Variety Girl features a who’s who of Hollywood as the musical comedy takes audiences behind the scenes at Paramount Pictures to show how movies stars are born. The film was recently released on Blu-ray by Universal Home Entertainment.

While Hope and Crosby get top billing, Variety Girl serves as a primary vehicle for both Mary Hatcher and Olga San Juan. Interestingly enough, both performers had brief careers on the big screen when compared to many names who cameo throughout the film, especially once the film moves into the Variety Club’s show taking place at the Ambassador Hotel to showcase Catherine’s singing abilities.

Variety Girl does a solid job at capturing the lengths that people would take if it meant getting seen by someone at the studios. Amber La Vonne ends up stealing a reservation from Catherine Brown, who adopted that name as her stage name, upon checking into the Hollywood Girls Club. Because of this, she ends up with her being screen-tested at Paramount rather than Catherine. Of course, that’s after a very hysterical scene in which Amber more or less demands to be noticed at a restaurant, speaking very loudly on the phone. As for Catherine, she causes her own set of problems for studio head R.J. O’Connell.

It’s worth seeing Variety Girl at least once just to see what the studio was able to pull off in putting so many stars together in one feature film. It is lighter fare compared to other 1947 releases such as Gentleman’s Agreement or Crossfire. But as beneficial as it is for the Variety Clubs, it also works as an advertisement for Paramount Pictures in and of itself.

Synopsis

Featuring three dozen stars, Variety Girl is a mammoth musical romance on how a movie star is born set amid the “reality” of a Hollywood studio! Playing himself, the incomparable Bob Hope reigns as top comic over one of the most star-studded casts ever assembled including Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour and many, many more. Starlet wannabe Amber La Vonne (Olga San Juan) is mistaken for her friend, the beautiful and talented Catherine Brown (Mary Hatcher). While the zany Amber flubs her way from audition to screen test to stage debut, Catherine cannot seem to keep her head above water in dealing with studio head R.J. O’Connell (Frank Ferguson). Along the way, the madness stops only long enough for musical numbers by Pearl Bailey, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, The Mulcays, and a rare puppetoon version of “Romeow and Juliacat.” Topped off by an A-list all-star variety revue, Variety Girl proves itself to be among the most entertaining and hilarious comedies ever filmed.

DIRECTOR: George Marshall
SCREENWRITERS: Edmund Hartmann, Frank Tashlin, Robert Welch, and Monte Brice
CAST: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, Sonny Tufts, William Holden, Joan Caulfield, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Gail Russell, Diana Lynn, Sterling Hayden, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, John Lund, William Bendix, Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Da Silva, Macdonald Carey, Cass Daley, with Olga San Juan, Billy De Wolfe, Patric Knowles, William Demarest, Mona Freeman, Cecil Kellaway, Virginia Field, DeForest Kelley, Richard Webb, Glenn Tryon, Frank Faylen, Frank Ferguson, and Cecil B. DeMille, Mitchell Leisen, Frank Butler, George Marshall, Pearl Bailey, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, The Mulcays, and introducing Mary Hatcher

Paramount Pictures released Variety Girl in theaters on August 29, 1947.

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