Girls About Town **** (1931, Kay Francis, Lilyan Tashman, Joel McCrea, Eugene Palette) – Classic Movie Review 5918

Director George Cukor’s 1931 Paramount drama is excellent vintage sophisticated, pre-Production Code-censored Thirties entertainment about sexy gold-digging ‘party girls’ Wanda Howard and Marie Bailey (Kay Francis, Lilyan Tashman) providing diversion for simple, lonely businessmen staying in New York for conventions in return for lavish gifts.

Dynamic duo Francis and Tashman sparkle brightly as the gold-diggers preying on old rich men, while Joel McCrea and Eugene Palette twinkle nicely as young, poor, virtuous man Jim Baker and middle-aged married man Benjamin Thomas, while ace director Cukor orchestrates it all very smartly indeed. It is a career peak for Tashman, ideally cast as a wisecracking Depression-era gold-digger.

Wanda falls for young Jim, while old Ben gives Marie jewellery, prompting his wife (Lucile Gleason) to try to copy her rival.

Silent-era star Tashman made the transition into the sound era effortlessly. Nicknamed ‘The Best Dressed Woman on the Screen’, she died in 1934 following cancer surgery, aged only 37. Her last film Frankie and Johnnie was released two years after she died.

Also in the cast are Alan Dinehart, Louise Beavers, Anderson Lawler, Lucile Browne, George Barbier, Robert McWade, Judith Wood, Adrienne Ames, Sheila Bromley, Veda Buckland, Patricia Caron, Katherine DeMille, Claire Dodd and Hazel Howard.

It is written by Raymond Griffith and Brian Marlow, from a story by Zoe Akins, shot in black and white by Ernest Haller, and produced by Raymond Griffith.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5918

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Joel McCrea on the set of Girls About Town,.