Another of the movies that's been sitting on my DVR for a bit that's getting another showing on TCM is Pillow to Post. That next TCM showing is tomorrow, October 23, at 6:00 AM, so as always I made the point of watching it now so that I could schedule this post on the movie in conjunction with the upcoming airing.
The movie was released right at the tail end of World War II, and presumably set a bit since it's based on a play produced in 1943. With the war on, there's a need for men to fight and a consequent shortage of men in regular industry. This hits J.R. Howard (Paul Harvey), who runs a company producing oil rig supplies, which you'd think would be a key industry. Well, maybe so, but the salesmen aren't quite so key, and Howard has lost most of his salesmen. His daughter Jean (Ida Lupino), who for whatever reason hasn't been able to do anything for the war effort -- she says she's even been told the Red Cross doesn't want her blood -- overhears Dad having a talk with one of the draft boards. She suggests that perhaps she could take over the job, even though she's never done this sort of work.
She goes around the country with not much success, until she hears of a possible lead just outside San Diego, Slim Clark (Johnny Mitchell). The job is going to keep her there a couple of days, which is however an issue. When she gets to Travelers' Aid at the train station, she learns once again how there's a war on. And because San Diego is an important port of departure what with Camp Pendleton (not named) and other military installations, there are constantly people traveling in and out of town such that all of the hotels are booked solid and there's no way Jean is getting a place to stay. However, thanks to a misunderstood comment, the woman at the help desk thinks Jean is an Army bride. There's an opening at the Colonial Auto Court, which is for military couples with no children.
Jean, I suppose, could tell a little white lie since she's only going to be there a couple of days maximum. But the manager, Mrs. Wingate (Ruth Donnelly), kind of expects both halves of the couple to sign the register. Jean needs a fake husband, and for whatever reason thinks she needs a lieutenant specifically. On her way back from talking to Clark, who says he needs time to think things over, she flags down a couple of cars looking for a lieutenant who can pretend to be a husband and who can come up with an excuse not to have to stay the night. One car has a colonel, Otley (Sydney Greenstreet, whose shape is a plot point), but eventually she stops Lt. Mallory (William Prince), who goes along with it although it's more because he feels he doesn't have much choice.
And it's unsurprising why Lt. Mallory would be uncomfortable about doing this. Clark wants to take Jean out for the day to discuss the business deal, and all of the other women at the motor court get all the wrong ideas. Never mind that dinner with Clark goes badly enough that it comes to blows between Clark and Mallory. Worse for Mallory is that Col. Otley is staying at the motor court with his wife, and when he hears about Mallory's surprise marriage, he wants to do all the right things in terms of getting paperwork and whatnot done. It will cause substantial discipline problems if it comes to light that Mallory is in fact not married to Jean. And then Mallory's mom and Jean's dad both learn about the sudden marriage and show up for the climax.
Now, since this is a wartime movie and a decided comedy, you know that it's going to have to have a happy ending; Lt. Mallory ending up in prison just isn't going to do. So how are they going to resolve the plot problems? You'll just have to watch Pillow to Post to find out.
To be honest, Pillow to Post isn't quite my favorite, I think for several reasons. One is the fact that the plot is going to have to get itself into contortions to resolve things. Another is that it's another of those movies where a little white lie snowballs into bigger lies, and as I've said a lot, that's a type of movie I don't generally care for. There's also the supporting characters, with several quirky subplots that are just too quirky for the good of the movie. Those plot issues serve to make it feel like everybody's trying just a bit too hard. It's not so much that Pillow to Post is bad; it's more that it's another of those movies that could have been better than the finished product is.
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