The Shocking Miss Pilgrim

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim was born when Ira Gershwin might have been doing some spring cleaning and came on some old unpublished music of his late brother George. From that both a score came and a movie for that score, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim who shocked Boston by becoming a professional woman, a Type Writer.

Betty Grable is in the title role and she's graduated from a secretarial school in New York and she gets assigned to Boston to a shipping firm headed by Dick Haymes. Haymes is a proper Bostonian of the time and believes the woman's place is in the home. Eventually he'd like to see Grable in his home, but not in the office. When he tries to reject her, his sister suffragette Anne Revere interferes and Betty starts a career there on this newfangled machine called a typewriter.

As the first one in Boston, a city loath to break any traditions she's a hero to the women's suffrage movement, not something Dick is ready to deal with. Of course it all works out in the end and in a most peculiar manner too.

Of these trunk songs that Ira Gershwin developed for the film, For You For Me Forevermore and Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did became posthumous hits for brother George. Both are duets in the film sung by Grable and Haymes. Dick recorded them for Decca with his usual singing partner Helen Forrest, but Betty as per Darryl Zanuck's ban on his stars recording never put these down on wax. A pity too, they're both presented quite nicely.

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim got very good reviews but did not do well at the box office. Grable's fortune was her legs and we got barely a glimpse of them in this film.

Fortunately we can still enjoy a musical literally born in a trunk.

"The Schocking Miss Pilgrim" a curiosity piece rarely seen these days. The film focus on the early women's right movement in the late 19th Century. Some of the ideas from that time still resonate these days, although there is no comparison. Director George Seaton delivers an entertainment movie that is enhanced by some unheard music by George and Ira Gershwin that is a delight to the ear.

Betty Grable, a charismatic actress, portrays Cynthia Pilgrim, who has just finished a sort of secretarial school in which the use of the typewriter by a female was a breakthrough. Ms. Pilgrim is assigned to Boston where she is the first woman employed by a solid old firm that only employs male personnel. Soon Cynthia changes the perception of the office about women in the work place, winning the heart of her boss John Pritchard.

The musical numbers are delightful without being flashy. Ms. Grable and Dick Haymes make some nice music together. Mr. Haymes with his melodic voice is one of the best things in the film. Also, Anne Revere and Gene Lockhart do excellent work in minor roles.

This film should be seen more often because of the charismatic Ms. Grable and her costar Dick Haymes.

Because of the prominence of the abolition movement in the 1830s -1860s, other American social movements of the day are not thought of very much. If you are interested, read Tyler's book FREEDOM'S FERMENT, which discusses the international peace movement, woman's rights, and other movements of equal interest in that period - only these did not lead to Civil War. The woman's suffrage movement had begun in 1848 in upstate New York, but it really does not get the momentum that made it memorable until the 1870s. Then Susan B. Anthony goes on trial (also in New York State) for daring to try to vote in a national election. Also Victoria Woodhull throws her hat into the ring (unofficially) for the Presidency in 1872. Later Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organize the woman's movement, so that after they both die in the early 1900s it grows until it achieves suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment in 1919.

THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM is not the only film to tackle early woman's suffrage. There is a bit about the movement in the character of Miss Massingale in THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, who keeps confronting (and romancing) Burt Lancaster's army Colonel. But THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM is actually the only film from that looks at the movement at a critical moment in it's history. A little background is needed here.

In the early days of the women's suffrage movement, there was considerable debate regarding allying the movement with other social movements of the day. However, Anthony and Stanton were convinced by Frederick Douglass to work for abolition, because if slavery was abolished (Douglas argued) woman's servitude would have to follow soon after. But in the post-Civil War years, the relationship between Douglass and the suffrage leadership soured. Douglass, once the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments got passed, was more concerned about African American (read African-American males) consolidating and expanding their gains. He started to curb joint efforts with Stanton and Anthony on woman's rights, claiming that it just was not the time (although his previous argument had been to strike when the fire was hot!). Anthony and Stanton eventually over-reacted. They never forgave the betrayal by Douglass, and soon they managed to make the woman's suffrage movement lily white (and rather racist towards the former male slaves who now - theoretically - could vote). A small African-American woman's suffrage movement pushed forward too, but it was fighting antagonism by male African-Americans, and racism by white women who should have been their sisters in arms.

