{"id":34052,"date":"2014-06-06T10:01:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=34052"},"modified":"2014-06-06T10:01:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:01:27","slug":"2014-tcm-film-festival-hat-check-girl-1932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/2014-tcm-film-festival-hat-check-girl-1932\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 TCM Film Festival: Hat Check Girl (1932)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After each TCM Film Festival, I&#8217;ve had a film that I considered my &#8220;discovery&#8221; of the Fest. It helps that TCM has a Discovery section dedicated to lesser-known and rediscovered films, but even out of that group, there&#8217;s usually one I latch on to as the one that makes me grateful for the Fest and for going in blind to so many of the Discovery films. In previous years, it&#8217;s been <em>Lonesome<\/em>, <em>Hoop-La<\/em>, or <em>This is the Night<\/em> &#8211; almost always late &#8217;20s, early &#8217;30s films. This year I pegged <em>Hat Check Girl<\/em> as most likely to be that film because it was one of only a couple Discoveries from that era; turns out I was wrong and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/2014\/05\/2014-tcm-film-festival-the-strangers-return\/\">the delightful <em>The Stranger&#8217;s Return<\/em><\/a> turned out to be my discovery, but that doesn&#8217;t mean <em>Hat Check Girl<\/em> wasn&#8217;t immensely enjoyable.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tff-hatcheckgirl.jpg\" alt=\"tff-hatcheckgirl\" width=\"600\" height=\"466\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34190\" data-wp-pid=\"34190\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sally Eilers plays Gerry Marsh, a hat check girl who wants to stay clean and honest, but keeps being pressured by her boss to sell bootlegged liquor and be an escort at fancy parties. At one such party, she winds up staying late and taking up the host on his offer to stay in a neighboring apartment whose tenant (Buster) is out of town &#8211; only he comes back IN town while she&#8217;s sleeping in his bed. Yes, this is a Pre-Code. There&#8217;s a lot more plot, with Buster romancing Gerry and getting involved in a murder, and it kind of goes off the rails because of course in a 64-minute movie you want to throw in everything but the kitchen sink.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The film literally has everything you&#8217;d expect to find in three or four different Pre-Codes &#8211; slimy bosses asking too much of their female employees, bootlegging and criminal activity, murder in mysterious circumstances, fast-talking best friends, shady newspaper guys willing to do anything to sell some papers, a good girl in compromising situations, playful sexual cat and mouse games, glamorous parties, etc. It&#8217;s actually pretty charming, though, because there&#8217;s no way anything that goes this many directions at once would get made today, and there&#8217;s something to be said for watching slackjawed thinking &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe they&#8217;re adding ANOTHER plot element, but okay!&#8221; every five minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The real reason to watch this, though, is the zingy dialogue, and there is PLENTY of it. Despite the brief running time, this film probably has more innuendo and off-color remarks than 90% of the Pre-Codes I&#8217;ve seen, most of them delivered by Ginger Rogers, Gerry&#8217;s best friend who is constantly and happily doing all the things that Gerry balks at. She&#8217;s awesome, as always. Meanwhile, Sally Eilers is utterly charming. I&#8217;d never heard of her before, but she apparently worked pretty constantly throughout the 1930s, with a spike in the Pre-Code era (she made eight films in 1931 alone!). She&#8217;s definitely someone I&#8217;ll seek out in the future.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tff-hat-check-girl-ginger-rogers.jpg\" alt=\"tff-hat-check-girl-ginger-rogers\" width=\"600\" height=\"455\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34189\" data-wp-pid=\"34189\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After each TCM Film Festival, I&#8217;ve had a film that I considered my &#8220;discovery&#8221; of the Fest. It helps that TCM has a Discovery section dedicated to lesser-known and rediscovered films, but even out of that group, there&#8217;s usually one I latch on to as the one that makes me grateful for the Fest and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2111],"tags":[1906,2913,2916,2915,2914],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34051,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/2014-tcm-film-festival-the-strangers-return\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":0},"title":"2014 TCM Film Festival: The Stranger&#8217;s Return","author":"Jandy","date":"May 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The tightest scheduling block I attempted was between How Green Was My Valley (see here) and this film, and I was extremely lucky to get in - I was, in fact, the LAST person into a very full theatre. I felt kind of bad (and still do, since I know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TCM Film Festival&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35078,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/previewing-the-2015-tcm-classic-film-fest\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":1},"title":"Previewing the 2015 TCM Classic Film Fest","author":"Jandy","date":"March 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sixth Annual TCM Classic Film Festival is nearly upon us - four glorious days of immersion in classic film in the heart of Hollywood along with hundreds of our fellow classic film fans. It's the best time of the year for those of us who love Hollywood's golden era\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TCM Film Festival&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/TCM-Film-Festival-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33923,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/tcm-classic-film-fest-2014-a-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":2},"title":"TCM Classic Film Fest 2014: A Preview","author":"Jandy","date":"April 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Cross-posted from Row Three] After missing last year's TCM Classic Film Festival due to a minor thing like having a baby, I've been really excited to jump back in this year, and thankfully, I was able to secure a media credential to cover the fest despite taking a year off.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TCM Film Festival&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TCM-Fest-feat.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20606,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/tcm-film-festival-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":3},"title":"TCM Film Festival 2011","author":"Jandy","date":"April 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again I am heading to the TCM Classic Film Festival, and I couldn't be more excited. It's such a great opportunity to see classic films the best way possible - on the big screen with audiences who love them. The overall theme of this year's festival is Music in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Film&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/TCM-Classic-Film-Festival-featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35132,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/tcm-film-fest-2015-another-great-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":4},"title":"TCM Film Fest 2015: Another Great Experience","author":"Jandy","date":"March 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"There are plenty of great reasons to go to the TCM Classic Film Festival - seeing movies you love on the big screen, discovering forgotten and long-unavailable films, learning about film history firsthand, seeing some of the greatest actors, directors, and behind-the-scenes talent in the history of motion picture, etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TCM Film Festival&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/TCM-Film-Festival-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35837,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/tcm-film-festival-2016-my-plans\/","url_meta":{"origin":34052,"position":5},"title":"TCM Film Festival 2016: My Plans","author":"Jandy","date":"April 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that time of year again! The TCM Classic Film Festival is upon us this week, and soon classic film fans from around the country (and the world) will descend on Hollywood for four glorious days of classic movies playing on giant screens to packed theatres. There are some great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TCM Film Festival&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TCM Film Festival","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/tcm-film-festival\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tf-feat-TCMFF-schedule.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}