A Girl Must Live [1939] [DVD]

A girl runs away from her Swiss finishing school to go on stage under a false name just as a rich young rubber-planter returns to England to inherit a title, with her fellow lodgers and chorus girls both determined to get their hooks into him. The honors are about even as Gloria Lind (Renee Houston) and Clytie Devine (Lilli Palmer) fight it out for The Earl of Pangborough's (Hugh Sinclair's) attentions, until the whole chorus line is unexpectedly invited to spend the weekend at the Pangborough mansion, along with their Producer Joe Gold (David Burns) and the wallet-lifting Hugo Smythe (Naunton Wayne), and the "real" Leslie James (Margaret Lockwood) makes an appearance. ~ imdb

It's the same kind of stuff, the same flimsy girls, the same silly entertainment shows with the same ridiculous dances, the same stupid men falling for stupid girls, the same bully for a show leader, the same flippant music, just like Hollywood throughout the thirties, but so much wittier, so much more in style, so much more brilliant - the script is a marvel here, and you don't want to miss any morsel of the constantly sharp-shooting dialog for anything, and compared to this, Hollywood appears as all amateurs. The intrigues of the ladies are as clever as in many equally entertaining Hollywood films concentrated into one, and above all, you have a very efficient director here leading all the dances and fights in the still very young Carol Reed, who appears to have a better hand with women than any of the poor gentlemen in the show. It's also one of Margaret Lockwood's early films, in which she is maturing as a great character actress, while she is seconded by Lilli Palmer, who also is still budding here. This is all hilariously exciting and entertaining, and the risk is you will laugh your sides off, especially in the wild goose chase for the mouse, which includes a number of other animal chases, like even chickens. A girl must live indeed, and they all live here and thoroughly well and make the best of it, all vying to make even better of it, all chasing men who are easily deceived, while one of them actually appreciates the deception so much that he falls for the honesty of it.