bkoganbing Rosalind Russell got her first trip to the Oscars via her performance as the sensible Ruth Sherwood who wants a career as a writer, but has to worry about looking after that other sibling of her's who moved with her to New York from Columbus, Ohio, My Sister Eileen.Imagine if you will a story where the heroine's wise and wisecracking best friend is the lead character and you've got My Sister Eileen. In most films Russell's character would be played by Eve Arden, but here what makes the film original is that the normal supporting role is the lead. As good a job as Russell does, I kind of wish Harry Cohn had thought of Arden for the lead.The Sherwood sisters move from Columbus to make their mark in the big city and in one respect New York hasn't changed. Housing is pretty tough to come by and the sisters have to settle for a basement apartment in Greenwich Village. The apartment is owned by George Tobias, part time artist, and full time lech. But with Janet Blair as Eileen, he's just one of many.Most of the action takes place in the Sherwood apartment where people just seem to come and go like it was Grand Central Station. Russell's wit and intelligence might scare off some people, she interests Brian Aherne however who works at a magazine she's trying to land a job with.As for Blair she wants to be an actress and her obvious charm and naive sex appeal have the men swarming around her. This part was Janet Blair's first big break on screen and made her career.Rosalind Russell in getting a nomination for Best Actress got the only Oscar recognition the film received. Roz was up against one tough field. Her's was the only comedy performance in a field that included such heavy dramas as Katharine Hepburn in Keeper Of The Flame, Bette Davis in Now Voyager, and Teresa Wright in Pride Of The Yankees. The winner due to the times as well as her acting was Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver. Given the war, I don't think any of these other ladies had a chance.In her memoirs Rosalind Russell said that Ruth Sherwood was the first of her career woman roles, parts by the way she loved to play. I think she might have forgotten Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday, but it's possible she thought of Hildy as an anti-career woman because what she wanted to do was leave the newspaper business and marry Ralph Bellamy. Ruth Sherwood on the other hand wants to get a career going.My Sister Eileen is a timeless classic, it could probably be remade today with few enough changes. Russell in fact did it on Broadway in the musical Wonderful Town. She may have failed an Oscar, but she got a Tony Award for the part.Can't you see Jessica Simpson as Eileen Sherwood? I wonder why no one's thought of it.

David (Handlinghandel) Though this appears to have been filmed entirely on a sound stage, the feel of the original stories comes through. This is the Village as it has been as long as I've lived here.Please note: I was not born when this movie came out. But maybe my mother, a writer, saw it and decided ti was for her. When I was a child we lived a few blocks from where the stories were set. And for the last decades, I have lived maybe three blocks from there. And how it has changed! And how much for the worse: Rich people, high rents and buying (who'd heard of buying an apartment in 1942?!) Noisy clubs ...Janet Blair is fine as the title character. Rosalind Russell is very good as her sister Ruth. (The real Ruth, who wrote the stories, married Nathanael West and died tragically at a young age.) Russell is sort of like her Sylvia Fowler character in "The Women." But we can see hints of the broad style that was to come and was to sink her by the time of "Auntie Mame." George Tobias is fun as the girls' fast-talking artistic landlord. Without knowing it at the time, I rented my first Manhattan apartment from the man on whom this character was based. That was 30 years later.Brian Ahern is OK as the male lead. He's a little stuffy, but he's meant to be. In fact, his character is insufferable. Why Ruth is drawn to him is not made clear.I loved seeing the organ grinder near the end. I remember them on nearby Waverly Place a decade later when I was a small child! This gives a better view of the Village than any other commercial movie I can think of. It's fun and definitely is recommended..

