My Sister Eileen (1955)

After submitting a story of her beautiful sister, a woman assumes her identity to maintain the attention of a playboy publisher.

Director:

Richard Quine

Writers:

Blake Edwards (screenplay), Richard Quine (screenplay)

Stars:

Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Janet Leigh	...	Eileen Sherwood
Jack Lemmon	...	Robert 'Bob' Baker
Betty Garrett	...	Ruth Sherwood
Bob Fosse	...	Frank (as Robert Fosse)
Kurt Kasznar	...	'Papa' Appopolous
Dick York	...	Ted 'Wreck' Loomis (as Richard York)
Lucy Marlow	...	Helen
Tommy Rall	...	Chick
Barbara Brown	...	Helen's Mother
Horace McMahon	...	Police Officer Lonigan
Henry Slate	...	Second Drunk
Hal March	...	Pete - First Drunk

Storyline

Ruth and her beautiful sister Eileen come to New York's Greenwich Village looking for "fame, fortune and a 'For Rent' sign on Barrow Street". They find an apartment (such as it is!), but fame and fortune are a lot more elusive. Ruth gets the attention of playboy publisher Bob Baker when she submits a story about her gorgeous sister Eileen. She tries to keep his attention by convincing him that she, (a "spinsterish old-maid writer") and the gorgeous, man-getting Eileen are one and the same person.

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Plot Keywords:

two sisters | sister sister relationship | screwball comedy | sister | color remake of black and white film | 

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Taglines:

That Joyous New Musical !

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Portuguese

Release Date:

22 September 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Gay Girls

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch - 411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints) (RCA Sound Recording) Mono (optical prints) (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Ruth first visits the Brazilian training ship, it's docked next to two US Navy destroyers. They're DD 531, the Hazelwood, and DD 537, The Sullivans.

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Goofs

When Eileen is dancing at El Morocco, she is wearing shoes with small heels. Later on that night when they dance at the bandstand, Eileen is wearing flat shoes.

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Quotes

Receptionist: Mr. Wallace, she isn't on the list.
Mr. Wallace: Don't be so technical, Miss Stevenson. Was America on Columbus' map?

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Connections

Featured in Broadway: The American Musical: Tradition: 1957-1979 (2004)

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Soundtracks

I'm Great
Music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin
Performed by Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, Kurt Kasznar and Dick York

User Reviews

The Sherwood Sisters Ride High Again

I'm not sure what the story was with Harry Cohn and this film. Back in the early Forties My Sister Eileen was a big comedy hit for Columbia Pictures starring Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair about the two sisters from Ohio moving to Greenwich Village. So Cohn in fact did own the screen rights.

My Sister Eileen moved to Broadway in the early Fifties with Rosalind Russell repeating her role on stage in a musical adaption renamed Wonderful Town. Leonard Bernstein and Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote a fine musical score.

So what does Harry Cohn do, he decides to remake My Sister Eileen, but does he shell out any money to Bernstein, Comden and Green for their songs. He does not and pays Jule Styne and Leo Robin to write yet another score. It was one of the weakest scores these two worthy song writers were ever associated. In fact it keeps this version of My Sister Eileen from being a great film.

Still it's not a bad one with Betty Garrett and Janet Leigh stepping nicely into the roles created by Russell and Blair. As before and as on stage the film is about the Sherwood sisters from Ohio, sensible and witty older sister Garrett and pretty Janet Leigh with a nice pair of weapons of mass destruction. Men just fall over themselves trying to do for her, two of them in this film are dueling dancers Tommy Rall and Bob Fosse.

Jack Lemmon has one of his early roles in My Sister Eileen as a publisher who is interested in both Betty Garrett who is an aspiring writer and the one story that he's interested in is the one she's written about her sister Eileen.

Garrett retains all the witty bite of Rosalind Russell and Leigh is guaranteed to get the hormones racing of the male population. My Sister Eileen misses being a great film because of the mediocre songs, but fans of the players shouldn't miss it. Look also for a great performance by Kurt Kaszner as the Sherwood sisters Bohemian landlord.