Ladies of the Chorus *** (1948, Adele Jergens, Marilyn Monroe, Rand Brooks) – Classic Movie Review 7604

Director Phil Karlson’s 1948 cheap and cheerful, quickly made musical Ladies of the Chorus offers a must-see chance to see Marilyn Monroe’s first leading role, which is the main attraction of this thin theatre drama about a Broadway baby called Mae Martin (Adele Jergens) who sees her daughter Peggy (Monroe) dance in the chorus and then become a star, but falls out with her when the daughter starts to love a rich playboy, with the unfortunate name of Randy (Rand Brooks).

Forgotten star Jergens is fine as the nominal headliner playing mom, but it is all eyes on Marilyn, who gives a very appealing, sure performance and trills two songs (one of five in this semi-musical romantic drama) – Every Baby Needs a Da Da Daddy and Anyone Can See I Love You, and joins in with the rest of the chorus on the title number, Ladies of the Chorus (all written by Allan Roberts and Lester Lee).

But this first taste of stardom proved a false dawn for Monroe. Columbia Pictures was so unimpressed with her performance that they dumped her from her contract and returned her to the bit-part circuit. This of course proved a big mistake.

It was shot in black and white in ten days in April and May 1948, but not released until December 1948 in San Francisco, and in February 1949 elsewhere in America. This B film typically quickly disappeared from cinemas, but had a second life in 1962 after Monroe became a star.

The version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the November 1952 re-release, with new title credits with Monroe’s name over the title and star Jergens moved to the head of the supporting cast. It was originally advertised as ‘See the dollies from the follies turn the bluebloods into redbloods!’ but the re-release advertises ‘the girl everybody’s talking about!’. How Columbia Pictures had the cheek to do this after terminating Monroe’s contract is anyone’s guess and disrespecting star Jergens like this is shocking.

Also in the cast are Nana Bryant, Eddie Carr, Steven Geray, Bill Edwards, Myron Healey, Marjorie Hoshelle, Robert Clarke, Emmett Vogan, Frank Scannell, Dave Barry, Alan Barry, Almira Sessions, Claire Whitney and Gladys Blake.

It is written by Harry Sauber and Joseph Carole, and based on a story by Harry Sauber.

It is available in the Marilyn Monroe Collection Box Set DVD.

Rand Brooks, who died on 1 September 2003, aged 84, played Scarlett O’Hara’s ill-fated first husband Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind. Brooks provides Monroe with her first screen kiss in Ladies of the Chorus. In 1966 he started Professional Ambulance Service, which became the largest private ambulance 9-1-1 paramedic provider in Los Angeles County.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7604

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