Where Did You Get That Girl? (1941) User Reviews

Frothy little musical, maybe a bit dated

[gerdeen-1 · 1 January 2011]

I would call this a musical. It has only a few songs, but then again, it's a fairly short movie. It's reasonably pleasant, though no one would call it great.

I suspect "Where Did You Get That Girl?" is so little known because star Helen Parrish is not well enough remembered. She was beautiful and very talented, but died young.

The story is about a swing band and a female vocalist (Parrish) trying to break into the big time. Gangsters get involved, and there are lots of comic mix-ups until everything is resolved. If you like Leon Errol's unsubtle brand of humor, you'll get some laughs. (He's the bald guy with the perpetually harried expression.)

The title song will probably seem familiar. It was written decades before this movie by Bert Kalmar and Harry Puck. Later, in 1950, it was used as the opening number in "Three Little Words," the biopic about Kalmar's collaboration with Harry Ruby.

They don't sing it. They scream it.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 29 March 2019]

In fact, they basically scream every line. Every actor is directed to yell, and like talk shows today, everybody talks over each other to the point where it becomes difficult to understand what everybody is saying.

This is just one of a dozen or more Universal be musicals made just in 1941 alone. Character actor Thurston Hall cries for an aspirin on or about the sixth time that the band lead by Charles Lang and Eddie Quillan performs the title song (warbled over and over by Helen Parrish), and I was tempted to grab one myself. Lang, Quillan Parrish and the rest of the band are arrested because of stolen bonds, delayed from performing on the radio and signing a contract with the highest bidder. Veteran actor Leon Errol, sporting a white old man wig and a heavy, annoying El Brendel style European accent, is unfunny for probably the only time in his career, having stolen the entire "Mexican Spitfire" series away from star Lupe Velez. Franklin Pangborn also appears as a fussy radio station manager.

The title song, best remembered as sung and danced by Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen in "Three Little Words", is the only song here in the film, and never truly completely. By the time the movie is over, you may not want to ever hear it again.