MartinHafer "Pin Up Girl" is only a fair musical comedy. I say fair because the plot is VERY predictable and I've seen such plots many times. On top of that, the show has too many musical numbers...way too many.The show begins with two ladies, Lorry (Betty Grable) and Kay (Dorthea Kent) in New York. When they cannot get a table at a fancy restaurant, Lorry begins lying her head off--saying that they are supposed to have dinner with a famous war hero, Tommy Dooley (John Harvey). Unfortunately, the real Dooley shows up and Lorry keeps lying more and more instead of fessing up. She tells them that they are Broadways stars and that she is the leading lady named Laura.The next day, Lorry and Kay head back to Washington, DC, where they work at the War Department. Now considering there were 128123081340123 servicemen in Washington during the war, the odds are against Lorry and Tommy meeting again. Well, if you think this, you obviously know nothing about movie clichés! In fact, it turns out that Lorry is a secretary and she is assigned to work with Tommy!! But, in a 'clever move', she puts on glasses and quickly convinces him she is NOT Laura (sort of like Clark Kent). Considering Grable's famous figure, it's utterly mystifying how the guy even noticed she was wearing glasses!! Lorry agrees to help the lovestruck Tommy to find this dream girl! Now if this plot sounds pretty stupid, then you'd be absolutely correct. It's utterly ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that such a bold-faced liar would end up with the guy by the end of the film--but you know that she will--even with Molly (Martha Raye) trying to break up this romance, as she wants Tommy for herself.In addition to a formulaic and cliché-ridden plot, the film features several songs too many. In particular, the Broadway style song and dance numbers make the film very stilted. Naturalistic songs that are sung between the leads are not in this one--just stage-bound ones that seem to make the plot grind to a halt. The only thing I really liked about this silly film was seeing Dorthea Kent playing a 'normal' person--too often in her films her style was VERY broad, nasal and annoying. Here, she is pretty good.So is this film for you? Well, if you simply adore old musicals and/or Betty Grable, then perhaps. However, there are many, many musicals of the era that are much better--with better casts, songs and plots.

gkeith_1 I am giving this movie a higher rating than a lot of people. I happen to enjoy all the dancing, plus the roller skaters.8/10The worst part, IMO, was the end with the OVERLY LONG women's march led by Betty Grable. This got to be quite monotonous. Betty must have been totally exhausted at the end, giving all those orders and marching around for so long. Were these a bunch of women with uber-patriotic interest in World War II, or real WAACs/WACs? I realize that World War II was waning. Military personnel on leave still, according to this movie, were looking for lots of escapist entertainment while on shore leave. What this movie does not cover, however, was that IRL many of the women entertainers and hangers-on would get pregnant, with perhaps a disease or baby or two as part of the surprises. I realize that this is escapist fantasy, with no real sadness to be had.I was wishing that our recent wars included public fervor and nationwide participation as indicated in some of these WWII musical movies. There were the bond-money-raising, the couponing and rationing, the Rosie-Riveter mentalities, we-can-do-it pulling together of an entire nation. In the recent wars of 1990s and 2000s, where were the tap dancing roller-skating patriotic performers who instilled in the audiences a feeling of winning the battles for the good of the nation? Betty Grable was very sweet in this movie. I enjoyed seeing Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown, the Condos Brothers, Hermes Pan and the Skating Vanities. Viva the red, white and blue!!!I have a recent Bachelor of Arts Degree in American History from The Ohio State University. Believe me, I have studied and researched lots of wars and conflicts. I also specialize in the socio-cultural history of the people back home, including the actors and dancers who performed to make movies of this type in order to inspire the American people.

weezeralfalfa Joe E Brown and Martha Raye were 2 veteran vaudeville performers, as well as film personalities, both known, among other things, for their unusually wide mouths. Both were primarily comedians, but neither is allowed to be funny in this '44 Fox Technicolor. Martha was also a singer and does get to do a couple of solos. She and Betty were last seen together in a film when they were both contracted with Paramount, playing sisters in the '38 B&W "Give Me a Sailor", costarring Bob Hope. In that delightful little domestic comedy, Martha was the star and Betty the supporting actress. Here, the tables are turned, with Betty the star performer and providing most of the comedy, along with occasional inputs from rotund Eugene 'bullfrog' Palette, who plays her office boss.Unusual for a Grable film, she lacks one of her usual leading or supporting men. Instead, her romantic interest is a rather faceless serviceman in the form of John Harvey. Actually, this was a rather common ploy in musical comedies during the later part of WWII. Other notable Fox examples include "Something For the Boys" and "The Gang's All Here". Perhaps the most extreme example is Warner's "Hollywood Canteen". The idea was to present a 'nobody' serviceman that servicemen could better identify with, as the leading lady's romantic interest.It sometimes happened in '40s musicals that specialty acts provided the most interesting musical, comedy or gymnastic act, and this is perhaps one of those films.The gaudy roller skating dance act by 'The Skating Vanities', accompanied by Martha's "Red Robins, Bobwhites, and Bluebirds" is certainly the eye candy highlight of this film, and a part of its flag waving aspect. The Condo Brothers also did a couple of nice tap dance numbers, and Betty's dance with Hermes Pan to "Once Too Often" is OK. Later, there is a Viennese waltz scene, with dancers in very fancy classical European dress, preceding and following Betty's rendition of a more contemporary "The Story of the Very Merry Widow".Betty also gets to do a couple other musical numbers, mostly two renditions of "Don't Carry Tales Out of School".Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of this film is the finale overly long marching drill exercise, with rifles, executed by a sizable unit of WACs, with Betty as their competent drill sergeant. Would have been nice to have had some musical accompaniment, as in Warner's "This is the Army". I guess the message was: If we run short of fighting men to help win this war, we have plenty of fighting women to back them up!If you want to see the best Grable/Raye musical comedy, I recommend "Give Me a Sailor", as previously detailed. Betty looks even more beautiful at age 21 in that one. The emphasis is much more on comedy than music, with Bob Hope complementing Martha's comedy.

writers_reign This is arguably the worst movie Betty Grable ever made once she became a star. It is, of course, quite possible that in 1944 it would have filled a gap in a world hungry for escapist entertainment but today almost nothing earns any praise from Grable herself, who does what she can with a lacklustre script and score to the usually reliable Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown and Eugene Palette in support. B. S. Pulley, later to feature prominently in Guys and Dolls as Big Julie is also on hand albeit uncredited as is June Hutton who is featured with the Charlie Spivak orchestra. James V. Monaco and Mack Gordon have done much better work than this although they did turn in a complete score. This one is best forgotten.