lugonian
TOO MANY GIRLS (RKO Radio, 1940), produced and directed by George Abbott, could very well be a musical about Broadway chorus girls. In reality, it's a college rah rah screen treatment from the 1939 Broadway George Abbott produced musical play. Though the film version doesn't have the major star power of RKO's thirties screen team of a Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, nor the second feature status presence of Gene Raymond or Ann Sothern as its selected choices, TOO MANY GIRLS casts Lucille Ball and Richard Carlson as its leading players, with much attention going towards its basic newcomers, Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnaz, reprising their original stage roles along with Hal Leroy and briefly, Van Johnson.The prologue opens at The Hunted Stag lodge managed by Mrs. Tewksbury (Ivy Scott), where her nephew, Clint Kelly (Richard Carlson) and his South American friend, Manuelito Lynch (Desi Arnaz), both college football players have jobs working as waiters. As JoJo Jordan (Eddie Bracken) of Harvard and Al Terwilliger (Hal Leroy) of Yale come to the lodge to persuade Manuelito to play football for their college, Harvey Casey (Harry Shannon), a self-made businessman of Casey Allied Industries, enters the scene where he's to meet with his daughter, Consuelo (Lucille Ball), Connie, who's been deported from Switzerland, and eluded her father's top detectives on her trail back to the states, arrives with the news of following her father's suggesting by going to college, the college being her father's alma mater of Pottawatamie in Stop Gap, New Mexico. Suspecting more than what Connie is telling him, Casey hires Clint and the other three football players as $50 a week bodyguards and guaranteed employment at his firm upon graduation to individually watch over Connie so not to be suspicious of being trailed. While at the campus in the middle of nowhere that consists of ten girls for any one man, the four bodyguards enroll, making the acquaintance of student body members of Pepe (Ann Miller) and Eileen Eilers (Frances Langford) while Clint does his part trailing Connie in and out of campus, finding she's having a secret rendezvous with some mysterious man.A slight story highlighted by its numerous song and dance interludes scored by the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, including: "The Heroes of the Fall" (sung by football players); "You're Nearer" (sung by voice dubbing for Lucille Ball); "Pottawatamie" (sung by Harry Shannon and Chester Clute); "Pottawatamie" (reprise by co-eds); "Cake Walk" (sung by Frances Langford); "Spic 'n Spanish" (sung by Desi Arnaz, danced by Ann Miller, tap dance solo by Hal Leroy, chorus); "Love Never Went to College" (sung by Frances Langford); "Look Out" (sung by Ann Miller and Frances Langford); "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (sung by Lucille Ball); "You're Nearer" (sung by chorus); and "The Conga" (finale, cast, bongo drum playing by Desi Arnaz). Though some of the best tuneful moments go to the graceful presence of Frances Langford, and fancy tap dancing by either Hal Leroy or Ann Miller, the singing and conga playing of Desi Arnaz certainly stands apart from the rest, marking the beginning of the new phase of Latin rhythm that would become the rage by other Hispanic entertainers through much of the forties.While TOO MANY GIRLS might have been of some interest in 1940 by those familiar with the original Broadway show, by today's standards, it's where the legend of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz all began. Not so much as a motion picture item for Lucy and Desi, at least not until THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954) and FOREVER DARLING (1956) for MGM came their way, but for their immortal television history making success for their I LOVE LUCY (1951-57) comedy series. Interestingly, aside from a very brief moment where they look at one another, and sharing no actual scenes together, the twosome married shortly after the film's completion. For TOO MANY GIRLS, it's the Cuban-born Desi, not its feature-billed Lucy, who gathers much of the attention of a South American brought up in an all-male household of nine brothers and twenty uncles. No wonder he'd rather go to college where there's too many girls, so little time! As for Lucy's Connie being described by one of the detectives of being "a very tricky girl," TV fans would immediately know this is Lucy based on her Lucy Ricardo TV character that perfectly fits that description. Even with that reputation, Lucy's Connie is not a slapstick queen of comedy by any means. Yet her talent for comedy wouldn't be recognized until much later in her career. With Richard Carlson being a bland co-star, the naturally funny Eddie Bracken certainly makes up for it.By contrast to the many college musicals of this period climaxed by football games and crowd cheers, TOO MANY GIRLS certainly falls into that category on an entertaining level. Formerly available on video cassette and regular broadcast item on cable TV's American Movie Classics prior to 2001, TOO MANY GIRLS, available on DVD, can be seen and enjoyed whenever shown on Turner Classic Movies. (***)
TheLittleSongbird
Too Many Girls is an interesting film for the above reason and is worth the look also. But while a long way from the worst film musicals, it is not a particularly great film either. There are definitely things that do salvage it. Desi Arnaz is very charming in his role and gives it his all, though his singing can sound strained because of the register. The songs make for very pleasant listening, I Didn't Know What Time It Was is the best number and is a classic, though other than that none really are among Rodgers and Hart's best. Hal LeRoy beguiles with his dancing and toe-work, and you have to love the comedy comebacks of Eddie Bracken as well as the vocal talents of Frances Langford and the dancing of Ann Miller. The football footage is interesting too, the film does look nice if not quite audacious and look out for Van Johnson. Too Many Girls has all those good things but is for me a very flawed film. When there aren't any songs, much of the film is weak with draggy pacing, a pretty dispensable story and stilted dialogue. The direction and choreography are definitely competent- the Conga at the end is an absolute riot and anything danced by Ann Miller is fun enough- but are not particularly memorable and could have had more passion. Lucille Ball's Connie is too exaggerated, and while the singer providing her singing voice has a beautiful silky voice- much better than Ball's, whose I can't stand, especially in the dire Mame- it is one of those instances where you can actually tell it's not the actor/actress singing. And Richard Carlson is unbearably wooden here too. Overall, not a bad film, not a good one either, kind of a difficult one to judge actually because there is some entertainment value there are a lot of noticeable bad things too. 5/10 Bethany Cox
kenjha
With Lucy off to college, her dad hires four college football players as bodyguards, but the four young men are confronted with the temptations of the film title. Fluffy entertainment is most notable for being the set on which Ball and Arnaz met. If it had not been for this film, perhaps we would never have had "I Love Lucy." Interestingly though, Ball's romantically paired with Carlson, not Arnaz, in this film. This marked the film debuts of Arnaz and Bracken (both playing football players!), as well as Van Johnson in an uncredited bit role (Chorus Boy #41!). In a preview of Ricky Ricardo, Arnaz plays some musical instruments.
Hollycon1
This film was made in 1940. We were just about to go to War with Japan & people had just barely survived the Great Depression. Most people wanted fun escapist movies. The music is great! Of course it's full of fluff. The audience preferred it that way! Ask your grandparents, they'll tell you what life was like in 1940. My grandmother had a job seating people at the Admiral theater in Seattle, Wa. Actually West Seattle, which at the time was considered a separate area from Seattle. She told us that the customers loved Musicals and Westerns. The perfect escape for a Saturday afternoon. The theater's were full for every show and only cost a dime. I think if we were to quit picking apart these films and just enjoy them for the the times they were created, we could learn a lot about life in the 40's. Try to see what we have in common with that era instead of looking for the differences. We are much too cynical and if we can't enjoy a silly film like Too many Girls, we haven't come as far as we think we have. Submitted by Little Blue
