"Pillow to Post" has a title that's easy to connect with the plot of this film. It's a wartime comedy romance with a cast that's as interesting as the story. The story is built around a young woman who goes on the road as a saleswoman for her dad's oil products company. Not only is there a shortage of men for jobs like hers, but there's a housing shortage everywhere during the war. With an opening in an auto court for married couples, she concocts a plan to get a young lieutenant from a nearby Army post to pose as her husband. Just long enough to sign the registry for her.
But her simple, harmless little plan of deceit quickly gets out of hand. It leads to all sorts of problems and troubles for the lieutenant, and eventually her. This begins to appear like a modern Adam and Eve tale, and the young officer soon thinks his career and life are ruined. One knows that this will all turn out okay for the girl and the soldier. But that's only after a twisted, narrow, multi-layered course of many turns and roadblocks. The two days that this story covers were more complicated than the worst obstacle course a maniacal NCO could devise.
Well, its all supposed to be for fun, and it is to a degree. There's no sign of romance until the very end, and that is contrived and hard to believe. The script has very little clever dialog, and the comedy is mostly situational. In that regard, it's quite crazy, but with a scarcity of anything very laughable. Ida Lupino plays Jean Howard and William Prince plays Lt. Don Mallory. Lupino made her mark mostly in crime mysteries and dramas. She was just in a handful of comedies, and none of them fared very well. This was the best one. And the shortage of actors was also a reality during the war, with so many of them in the military. Although Prince had a lengthy career, his early roles were mostly minor ones, and after just half a dozen or so, he moved over to TV productions. He was in many series and several TV movies where he did very well.
So, to give this film a boost, Warner Brothers provided some top supporting roles and a lively nighttime scene with a young Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. There's no doubt that Satchmo Armstrong, Sydney Greenstreet and others lifted this film and kept it from being a flop. It had a $5 million box office, coming in around 70th in U. S. films for the year. Greenstreet's role as Col. Otley was very good, as were the supporting roles of a hectic Stuart Erwin as Capt. Jack Ross, whose wife was having quadruplets, and Ruth Donnelly as the auto court manager, Mrs. Grace Wingate. Willie Best is very good as the porter, Lucille, and Johnny Mitchell is okay as Earl "Slim" Clark.
The best reason for seeing this movie by modern audiences would be to see the very young Louis Armstrong with his trumpet and orchestra, and a very nice role played by the always entertaining English actor, Sydney Greenstreet.
Here are the best lines from this film.
J. R. Howard, "Jean, you've never done a day's work in your life." Jean Howard, "I never had to. Oh, give me a chance will you?"
Jean Howard, "Are you a single lieutenant?" Don Mallory, "Yes. Just one."
Jean Howard, "It's so hard to tell if a man is married. Course, a girl always wears a ring on her finger." Don Mallory, "Mmm hmm, a man always wears one through his nose."
Don Mallory, "You mean, if you can be married and stay single, fine, but ..." Jean Howard, "Yes."
Jean Howard, "You don't have to know me. All you have to do is marry me. I mean, pretend to marry me, just for a little while."
Col. Michael Otley, "Lucille, everyone in the Army isn't a general." Lucile, "No, sir, but you'd be surprised how my tips increased after I started calling everyone general."
But her simple, harmless little plan of deceit quickly gets out of hand. It leads to all sorts of problems and troubles for the lieutenant, and eventually her. This begins to appear like a modern Adam and Eve tale, and the young officer soon thinks his career and life are ruined. One knows that this will all turn out okay for the girl and the soldier. But that's only after a twisted, narrow, multi-layered course of many turns and roadblocks. The two days that this story covers were more complicated than the worst obstacle course a maniacal NCO could devise.
Well, its all supposed to be for fun, and it is to a degree. There's no sign of romance until the very end, and that is contrived and hard to believe. The script has very little clever dialog, and the comedy is mostly situational. In that regard, it's quite crazy, but with a scarcity of anything very laughable. Ida Lupino plays Jean Howard and William Prince plays Lt. Don Mallory. Lupino made her mark mostly in crime mysteries and dramas. She was just in a handful of comedies, and none of them fared very well. This was the best one. And the shortage of actors was also a reality during the war, with so many of them in the military. Although Prince had a lengthy career, his early roles were mostly minor ones, and after just half a dozen or so, he moved over to TV productions. He was in many series and several TV movies where he did very well.
So, to give this film a boost, Warner Brothers provided some top supporting roles and a lively nighttime scene with a young Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. There's no doubt that Satchmo Armstrong, Sydney Greenstreet and others lifted this film and kept it from being a flop. It had a $5 million box office, coming in around 70th in U. S. films for the year. Greenstreet's role as Col. Otley was very good, as were the supporting roles of a hectic Stuart Erwin as Capt. Jack Ross, whose wife was having quadruplets, and Ruth Donnelly as the auto court manager, Mrs. Grace Wingate. Willie Best is very good as the porter, Lucille, and Johnny Mitchell is okay as Earl "Slim" Clark.
The best reason for seeing this movie by modern audiences would be to see the very young Louis Armstrong with his trumpet and orchestra, and a very nice role played by the always entertaining English actor, Sydney Greenstreet.
Here are the best lines from this film.
J. R. Howard, "Jean, you've never done a day's work in your life." Jean Howard, "I never had to. Oh, give me a chance will you?"
Jean Howard, "Are you a single lieutenant?" Don Mallory, "Yes. Just one."
Jean Howard, "It's so hard to tell if a man is married. Course, a girl always wears a ring on her finger." Don Mallory, "Mmm hmm, a man always wears one through his nose."
Don Mallory, "You mean, if you can be married and stay single, fine, but ..." Jean Howard, "Yes."
Jean Howard, "You don't have to know me. All you have to do is marry me. I mean, pretend to marry me, just for a little while."
Col. Michael Otley, "Lucille, everyone in the Army isn't a general." Lucile, "No, sir, but you'd be surprised how my tips increased after I started calling everyone general."