The lesson though was now burned into the heads of the woman's movement - don't ally yourself with other causes. And, interestingly enough, this is the center for part of the plot of THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM. Betty Grable tries to keep her friends from allying themselves with another social movement which grew with woman's suffrage - Prohibition. She is unable to do so. In the decades from 1870 - 1920 many woman suffrage figures, like Carrie Nation, were also outspoken supporters of prohibition. These women (like Nation) had homes that had been wrecked by alcoholic husbands, so their stand and unity with Prohibitionists made sense. But the bulk of the woman's movement avoided this, because they did not want their political agenda tainted by a rival one. The same situation happened in the English suffrage movement too, when Mrs. Pankhurst's daughters split on allying with the British Labor Party, and the anti-war movement. Sylvia Pankhurst remained united with Labor leader and pacifist Keir Hardie, but her sister Cristobel was clever enough to offer to support the war effort in return for Asquith and Lloyd George's support for woman's voting rights.

THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM has several things working for it. The two leads had a good story. Dick Haymes was actually better in this film as the hero who learns to respect working women, than he was as the son in STATE FAIR. Grable actually had a role in a musical that did not begin and end with her gorgeous legs, and moderately pleasing singing voice - it is her meatiest musical role. The Gershwin score is minor Gershwin, but still enjoyable. Like minor Marx Brothers or minor Van Gogh etchings, they are still better than most people's best. The supporting character actors cast, led by Gene Lockhart, Allan Joslyn, and Elizabeth Patterson manage to give a gentleness to the story, befitting the setting in Boston in the "Gilded Age". It is a nice musical - not great, but enjoyable.

This film is a post-war notice to women (who had been 'minding the store' while all the guys were over- seas)--that they just might have some choices. Not a strong statement to be sure--but surprising in its way. Not surprising is that Hollywood chose Betty Grable to represent the modern woman in this period picture. Betty was (in 1947) the highest salaried woman in the United States--and a box office champion (at a time when women really pretty much dictated what movies we were going out to see). So it is not Betty Grable the famous pin-up you are seeing (though she is also present, but under more wraps than usual)--it is Betty Grable the successful woman--who was a role model for women at that time in a way. They cared that she was glamorous, married, had children and a career--and was a hell of an entertainer. This film is charming and presents a slightly softened Betty--but a resourceful and independent Betty. As is so often the case, the resolution of the film is not a true triumph--but we are talking about the 1940's--so they took the ball as far as they felt they could. I like this film. I hope that you will, too. Betty and a great bunch of character actors will give you a really pleasant ninety minutes or so.

It's funny that this film was a disappointment for Betty Grable and the studio, as I actually think it's better than most of her films. While I am not saying it's a great film, it is enjoyable and fits Grable very nicely. According to IMDb they attributed this to Grable not showing off her famous legs or because she wasn't peroxide blonde in the film. And, if you think about it, the film is supposed to be about equality and anti-sexism--and that's exactly how the studio execs behaved in blaming the film's lack of success on Grable's lessened sex appeal in this cute picture!

When the film begin, it's the 1870s and women simply did not work outside the home. So, when Miss Pilgrim (Grable) completes secretarial school and goes looking for a job in Boston, it's quite shocking and she naturally runs into sexism. So, she makes it a crusade of sorts to gain acceptance....and by doing so she becomes an important spokesperson for the women's suffrage movement! She also finds many friends in one of the strangest boarding houses you'll ever see in a movie!

The film is naturally filled with songs but not as many as in Grable's other films and a few of them are rather funny. Overall, it's a lighthearted and fun film about an important subject. Well worth seeing.