Sun 12 Oct 2014
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: JUKE GIRL (1942).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[6] Comments
JUKE GIRL. Warner Brothers, 1942. Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Richard Whorf, George Tobias, Gene Lockhart, Alan Hale, Betty Brewer, Howard Da Silva, Faye Emerson, Willie Best. Screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides, based on a story by Theodore Pratt. Director: Curtis Bernhardt.
Although it may not have the most compelling plot or the best action sequences, the Warner Brothers melodrama Juke Girl benefits strongly from Ann Sheridan in a starring role. She portrays a tough, streets smart juke joint dance girl in a bustling Florida farming and packing plant town. Her commitment to the smoke filled music hall life is tested when she encounters Steve Talbot (Ronald Reagan), a charming itinerant farmhand with a strong commitment to the plight of the common man.
The plot, which occasionally seems to deviate sharply from where one expects it to be heading, follows the story of two friends, Steve Talbot (Reagan) and Danny Frazier (Richard Whorf) as they arrive in Cat Tail, Florida looking for work. They soon come to learn that the small town is all but run by packing magnate Henry Madden (Gene Lockhart) and his strong man, Cully (Henry Da Silva).
Soon after arriving in town, Steve falls for Lola Mears (Ann Sheridan’s character) who is working at the town’s smoke filled juke joint. But he doesn’t fall as hard for the tyrannical Madden. In fact, he decides he’d rather work for small time tomato farmer Nick Garcos the Greek (George Tobias) than the packing plant owner.
This strains his relationship with Danny (Whorf) who wants to work for Madden. Along for the ride and trying to keep the peace is character actor Alan Hale, who portrays Yippee, one of the locals with a strong conscience.
For a time, things go okay for Steve and Lola. They help Nick ship tomatoes to market in Atlanta, and there’s even talk of their settling down together. But Lola abruptly skips out on Steve. She still doesn’t think of herself as the settling down type. Things then get even worse for poor Steve when there’s a warehouse murder, which the townsfolk blame on him.
The movie abruptly veers from a melodrama to something of a crime film. But even so the crime aspect remains a mere sideshow to the story about the relationship between Steve and Lola, two rural working class lovebirds trying to make their way in a rough and tumble world.
That said, aside from championing honest work, the film really isn’t very political. There’s no heavy-handed message here. Reagan’s character isn’t as much a labor leader as he is a guy originally from the wheat fields of Kansas who wants hardworking farmers to get a fair deal.
Juke Girl isn’t the type of film that will likely stick with you for days and weeks after you’ve watched it. But it is nevertheless an enjoyable film, far less gritty than the films noir of the late 1940s, but one that hints strongly at a world where the greedy and the unscrupulous would gladly prey on the weak.
—
October 12th, 2014 at 4:22 pm
Jonathan
I reviewed this sometime back here, and came to much the same conclusions as you, though I found Reagan cast as a labor organizer of any kind to be ironic despite his being a New Deal Democrat in those days and a leader in SAG.
Someone should have played this for him when he was Governor of California.
The film belongs to Sheridan of course though Whorf plays his role for all it is worth. I think my assessment of this was that it was less a Warner’s social drama of the era than a western with Reagan and Sheridan riding off into the sunset.
Sheridan pulls off the neat trick of looking and to some extent behaving the way you would expect a ‘juke girl’ to look and behave while still convincing you she is a nice girl despite it all. Usually in this sort of role you have to suspend quite a bit of disbelief to accept that. I like to compare this to DODGE CITY where her saloon girl isn’t half so innocent or nice.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:26 pm
“Sheridan pulls off the neat trick of looking and to some extent behaving the way you would expect a ‘juke girl’ to look and behave while still convincing you she is a nice girl despite it all.”
I couldn’t have said it better, David.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:32 pm
PS. Here’s the link to David’s earlier review of JUKE GIRL on this blog, appearing here over four years ago, but forgotten by me until he mentioned it a couple of comments above:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1983
October 12th, 2014 at 6:10 pm
I thought this well handled and sensitive. Reagan, Whorf and Sheridan are all too civilized for my preconceptions, at least, what migrant workers were or are. Reagan, of course, was a great classic liberal, who stated that he did not leave the Democratic Party, but it had left him. Most of conservative America today is composed of FDR Democrats.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:18 pm
Whorf really does play the George Raft to Reagan’s Bogart in this one
October 13th, 2014 at 3:35 pm
In my review I was comparing this to other Warner’s social dramas of the era and compared to them this is very light, and as Barry points out everyone is a bit too clean cut and middle class to really feel like migrant workers.
I wasn’t commenting on Reagan’s conservatism as much as the migrant worker problem in California during his administration (and those before and after him). Change of politics or not it’s a bit ironic.
I like this film, but it is curiously light for a Warner’s social drama of that era. Usually they were much harder hitting.