User Reviews

Well, I just finished watching 'Hockshop Blues' which basically runs along the same lines as 'Play! Girls' does, and I was not very impressed with that one and it's complete and utter *lack* of invention, 'Play! Girls' is slightly more entertaining just for the fact that what we are seeing actually seems to serve a purpose of some kind. A studio employee brings his boss home to dinner after a long day of viewing countless people auditioning for a part in... whatever (theater, film, band, we are never really told). It isn't really important anyway, as the whole film basically just feels like one long audition reel in itself, the same way that 'Hockshop Blues' did, which was released the same year as this in 1937. I don't know if there was a high demand for this kind of stuff back then, but I couldn't imagine why you would want to see a film of something that was so prominent at the time that you could see just as easily in real life.

So the studio employee tells his wife that he and his boss are coming home for dinner, "and remember," he says "no show biz." But of course when they arrive, the wife puts on nice long theatrical audition for them. Thank you for making sense. I want to say that I enjoyed this film more than I did 'Hockshop Blues', maybe it was the music and talent that I felt was more entertaining this time around, or the actual story, but the whole thing really does just seem to serve as a ten minute audition reel. Interesting to watch if you are a fan of older films like myself. And again, 'Play! Girls' is available to watch over at the Internet Archive.

PLAY! GIRLS -----5/10.

Mr. Holden is a big-time theatrical producer. The problem is that none of the acts he's auditioned appeal to him and he's getting sick and tired of it all. A friend offers to take him home for a nice meal and to forget about his job for now. Unfortunately, despite telling the wife about this, she's arranged for all kinds of talented(?) folks to 'just happen to pop in' when the producer is there. In the end, he's somehow convinced to sign everyone--so I can only assume he's either insane or he's producing something for a very small community theater. That's because the audience is treated to many folks who have SOME talent--but clearly not enough--and that is why you see them just in this 3rd tier film from a 3rd tier company (Educational Pictures). If your idea of fun is watching a high school talent contest, then by all means watch. I kind of wish I hadn't.

Fun musical short. We start off with an act consisting of females doing acrobatics/dancing...very generic, but kinda fun. A character (a producer) is sick of seeing all the talent that is auditioning, and wants to get away from it all. He is invited to have dinner at the house that an employee is living at (actually the house of a relative of that employee). The wife of that employee decides to stage a little talent show when the producer arrives, consisting of the staff that work at the house. We see an all-female band (including a nice singing trio), followed by a fun novelty-dancing act consisting of two African-Americans, then a generic (but decent) female singer, and finally the wife herself does some tap-dancing while using a lasso! None of this is exactly ground-breaking, but it has a fun 1930s-flavor that is quite appealing. The short is public domain and should hopefully be on YouTube by the time you read this!