edwagreen Rosalind Russell received a best actress nomination for playing Ruth Sherwood, a writer from Columbus, Ohio, who comes to the big apple with her sister Eileen.(Janet Blair). Up against the winner (Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver) or Bette Davis (Now, Voyager),Russell had little chance in winning and she didn't.The film deals with the lunatic situations brought about when the sisters arrive here. Settling in a basement apartment which should have been condemned, the two encounter all sorts of strange people coming in and out of the apartment. We have a crazy landlord, (George Tobias) a publisher (Brian Aherne) who lacked any comic talent here, the former tenant, a seer (June Havoc) in a brief performance, neighbors who want the husband to sleep in the kitchen as her mother is coming, a suspicious policeman and Portuguese merchant marines who cause havoc as well.Luckily, the film ends when The 3 Stooges drill a hole in the floor. By that time, I had it.Rosalind Russell proved that she had excellent comic timing and Janet Blair is good as well, but the written material they were given leaves a lot to be desired.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'My Sister Eileen' is based on true incidents. Ruth and Eileen McKenney were sisters from a small town in Ohio who came to New York City: Ruth intending to become an author, Eileen hoping to be an actress. Although Ruth McKenney sold a few magazine pieces, her most successful work was her series of fictionalised articles about the misadventures of her younger sister Eileen. The stories themselves have been out of print for many years, but they provided the basis for a popular play, 'My Sister Eileen' (NOT written by Ruth McKenney), which was a long-running Broadway hit and which has remained in print ever since. Ruth McKenney ironically gained fame and wealth from a play written by two other people, based on her stories.The real Eileen McKenney ended badly. A pretty actress with more looks than talent, she married the overrated screenwriter Nathanael West and she died alongside him in West's fatal car accident.The 1942 film 'My Sister Eileen' is a faithful (and funny) version of the Broadway hit, although it bears only slight resemblance to the real-life exploits of sisters Ruth and Eileen McKenney (here renamed Sherwood). Rather unusually, this movie was made at Columbia Studios *during* the play's Broadway run. Two of the best performances here are given by actors repeating their stage roles: Gordon Jones as an obsessive football player named 'The Wreck', and Richard Quine as nice young man Frank Lippincott, who fancies Eileen.Small-town sisters Ruth and Eileen come to the big city. Ruth (Rosalind Russell) is smart, cynical, and doesn't need a man. Eileen (Janet Blair) is naive and pretty and attracts all the lads. Because the sisters haven't got much money, the only place they can afford is a basement flat in Greenwich Village, owned by a crooked landlord named Appopolous (George Tobias, not up to his usual high standard here). The flat is directly above a subway tunnel, where construction workers are blasting with dynamite: at regular intervals, the whole building shakes. Worse luck, the previous tenant was a young lady who (ahem!) rented by the hour, and so Ruth and Eileen are constantly plagued with male visitors who assume that their apartment is still, erm, open for business. Ruth and Eileen have no end of misadventures while trying to start their careers as, respectively, a journalist and an actress.BIG SPOILER STARTING NOW. The last gag in this movie is absolutely hilarious. All through the film, we hear the sounds of the subway navvies directly under Ruth's and Eileen's apartment. At the very end of this movie, a jackhammer pokes up through the floor and three construction workers emerge. When they pull off their helmets, we see that they're Moe, Larry and Curly! Moe lambastes his two 'knucklehead' workmates while the soundtrack starts playing the 'Three Stooges' theme tune!In 1953, Betty Comden and Adolph Green approached Rosalind Russell to star in a Broadway musical version of 'My Sister Eileen' with music by Leonard Bernstein, to be called 'Wonderful Town'. (The original title wasn't legally available.) I really dislike 'Wonderful Town': it has a score which I consider extremely pretentious. Rosalind Russell, to her credit, had no illusions about her own song-and-dance abilities. 'Wonderful Town' was never filmed, because Columbia had retained the musical rights ... and they made their OWN musical version in 1955, with tunes by Jule Styne that are vastly better than anything "Lenny" Bernstein ever wrote. Interestingly, Richard Quine (who hed acted in the original film and the Broadway cast) directed the musical remake, and his role as Frank Lippincott was taken over by Bob Fosse, giving his best performance as an actor and choreographing some snappy dance numbers as well. I strongly recommend both film versions of 'My Sister Eileen', which is more than I can say for the overrated 'Wonderful Town'. I'll rate this 1942 version 9 points out of 10. Well done!