Fantastic example of MGM at its peak. A three girl movies where the girls are played by iconic stars each in a specifically defined role - Lana Turner as a shabby poor girl (elevator operator) who can't resist the money, Judy Garland as a super talented girl who isn't as hot as the others but is the one made for showbiz, Hedy Lamarr as the refugee.
Turner and Lamarr have controlling partners - James Stewart (adding affability and star power) as a truck driving boyfriend, and Lamarr with her sooky violinst husband Philip Dorn. Garland isn't given a girlfriend but an actor dad whose career she helps.
Lamar's subplot looks promising when sleazty singer Tony Martin goes after her but then his wife somes along and asks for her to back off and she does and gets back with violinist Dorn. This plot needed a little more kick and for Lamar to interact with the girls. There's not enough girl interacting.
But Turner's is a lot of fun as she embraces booze, rich men (Ian Hunter, then they get sleazier - one of them is Dan Dailey), and Stewart becoomes a bootlegger. It's basically implied Turner becomes a hooker, she has a lovely final scene with Stewart then goes to see a show, and basically dies which is grand OTT wonderful MGM crap as are the production numbers.
Female writers so the women are depicted sympathetically, even the cuckolded wife, and gold digger Eve Arden, and the men are unreliable (even Stewart winds up going to prison before bouncing back). Jackei Cooper is cutely bumbling as Turner's brother - kept waiting for her to hook up with Garland but didn't happen. Paul Kelly is nicely ruthless as a stage manager and Edward Everett Horton is part of the Ziegfield organisation - two recogniseable types.
Lots of fun. Turner's film more than Garland's too which is part of its charm.
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