Today of course the thousands if not millions of Marilyn Monroe fans will want to see/own this as it marked her first appearance as a leading player but in 1948 she was just another pretty face and it's difficult to know who the target audience was. At sixty-one minutes it was always going to be the 'B' picture supporting some Columbia 'name' vehicle - Rita Hayworth possibly. Even for that relatively strait-laced era the chorus girls here seem remarkably well-brought up, a sort of chorus of Debbie Reynolds clones, light years away from the harsh reality. Adele Jergens scores heavily as Monroe's mother though she could easily have played her sister. There are a couple of so-so numbers and a plot so thin it wouldn't support a roll-up but it's very painless and those MM fans aren't going to mind in the least.
Review of Ladies of the Chorus
