Gals, Incorporated (1943) Poster

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6/10
Meet the Gold Diggers of 1943.
mark.waltz18 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"I'm not rude. I'm rich!" exclaims Leon Errol, and indeed, he is. Rich, at least. He's the toast of the nightclub circuit, the desire of every money hungry chorus girl in the lavish nightclub he frequents. It doesn't matter that he's past middle aged, bald and rather abrasive, not with that wealthy sister of his providing for his estate and wild night life. But when the money grubbing sister decides to cut him off unless he can find a wife to change his spendthrift ways, the girls all for a space in Errol's pocket book...er, heart.

There's plenty of music mixed in with the comical plot that also involves Errol's hunky son (David Bacon) who drops the jaw of the chosen bride (Grace McDonald) and the four other opportunistic chorus girls who play maids in order to fool the imperious sister (Minna Phillips) who acts more like his mother more than his sister. The music is jazzy, the cast is snazzy, and the comedy quick and cutting, both for the verbal wisecracks and visual farce. Much of the supporting cast is unknown, even to a classic cinefile like me, so this ends up being a nice surprise filled with some nice finds. Harriet Nelson gets plenty of opportunity to throw in some songs and bitchy dialog as the biggest gold digger of them all.
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5/10
Sprightly, harmless programmer
16mmRay27 March 2009
Produced by Will Cowan, who produced most of Universal's musical two-reelers, this is basically one of Cowan's band parades with a perfunctory story sprinkled in between numbers. It's typical Leon Errol bedroom farce - he has to pretend to be married or his sister will cut off his inheritance. So he feigns marriage to a showgirl from a club he supports singlehandedly. But the showgirl falls in love with Errol's grown son. Grace McDonald is the showgirl and Harriet Hilliard gets to play a villainess (sort of) as well as sing a couple of songs. But the BIG surprise in GALS INCORPORATED is Betty Kean. Betty, whose sister was Jane Kean, was married to Lew Parker. This is one of her few films and it's a pity she didn't do more. Not only does she have great deadpan dogface delivery but she dances up a storm too. Betty and Jane must have had some swell night club act. Anyway, it's doubtful this little programmer will ever find its way onto DVD or even TCM, but if you should happen across it (I recently bought a 16mm print) be sure and watch. It's worth an hour of your time.
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10/10
Love The Music, The Girls, The Director and of course Leon!
vilenciaproductions23 September 2020
Love The Music, The Girls, The Director and of course Leon! I found and bought a 16mm print of this film a few ago from a lady on-line who found it in a projection booth of an old movie theater that had closed down. I guess it belonged to the projectionist because most movie houses only ran 35mm films. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this kind of motion picture, but I just love this movie! Other than Leon, Harriet Nelson went on to bigger things with television. Also it is interesting that most of the Gals film careers seems to have ended by the late 1940's! Grace McDonald was a beautiful woman! Betty Kean was one heck of a dancer! Lillian Cornell another hot 1940's chick! Having grown up in the 1960's and collecting Big Band 78rpm records, of course I loved seeing Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers! Love old Leon's wise cracks to his sister played by Minna Phillips! I must have projected the print a dozen times in the last five years, and here is it, September 2020 and I'm going to project the print yet again on the big screen tonight! Oh yea, did I mention Glen Gray and His Orchestra and the opening scene with a couple dancing a fast jitterbug! Who cares if it's considered a "B" movie! I would rather watch this flick from the 1940's over anything made during the last 40 years on TV or at the movies! I guess at almost 60 years old, I'm joining the ranks of "an old fuddy-duddy" So I better get the reels out of the shipping case and set up the "rapid start and stop machine" for an enjoyable evening with illusion of photographs and sounds to trick my brain into thinking I'm somehow back in the 1940's ready to swing! Universal Studios is so stupid, the negative probably burned up in the recent fire which destroyed thousands of priceless audio records! Email me and I will send you a DVD copy I made off this print! Anyway, it's time to swing! Now where did I put that Covid-19 mask????
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