GALS, INCORPORATED

Leon Errol in a pensive mood

GALS, INCORPORATED (aka Gals, Inc./1943). Director: Leslie Goodwins.

The club "Gals, Incorporated" and the ladies who toil there are basically supported by zipper heir Cornelius Rensington III (Leon Errol) -- "he loves the girls and the girls love his money" -- but the arrangement is jeopardized when his sister Jennifer (Minna Phillips) arrives in town threatening to cut him off unless he gets married. Without money, Cornelius will have to go to work! He pretends to be married to singer Molly (Grace McDonald), but another complication arrives in the form of Bill (David Bacon), Corny''s son and a marine who falls for Molly even as man-hunting Gwen (Harriet Hilliard) tries to get Bill to the altar. This should be a cute picture, but the material is sub-standard, there aren't nearly enough good lines or physical gags, and with the exception of Errol the cast is pretty third-rate. Hilliard [Harriet of Ozzie and Harriet fame] isn't well-cast as a femme fatale; McDonald and Bacon are merely bland; and loose-limbed Betty Kean seems to be trying to be a poor woman's Joan Davis and failing miserably. This is one of the few films in which you can see Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers, although their numbers are mediocre. The best number, performed by another female vocalist, is "Brazil." Bacon made only a few films, including the cliffhanger serial The Masked Marvel. Errol had better roles in Mexican Spitfire at Sea (also directed by Goodwins) and The Invisible Man's Revenge, among many others.

Verdict: Not quite an hour but it seems much longer. **.