“Girls of the Road” One Sheet – Meet the Girls of the Female Hobo Jungles!
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 157
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – I love Girls of the Road. A film with that title leads one to have certain expectations and this film delivers. It may not be Academy Award material, but it’s damn good fun and even has a social message in there if you want to stop and think about it. Girls of the Road even lives up to expectations with its poster art! What’s not to love about this one sheet when we can “meet the girls of the female hobo jungles?”
This poster comes up for sale every so often and depending on what way the wind is blowing, can go for as much as $250 and as little as $50. I don’t remember exactly what I paid, but I think it was on the lower end. Either way, every penny spent on this beauty is well worth it.
This is an enjoyable film. Was quite happy when TCM added the old Columbia films to their inventory a few years back, as much for the B’s (the Boston Blackie and Whistler series are guilty pleasures) as the better known films of Capra, Stevens, Hawks, and the like. I believe “Blind Alley”, a very good vehicle for Ann starring Blackie himself, was a Columbia film.
Yesterday’s picture of Ann drove me to the Galleries link to the 40s. It is striking to me how her appearance can fluctuate from photo to photo.
Yes, Blind Alley was Columbia, which I think is quite good.
Ann’s appearance was fairly consistent in the 1930s, but the 40s was another story. She seemed to change hair colors every few months!
Agree with Mike about the guilty pleasure aspect of the ‘Boston Blackie’ series at Columbia. Along with the ‘Lone Wolf’ series, made at Columbia at around that same time, with Ann’s “Three On A Match” co-star Warren William, which TCM has also been good enough to show.
Could Preston Sturges have watched “Girls Of The Road” — with Ann going ‘undercover’ to experience the plight of the poor and homeless — and used it as an inspiration for “Sullivan’s Travels” made at Paramount the following year?
As much as I love the thought of Preston Sturges being influenced by an Ann Dvorak female hobo film, I kind of doubt it. But, truth can be stranger than fiction!