User Reviews

It's war time, and rationing is taking place in the U.S. and Europe. And that forms the core around which the plot for this 1942 film is developed. "Girl Trouble" doesn't have the top actors of the day, but it has very good leading actors in Don Ameche and Joan Bennett, and one of the top supporting comedy actresses of all time in Billie Burke.

Ameche was a diverse actor who made many comedies. He plays Pedro Sullivan who's back in his native U.S. trying to get a wartime loan to expand rubber production in Argentina. He's working for the company that his father had founded many years before. While this is a fair film, it's far from his top comedies. In "Midnight" of 1939, Ameche is hilarious opposite Claudette Colbert. And he was excellent in dual roles with Alice Faye in the 1941 comedy musical, "That Night in Rio."

Bennett made several comedy romances, but none were exceptional films or roles. She didn't have top scripts or quality films that others did. She plays June Delaney, a wealthy American whose remaining inheritance is tied up in England and who has to rent her apartment to make ends meet.

Billie Burke is very good as Mrs. Rowland, Alan Dinehart provides some comedy as Charles Barrett, and Helene Reynolds adds to the comedy as June's rival for men, Helen Martin. The film has a cute and very well-trained dog. Mac is a black Scottie that has a role in some scenes.

With much work, this could have been a dynamite screwball comedy. As it is, the script is choppy and weak, with abrupt changes. And, production quality is poor. Some of the dialog is funny, but most of the comedy comes from antics and some funny scenarios. In one scene, June slices a piece of ham and puts it in the toaster. She then has a disaster in the kitchen.

Another crazy scene has Mrs. Rowland taking all of Pedro's clothes from the closet for one of her charity drives. She doesn't know June has rented the apartment, and thinks the clothes belonged to June's late father. When June says she can't carry it all down the elevator, Mrs. Rowland goes to the window and tosses everything out - telling her chauffeur below to put the clothes in her limo. In another scene, June and Pedro get into a row at a New York Giants baseball night at a public dance hall. There are more funny scenes, but the romance with Pedro and June is a real stretch. There's no chemistry between the two.

"Girl Trouble" is noteworthy from an historical perspective. It discusses wartime rationing. It's understandable that Hollywood wouldn't dwell on that in movies then, with so much on the minds of people, including worry about loved ones in uniform. But that some films did include it provides an interesting historical note for audiences about what life was like during that time on the American home front. Besides that, and the plot theme about meeting wartime needs for rubber, one other thing of historical note occurs in this film. The women are part of a group of friends who study and practice first aid as part of the home front wartime preparedness.

This film may be too slow for many in modern audiences, but most who like comedy and are interested in the past may enjoy it. Here are some favorite lines.

Mrs. Rowland: Now, isn't gasoline rationing wonderful? Not a car on the street. Now maybe they'll give me back my driver's license.

Mrs. Rowland: Oh, how I adore these itty-bitty pink sausages. But they're so fattening.

Helen Martin: How could you do such a thing to your oldest friend? June Delaney: Oh, you mustn't be self-conscious about your age. You're not old - just been through a lot. After all, two trips to Reno.

June Delaney: It isn't true? It can't be? Is it?

June Delaney: But that's silly. I've got to have money. I can't ask the servants to work for nothing - this is a democracy.

Charles Barrett: Mind you, I don't want to commit myself to a prediction, but I think I can safely say that, heh, heh, things look bad.

Pedro Sullivan: My playboy days are over. Don't worry about it, senor. I'll get the loan.

Helen Martin: She's wiped out? Every cent? The poor darling. Charles Barrett: I just don't know how to tell her. Helen: It isn't your duty, Charles - it's mine. Charles: Yes, perhaps a woman could do it better. Helen: Of course. That's what women live for - moments like this.

June: Good morning, sir, it's time to get up. Pedro Sullivan: Where - on the West Coast? I asked you to call me promptly at 8, Tuesday.

Helen Martin: June, why don't you marry Charles? June: Oh, trying to get rid of competition, dear?

June Delaney: Don't forget, Cinderella was a dark horse too.

Pedro Sullivan: If that is a sample of Miss Delaney's friends, you've been working for a moron.

Pedro Sullivan: Now, don't tell me they've cut down those beautiful palm trees? June Delaney: Termites.

Pedro Sullivan: The harvest moon. June Delaney: In March? Pedro: Spring here, it's autumn in South America.

Ambrose Murdock Flint: You don't look to me like the sort of woman that would have arms around her. I mean, of the dangerous kind. June Delaney: Is there any other kind?

Helen Martin: Use your head. If June's in the kitchen, she's out of circulation. Charles: That's right. He wouldn't make advances in the kitchen.

Mrs. Rowland: Oh, you poor man. You've lost your arm.

Pedro Sullivan: And where are those beautiful balloons? June Delaney: Why, there's a rubber shortage, haven't you heard?

June Delaney: Will you be home for dinner? Pedro Sullivan: No. The way things look now, I'll never eat again.

Gorgeous looking and filled with potential of being a sort of reverse "My Man Godfrey", this war era comedy fails for going too far on the screwball level and just becoming stupid and unfunny thanks to a situation that is not at all believable, even in the context of comedy which isn't always based upon reality. It all starts with sleeping beauty Joan Bennett, woken up by pesky Billie Burke and supposed best friend Helene Reynolds, the trouble maker of all trouble makers, learning that she's lost her fortune and how Reynolds seems to enjoy her friend's unfortunate circumstances. Bennett rents her swanky apartment to visiting South American millionaire Don Ameche, in New York on a business deal involving his rubber plantation, and all sorts of misunderstandings occur simply due to the fact that he thinks she's the regular tenant's maid, not the M.I.A. socialite herself. Throw in a wacky businessman (a miscast Frank Craven) obsessed with vintage rifles and Burke's continuous interruptions over everything and nothing, and you have what basically amounts to nothing.

If Burke's characterization in other movies was often referred to as "bird brain", here, she's "ant brain", a dizzy socialite so consumed with do-gooding that she simply invades Ameche's closet while Bennett is watching (and Ameche is in the shower) and removes all of his hung clothes for a clothing drive then tosses them out of the window to her waiting chauffeur. Ameche, on a date with Reynolds, swears he's spotted Bennett in the swanky nightclub, then after confronting her, takes her to a tacky dime a dance joint where the two of them end up with black eyes. He begins to suspect that she's out to discredit him in his rubber deal and sets her up for a fall. Unfortunately, the only thing falling here is the plot line into the gutter of bad comedy, topped by a scene where Burke literally puts a tourniquet around an unsuspecting guinea pig's neck.

As gorgeous as Bennett is and as charming as Ameche is, this is a hard film to stomach and I felt embarrassed for the two of them. It may have looked funny on paper or in a verbal description in a producer's meeting but ends up a poor example of tackiness uncleverly disguised by art deco sets and gorgeous costumes.