Pin Up Girl (1944)

Best movie of this year hands down!

You won't be disappointed!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I am giving this movie a higher rating than a lot of people. I happen to enjoy all the dancing, plus the roller skaters.8/10The worst part, IMO, was the end with the OVERLY LONG women's march led by Betty Grable. This got to be quite monotonous. Betty must have been totally exhausted at the end, giving all those orders and marching around for so long. Were these a bunch of women with uber-patriotic interest in World War II, or real WAACs/WACs? I realize that World War II was waning. Military personnel on leave still, according to this movie, were looking for lots of escapist entertainment while on shore leave. What this movie does not cover, however, was that IRL many of the women entertainers and hangers-on would get pregnant, with perhaps a disease or baby or two as part of the surprises. I realize that this is escapist fantasy, with no real sadness to be had.I was wishing that our recent wars included public fervor and nationwide participation as indicated in some of these WWII musical movies. There were the bond-money-raising, the couponing and rationing, the Rosie-Riveter mentalities, we-can-do-it pulling together of an entire nation. In the recent wars of 1990s and 2000s, where were the tap dancing roller-skating patriotic performers who instilled in the audiences a feeling of winning the battles for the good of the nation? Betty Grable was very sweet in this movie. I enjoyed seeing Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown, the Condos Brothers, Hermes Pan and the Skating Vanities. Viva the red, white and blue!!!I have a recent Bachelor of Arts Degree in American History from The Ohio State University. Believe me, I have studied and researched lots of wars and conflicts. I also specialize in the socio-cultural history of the people back home, including the actors and dancers who performed to make movies of this type in order to inspire the American people.

Other than colorful dance performances and nice singing, the film doesn't offer much.The plot is rather contrived where Bette plays a real dish and ordinary thick-glasses secretary to confuse a navy man.The usually zany Martha Raye is not zany at all thanks to a lackluster script. Raye sings well, but that's about it. Her comedic talents were not given a real thoroughly going over here.Joey E. Brown is much younger looking here, but even he gives a restrained comical performance. Gone is basically rolling with his eyes or being able to be exasperated.The ending of the film is rather abrupt. Flashing the end after a dance routine leaves us with questions.

Betty Grable and Fox capitalizing (but not crassly) on the musical star's real-life pin-up status with WWII-era soldiers by casting her as a Washington, D.C. secretary who moonlights on the weekends as an entertainer with the U.S.O. Via some innocent and girlish, wide-eyed deception, she wins the heart of a Naval war hero who is led to believe she's a Broadway headliner. Grable doesn't sport the one-piece swimsuit she wears in that legendary pin-up, nor she does exploit her famous legs. Rather, she's displayed here as a nice, decent, small town lass who has somehow allowed several dozen soldiers to propose marriage to her (she doesn't take the offers seriously, so why should the men?). In between fabrications and costume changes, Grable sings, dances, and (most improbably) gets to play drill sergeant to a large company of WAC's in precision march. This last number is quite a mad capper for the picture, which maniacally represents a bygone era of nightclubs, canteens, novelty songs, and rollerskating dancers sporting red, white, or blue ostrich-feather fans. Martha Raye sings too (and gets to have a surprisingly catty side) before she and Grable's pal Dorothea Kent are both unceremoniously forgotten about midway through the film. ** from ****

This is arguably the worst movie Betty Grable ever made once she became a star. It is, of course, quite possible that in 1944 it would have filled a gap in a world hungry for escapist entertainment but today almost nothing earns any praise from Grable herself, who does what she can with a lacklustre script and score to the usually reliable Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown and Eugene Palette in support. B. S. Pulley, later to feature prominently in Guys and Dolls as Big Julie is also on hand albeit uncredited as is June Hutton who is featured with the Charlie Spivak orchestra. James V. Monaco and Mack Gordon have done much better work than this although they did turn in a complete score. This one is best forgotten.