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The Doughgirls
1944 Jump to Synopsis and Details
 
The Doughgrils #1
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Description

Arthur and Vivian are just married, but when the get to their honeymoon suite in Washington D.C., they find it occupied. Arthur goes to meet Slade, his new boss, and when he comes back, he finds three girls in his suite. He orders Vivian to get rid of them, but they are friends of Vivian's and as time goes by, it looks more like Grand Central Station than the quiet honeymoon suite Arthur expected. As long as there is anyone else in the suite, Arthur will not stay there and there will be no honeymoon. Written by Tony Fontana

Review from NY Times

Published: August 31, 1944

This picture, "The Doughgirls" which came to the Hollywood yesterday, is going to be easy to write about. The writing about it doesn't require much thought, because, probably, the seeing it doesn't require much thought. The spectator is required simply to sit there and wonder what's going to turn up next, knowing that the chances are better than even he'll enjoy whatever it happens to be.

In one or two places the gag lines and gag sequences seem to be forced and, as happens in such cases, the entertainment is forced too. But such danger spots are quickly passed and the mad farce goes careening along its dizzy way.

Whether having seen the Joseph A. Fields stage play adds or detracts from the pleasure of seeing the screen play is problematical. Neither having seen nor read the stage play, this reviewer wouldn't know, but it's a fair guess the screen product contains a number of dramatic departures as well as a number of dialogue distillations. There's not much point in going into the story either. Suffice to say it combines the zaniness of such farce comedies as "You Can't Take It With You," "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and whatever others you can recall, and they're all set in a Washington hotel suite, which, speaking of madness, is simply adding high octane fumes to an acetylene flame.

Digging into the respective merits of the individual cast members is a little difficult inasmuch as the cast is large and all members move in and out like shuttlecocks. From Jane Wyman, the priceless nitwit who is a great admirer of President Roosevelt because of his fine acting in "Yankee Doodle Dandy," right on down to mournful Joe De Rita, the dozen or so cast members have their outrageous moments on the stage, are thrown off, and come right back for more outrageous moments. Mr. De Rita, by the way, is the nameless one who hadn't slept for two weeks while awaiting a Washington appointment and then hadn't slept for an additional two weeks while awaiting transportation home.

Eve Arden as Natalia, the Russian sniper, who takes evening walks to Baltimore as a relaxation from seeing two sets of double-features and shooting pigeons from the hotel terrace, bounds and struts about as uninhibited as a gale off the Caucasus. Jack Carson, who never is quite certain whether he's Miss Wyman's bridegroom, divorcé or his own bachelor self, adds broadness to the piece, as does Charlie Ruggles, the Coordinator of Bureaus, who frets that the FBI may find out about his floating kidney, which got that way back in '29, when Columbia preferred went down to 7 points.

There are times when it seems that the dialogue, especially when it obviously has been too finely distilled from the stage dialogue, misses the mark. Some of the lines have become so refined they twirl out to nothingness and others seem quite pointless. But on the whole the lines are broad enough and well enough planted to assure the desired reaction. The picture as a whole sets out to make no sense, and it accomplishes that negative aim beautifully and delightfully.

Cast

Ann Sheridan as Edna Stokes Cadman

Alexis Smith as Nan Curtiss Dillon

Jack Carson as Arthur Halstead

Jane Wyman as Vivian Marsden Halstead

Irene Manning as Mrs. Sylvia Cadman

Charles Ruggles as Stanley Slade

Eve Arden as Sgt. Natalia Moskoroff

John Ridgely as Julian Cadman

Alan Mowbray as Breckenridge Drake

John Alexander as Warren Buckley

Craig Stevens as Lt. Tom Dillon

Barbara Brown as Elizabeth Brush Cartwright

Francis Pierlot as Mr. Jordan

Donald MacBride as Judge Franklin

Regis Toomey as Timothy Walsh, FBI

Audley Anderson as Waiter

Julie Arlington as School Girl

Yolanda Baiano as School Girl

Janet Barrett as Young Matron

Carlyle Blackwell Jr. as Messenger

Oliver Blake as Porter

Ferike Boros as Irena

Joan Breslau as School Girl

Paul Brooks as Announcer

Vladimar Bykoff as Bit Role

Fred Carpenter as (uncredited)

Maurice Costello as (uncredited)

Marie De Becker as Maid

Jack Del Rio as (uncredited)

Walter De Palma as Justice of the Peace

Joe DeRita as The Stranger

Earle S. Dewey as Fat Man with Suitcase

Dolores Donlon as School Girl

Robert Dudley as Waiter with Fruit Bowl

William Forrest as Howard Forbes

Will Fowler as Lieutenant

William Frambes as Bellboy from Laundry

Raoul Freeman as (uncredited)

Helen Gerald as School Girl

Bennett Green as (uncredited)

John Hamilton as Businessman in Lobby

Buck Harrington as (uncredited)

Dick Hirbe as Bellboy

Elmer Jerome as Elderly Waiter

Tiny Jones as Little Maid

Fred Kelsey as Fat Man in Lobby with Suitcase

Bill Kennedy as Tall Guy who Punches Drake

Nicholas Kobliansky as Father Nicolai

Lucille Lamarr as Young Matron

Mary Landa as Young Matron

George Magrill as Soldier in Lobby

Lou Marcelle as Announcer (voice)

Warren Mills as Bellboy

Jack Mower as Hotel Doorman

John O'Connor as Sound Technician

Tom Quinn as Second Hotel Clerk

Dorothy Reisner as School Girl

Grandon Rhodes as First Hotel Clerk

Larry Rio as Attendant in Baths

Ralph Sanford as Plumber

Natalie Schafer as Third Woman with Baby

Dorothy Schoemer as Young Matron

Almira Sessions as Hatchet-Faced Woman

Anita Sharp-Bolster as Maid

Cedric Stevens as (uncredited)

Mark Stevens as Lt. Harry Kerry

Charles Sullivan as Man with Grip

George Suzanne as (uncredited)

Dink Trout as Young Husband

Harry Tyler as Angular Man

Minerva Urecal as Hatchet-Faced Woman

Nicholas Vehr as (uncredited)

Johnny Walsh as Bellhop

Glen Walters as Young Husband's Tall Wife

Joan Winfield as Miss Brown, Slade's Secretary

  
 

Directed by
James V. Kern

Writing credits
Joseph Fields - play
Sam Hellman and James V. Kern - writer
Wilkie C. Mahoney - additional dialogue

Produced by
Mark Hellinger - producer

Original Music by
Adolph Deutsch

Cinematography by
Ernest Haller

Film Editing by
Folmar Blangsted (as Folmer Blangsted)

Art Direction by
Hugh Reticker

Set Decoration by
Clarence Steensen

Costume Design by
Milo Anderson

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore - makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Philip Quinn - assistant director

Sound Department
Stanley Jones - sound

Special Effects by
William C. McGann - special effects

Editorial Department
James Leicester - montage

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein - musical director

Other crew
Jack Gage - dialogue director
Nicholas Kobliansky - technical advisor

 


 
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