Stanley Snodgrass, perhaps Broadway's clumsiest (if not oldest and most out-of-tune) chorus boy, finds himself unceremoniously ousted from yet another show, but when an infamous slasher starts threatening the show's leads, Stanley is brought back as the headliner, unaware that the police are using him as bait. Even with Detective Logan secretly posing as Stanley's valet, producer Harry Fraser fears Jack the Slasher may not put in an appearance soon enough to prevent Stanley from murdering his show.
78 min | Comedy, Musical | 1953 | Color
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The World's Oldest Chorus Boy
Frequently in Bob Hope films he portrays inept stage artists. In MY FAVORITE SPY he's a third rate burlesque comic, Peanuts White. In FANCY PANTS he is Arthur Tyler, who has learned too much about cue lines in plays (he keeps jumping slightly ahead of them - which is pretty bad usually, but worse in a stage melodrama like the play we see him in). He does play the great vaudevillian Eddie Foy Sr. in THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS, but to keep his kids near him all the time Eddie has to incorporate them into an act that is so bad it is entertaining in an unintentional way.
In HERE COME THE GIRLS he remains his normal inept self. He is Stanley Snodgrass, a woefully bad chorus boy who has been working in a small New York theater for years, much to the annoyance of the theater owner-producer Harry Fraser (Fred Clark). Not only is Stanley a bad dancer (lousing up the choreography) but he is annoying the leading lady Irene Bailey (Arlene Dahl) with his attentions. This is also annoying to her boyfriend and co-star Allen Trent (Tony Martin), and also unsettling to the one person in the cast who likes Stanley, chorus girl Daisy Crockett (Rosemary Clooney). Daisy (level headed girl that she appears) actually loves Stanley. Although he appreciates her interest he's too tied up throwing himself (sometimes literally) before the fed up Irene to really consider it. I may add that while Stanley's mother is all for Stanley's artistic efforts, his father Albert (Millard Mitchell) wants Stanley to settle down and take over his coal transporting business (the film is set in 1900 - coal is used for heating homes and buildings). Stanley will have none of it.
One day Stanley louses up so badly that a happy Fraser fires him. Except for Clooney the cast and company are quite happy at this decision. Unfortunately for Fraser's peace of mind Irene has won a second unwanted conquest - a local psychopathic type known as "Jack the Slasher" (Robert Strauss). He has killed several men and women for various reasons, and he now sends a message that he will kill his rival for Irene. This is a threat directed at Trent, so Fraser is beside himself: not only is the performer's life in danger, but he may lose a good leading man (Clark's characters are always "quite sentimental"). The New York Detective on the case, Dennis Logan (William Demerest) suggests that they set a trap using another patsy for the bait. Biting back his bile, Fraser rehires Stanley, and promotes him to the lead (with Trent as his understudy).
The results are quite funny, with the still inept Stanley holding center stage now of what is supposed to be a hit musical comedy. But why are so many odd things happening to him - close calls and near calamities. Daisy is concerned about this, and tries to inquire, only to be put off by Fraser and Logan. As for Stanley, he is more concerned about following through with his approach to Irene, who is sick of fighting him off (at one point she manages to knock him out). Allen, of course is not thrilled about that, nor of getting lectured about acting and singing from the new lead.
There are some great moments in the film, including a brief telephone sequence where a hopeful Fred Clark asks if Strauss has killed Hope, only to learn no such luck. A disaster with a Chinese-owned business shows Mitchell the wisdom of his son being involved in the family business. The conclusion, with Hope running amok on stage to avoid an infuriated Strauss is one of the best conclusions in Hope's films, as is the epilogue pay-off that Clooney manages to set up for Hope's benefit. Definitely one of the best of Hope's films
