A Girl Must Live *** (1939, Margaret Lockwood, Renee Houston, Lilli Palmer) – Classic Movie Review 9336

After Bank Holiday (1938), director Carol Reed asked Margaret Lockwood back to star in his 1939 film A Girl Must Live, a romantic comedy about gold-digging showgirls romantically entangled with a rich lord.

Young Earl of Pangborough (Hugh Sinclair) invites Clytie Devine (Lilli Palmer) and Gloria Lind (Renee Houston) and sweet ingenue Leslie James (Lockwood) to his country seat, with obvious results.

Vivacious and appealing though Lockwood is, her resources are stretched compared with those of her more experienced co-stars. The comedy is now pretty tame and the ideas seem stale. But the playing stands up well, with Mary Clare and Kathleen Harrison especially amusing as the boarding house landlady Mrs Wallis and cook Penelope, as well as the indispensable Naunton Wayne (as Hugo Smythe) and Moore Marriott (as Bretherton Hythe).

Frank Launder, Austin Melford and Michael Pertwee’s screenplay is based on Emery Bonnett [Emery Bonnet]’s novel.

Roy Ward Baker is the second unit director. Jack E Cox shoots in black and white.

Also in the cast are George Robey, Hugh Sinclair, Martita Hunt, Helen Haye, Mary Clare, David Burns, Kathleen Harrison, Drusilla Wills, Wilson Coleman, Frederick Burtwell, Michael Hordern, Merle Tottenham, Joan White, Kathleen Boutall and Muriel Aked.

Lockwood made three more films with Reed in 1939-40, including Girl in the News (1940), Night Train to Munich (1940) and The Stars Look Down (1940).

It is Michael Hordern’s cinema debut.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9336

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