movie?! No, it's not. It's not bad AT ALL.

I like this. Haven't finished yet, but I'm confident I'll still feel the same by the end, cause the fact is, a movie of this era and type just wasn't capable of being bad- ever. And anyone who thinks it is just has no idea what an actual "bad movie" is!

But yes, this harmless bit of cute fun is what passed for "bad" back in the day, and that we today still label it as such when we should know better by now is a real shame.

GOOD movie.

The film starts off as if I was seeing "Some Like it Hot" years before. Two strip-tease dancers witness the shooting death of a Chinese stripper on stage and are pursued by police and the killer alike. Sounds funny and promising but the film soon falls into a trap of utter stupidity.

Bette Grable (too old for the part) and Sheree North are the two fleeing strippers who wind up in a college dormitory and cause mayhem there. North is accidentally hypnotized by Tommy Noonan and spends much of the picture in a hypnotic state. How fortunate for her.

There are two really good performances here by Charles Coburn, as the college dean, more interested in the college getting money than actually providing education and Alice Pearce, as a wacky housemother in the school.

Fred Clark, as the millionaire father, who doesn't know that his son, Orson Bean, has been expelled is given the part of the guy getting hit over the head as he is confused with the killer. Rhys Williams gets the same treatment as North's father.

Bette Grable plays Stormy Tornado. Stormy? This storm blew out to sea. Big-time.