"Give Out, Sisters" 1942: Reviewed

Give Out, Sisters is a 1942 film starring Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor, Peggy Ryan, and the Andrews Sisters.  I ask you to forgive me for not doing my full research (reading the Wikipedia and IMDb pages), but we just got back from our family summer vacation and I’m a bit worn and groggy; reading is the last thing on my mind.  Anyway, I found this movie (and about…10? others) on a YouTube channel that is a goldmine for Don O’Connor movies, and I hastily downloaded all I could find. 

This movie lasts roughly 1 hour and 4 minutes and is really quite a delight to watch for all the singing and dancing.  However, I found the acting to be a bit stale.  The cast didn’t seem to compliment each other’s talents in the acting department and I eventually started to grimace every time someone opened their mouth. 

I must allow them some credit, though, for the humor put into this film.  The biggest stunt that stands out in my mind is when the Andrews Sisters, trying to do a favor for who I assume they deemed friends, by dressing up as the Waverly Sisters.  The Waverly Sisters are the rich antagonists in the film and they don't want their niece (whom they are the guardian of) to be dancing and “showing off the Waverly legs.”  Said niece Grace, or Gracie Roberts as she is known by when dancing, is a lead dancer for the dancing school that Don, Peggy Ryan, and the rest of the gang attend.  Anyway, in order to get the clear for Grace to dance at a night club with the rest of the school, the manager of the night club must hear the Waverly Sisters give their consent.  They are a tough lot to convince, so Patty, Laverne, and Maxene dress up as the sisters to fool the manager and clear the way for Grace to dance.  Later they come into quite a predicament when trying to get back to the club in time to go on stage as the Andrews Sisters without letting the manager know what was going on.

However, the dancing takes this cake in this picture.  Grace MacDonald (and as I’m beginning to look some things up, I’m realizing how unoriginal these names are…!) plays Gracie and isn’t the prettiest girl out there.  The quality of my version is pretty crappy and unclear so one can’t really see faces and small details.  On top of that I was riding in a car with my screen light turned down to conserve battery power, so I didn’t have the best viewing of the movie.  But after first watching Gracie dance, I forgot what her face looked like and quickly realized that I had conjured up a much prettier face for her than was actual.  This happened a few more times before I figured out who I had been thinking of: Ginger Rogers.  Gracie was blonde, slender, and a wonderful dancer and my tired mind must have mixed up a few things.  But no matter who was dancing, this film wasn’t too bad!  I rate it a 3 out of 5 and if you would like to see it (and other O’Connor films), you can visit this YouTube link.

IMDb

Wikipedia