2023’s ELEVENTH Shamedown. Wow. Wow. Wow. Number Twelve will be here before we know it, and then it’ll be time for a whole new slate of Shame. As always, if anyone is just joining us and wants to know what the heck a Shamedown is, CinemaShame’s 2023 call to Shame can be found here. Past 2023 Shamedowns can be found here.
We’re back on Poverty Row with 1947’s Calendar Girl, a Republic Pictures movie that brings to mind Stage Door except the boardinghouse is co-ed and the film hasn’t fared so well over the years, but we’ll get to that. It’s also not to be confused with a certain naughty film featuring Helen Mirren and a nude calendar, but then again, the “girls” are plural in that case (That was an unintended double entendre. Argh. Oh well). Anyway, time to jump in…
It’s 1900. Steve (James Ellison) and Johnny (William Marshall) have just come to New York City from Boston and are looking to break into the local art scene. First of all, though, they accidentally bump into Pat O’Neil (Jane Frazee), who lands on her derriere and with her head through one of her paintings. She lives next door to Mrs. Varden’s (Irene Rich) boardinghouse, where Steve and Johnny plan on renting rooms.
Our two hopefuls fit in right away with the crowd at Mrs. Varden’s, and Johnny even writes a song for fellow tenant Byron (Kenny Baker) to sing down at the local watering hole. Johnny joins in and everyone has a grand time.
Pat and Steve take quite a shine to each other, or at least they seem to, although Steve has a fiancee, Olivia (Gail Patrick) back in Boston. Olivia doesn’t stay in Boston for long, though, because Steve is off in the Village having way too much fun and she feels left out. Or something like that. Yeah, there are trust issues going on.
After that, both the romance and the plot go completely off the rails, with a visit to a beer hall, Kenny Baker in lederhosen, Victor McLaglen as Pat’s dad and the stereotypical Irish cop entering a policeman’s tournament, where, among other events, there’s a tug of war, and later on Pat escapes from her bedroom to the boardinghouse roof via an ironing board. Don’t ask.
Ah, and about the title. Steve paints a picture of Pat for a calendar contest. Spoiler alert: He wins, but under false pretenses, as unbeknownst to Pat he made some changes to her painting that are a little too racy for 1900.
Oh, golly. Time has not been kind to Calendar Girl, if Amazon Prime’s transfer is any indication. It’s choppy, the picture is of very poor quality, and the sound has its good moments and its not-so-good moments. This is no surprise, as the film is likely in public domain and has received the cheapest possible treatment over the years, with DVD releases by economy brands Mill Creek, FilmChest, and Grapevine Video. Not only that, but right after the Second World War a lot of movies were produced in black and white and corners were cut due to money and resources being tight.
Calendar Girl is also a pretty weak movie overall, albeit with some fun moments. A lot of the songs are really catchy, especially “Let’s Have Some Pretzels and Beer,” although none of them had a life outside of the film.
And like a lot of musicals, the plot is very thin to non-existent. I won’t spoil anything because I want to give the movie at least that much dignity, but suffice it to say that characters seem to get over certain setbacks pretty quickly and nothing is ever too tragic for these characters, who are almost annoyingly cavalier.
It’s pretty safe to say that not much of the film lands in any way that would inspire more than mild sympathy and enjoyment. It’s also safe to say that William Marshall plays another heel in Calendar Girl, only Steve is slightly more mean-spirited and dopey than Andy was in The Gang’s All Here.
The trade papers seemed rather optimistic about the film’s chances, even giving theater owners a fun way to boost traffic: According to the November 23, 1946 issue of Showman’s Trade Review, Republic Pictures made a promotional deal with the Brown and Bigelow to hold a Calendar Girl contest in theaters all over the United States. Local women would enter, their fellow townspeople would vote, and the finalists would get a thousand dollars, a chance to compete in Hollywood, with Brown and Bigelow and Republic making the final decision. The grand prize winner would enjoy a week-long trip to Hollywood, have her portrait painted for a calendar by Zoe Mozert, and possibly get the chance to make her onscreen debut.
It seemed fun, and everyone went all out, with sheet music from the film distributed to bands across the country for the contest, dances, and local charity groups getting involved as well. A top photographer from Portland, Oregon was selected to be the official photographer for the contest, which was decided in June of 1947. Unfortunately, the name of the winner and everything that followed for her seem lost to history.
Equally mysterious is Calendar Girl‘s box office returns. After scouring both the Media History Digital Library and other major film sites, I could not for the life of me find out how the public liked the film, and even the reviews seem to be struggling to say anything good about it.
Film Bulletin put it thusly:
Some novelty has been put into the settings and incidents, but the same cannot be said for the plot, a trite triangle among stereotyped characters. While Jane Frazee’s acting leaves much to be desired, happily Republic has surrounded her with a strong supporting cast…Direction is labored, comedy of the banana peel on the sidewalk variety.
After such a blah reception, Calendar Girl just sort of faded out, not to be seen again until 1951, when it was re-edited and re-titled Stardust and Sweet Music. No word on how the film did the second time around, either, although we know it was shown on TV at least once in the nineteen-fifties.
Who knows what’s next for Calendar Girl? The very likely answer is probably not much, but with the Criterion Collection and the Museum of Modern Art selecting a few of Republic’s films for restoration and exhibition in 2018 and the even more recent revival of the Republic Pictures brand, who really knows. However, ideally at least, we’ll always have Amazon.
And now, friends, we have come to this month’s Pick My Movie Tag winner…
Quiggy at the Midnite Drive-In!
Quiggy’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to review his favorite movie of 2023. It doesn’t have to be a new release, just a favorite among whatever he saw this year. The tag’s rules and an accompanying banner can be found here.
Coming up in December (click the images for more info):
All right, a wee blogavirsary post is coming up on Saturday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
Calendar Girl is available on DVD and is free to stream for Prime customers.
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