A Girl Must Live

It's the same kind of stuff, the same flimsy girls, the same silly entertainment shows with the same ridiculous dances, the same stupid men falling for stupid girls, the same bully for a show leader, the same flippant music, just like Hollywood throughout the thirties, but so much wittier, so much more in style, so much more brilliant - the script is a marvel here, and you don't want to miss any morsel of the constantly sharp-shooting dialog for anything, and compared to this, Hollywood appears as all amateurs. The intrigues of the ladies are as clever as in many equally entertaining Hollywood films concentrated into one, and above all, you have a very efficient director here leading all the dances and fights in the still very young Carol Reed, who appears to have a better hand with women than any of the poor gentlemen in the show. It's also one of Margaret Lockwood's early films, in which she is maturing as a great character actress, while she is seconded by Lilli Palmer, who also is still budding here. This is all hilariously exciting and entertaining, and the risk is you will laugh your sides off, especially in the wild goose chase for the mouse, which includes a number of other animal chases, like even chickens. A girl must live indeed, and they all live here and thoroughly well and make the best of it, all vying to make even better of it, all chasing men who are easily deceived, while one of them actually appreciates the deception so much that he falls for the honesty of it.

Anyone who has seen Gregory LaCava's 'Stage Door' will be familiar with the 'aspiring-actresses/chorus-girls-living-in-a-boarding-house-and- competing-for-the-attentions-of-rich-men' theme that is also presented here. I came to this because it was a Margaret Lockwood film I hadn't seen, but it was full of welcome surprises: Carol Reed directed at a fast lick that has been compared to Preston Sturges,the musical numbers wouldn't have been out of place in 'The Boyfriend', Lilli Palmer is a comic-erotic revelation, the laughs come thick and fast with perfect timing,racy dialogue that somehow evaded the censor, and plotting that has a neo-Wodehousian symmetry. Of course, you have to like this kind of thing in the first place, but this is one of those unsung British films of the 30s that need to be restored to their full glory and given a commentary to boot. "What's for lunch?" "Well, it was 'ot pot. Now it's just pot."

It is a shame that the sound quality is poor on this film. It means that many sequences, especially at the beginning which sets the scene, are unintelligible and so you don't know what is going on. Lines are delivered incomprehensibly - I defy anyone to understand what the landlady is talking about. We also get a sub-plot with Naunton Wayne (Hugo) but God knows what it's about. You watch the film and work it out but goodness knows what all those relations, plots and interactions are all about. We get terrible accents that keep changing and the 2 catty girls - Renee Houston (Gloria) and Lili Palmer (Clytie) are just interchangeable due to their looks and this can confuse the plots. Who is doing what? Again, this improves during the course of the film. You won't really understand the story based on what is being said but you can pick it up by just watching even if certain segments just seem baffling.

I thought everyone was speaking in an English accent in this film but that the accents were inconsistent and constantly changing until my wife said at the end of the film that one girl was Scottish and the other German. She was actually correct. So, don't expect that people are just speaking in posh English when you can make things out. There are accents going on as well.

I can see that the film is quite funny and I would have definitely scored it a higher mark if it was more clearly audible. It's a gold-digging story with sequences nicked from Hollywood's more famous efforts such as the Gold-Diggers series, Stage Door and 42nd Street. Note Palmer's complete copy of the Ginger Rogers character in 42nd Street by attending an audition with a dog, and the whole Ginger Rogers catty like interactions in Stage Door. But, so what. The interaction between the 2 rival girls is amusing.

One thing I have just read on another review is about the name of the character of Palmer - Clytie Devine. Is this a completely obvious reference to a divine clitoris and I just didn't notice!

The film stars Margaret Lockwood (Leslie) as a schoolgirl who runs away to be a star. There is no way she is a schoolgirl just as there is no way her other schoolmates in the dormitory are schoolgirls. They are all grown women. Anyway, it's a comedy so there is a romantic angle that needs to get resolved and of course, it does.

I beg to differ with the other review on this film,it is something special.For a start directed by Carol Reed at the start of his career.Just look at the cast Lockwood,Palmer Houston supported by Harrison,Marriott and making one of his rare film appearances George Robey.Once the film gets past the opening sequence in the finishing school it really hits its stride.There are so many funny lines that you missed them on the first viewing .aAn example"the rice pudding wasn't very popular""we will have it for curry tomorrow",The constant badinage between Palmer and Houston is hilarious.Lockwood being the straight woman in all of this.The musical numbers are not meant to be that great but the lyrics are really funny .Even if you are not Btitish give this a try,i don't think you will be disappointed.

The main pleasure of this film is its snappy script (I suspect it would take several viewings to catch all the quickfire barbs that the girls fling at each other). The singing and dancing isn't up to much -- this isn't supposed to be West End stuff, but the cast of a distinctly second-rate outfit, Joe Gold's Golden Girls -- but the cattiness on display is top-notch.

The plot centres around three girls, the Nice One, the Exotic One and the Common One, all out to hook the same man; the outcome is, of course, no surprise. There is also a subplot concerning a kleptomaniac con-man and his various schemes, plus an array of 'types' on display, from the wealthy northern industrialist (or in this case, fur-merchant) to the superannuated Shakespearian actor, the tippling butler, the sound-effects lady from the BBC (she first starred as "the scream in 'East Lynne'"), and the sex-mad chorus line. With hindsight, the plot is pretty slender (we never do learn anything much about who the runaway heroine really is) and the ending a bit flat, but the fun to be had is in trying to follow the dialogue and catch all the assorted insults and innuendoes.

Nothing very special, but worth a look or a recommendation to a friend for an undemanding night's entertainment. There's no depth to speak of below the quick-moving surface, but the quips run fast and furious and the girls are as hardboiled as they come.