Apropos of yesterdays post about Kay Francis, I did some snooping around on YT for early pre-code Kay moments and ran across a couple of clips from a 1931 comedy called ‘Girls About Town‘, directed by a young George Cukor. I’ve known the title over the years but have never seen the film. Well, if you haven’t seen it either then find a spare one hour and twelve minutes (the films admirably short running time) of your day and dive into one of the sauciest, most delightfully wicked pre-code’s you’ll ever find. Above I’ve posted two clips–‘teasers’ to whet your 1932 appetite–and below I’ve posted the entire movie. Even if you don’t want to commit to watching the whole thing, I urge you to at least check out the delicious credit sequence. The film co-stars Francis with Lilyan Tashman, a now-completely forgotten glammy comedienne who truly was a delight–a pre-Carole Lombardian blonde bomb of sass who truly was the whole package. A former Ziegfeld Follies chorine, Tashman was prominent in silent film, made the transition to sound with ease and would have had it made if cancer had not claimed her life in 1934 at the age of 38. The films premise feels like it must have been wicked even for the jazz-age era that it belongs to; two attractive roommates work as paid ‘good-time girls’ who escort wealthy men and ‘entertain’ them. Though no allusions are clearly made, they have a man who books their gigs (a pimp?), are paid for their time (as courtesans?) and are clearly…well…1932 was a more amusing time in moviemaking than it was in the real world and I promise you a delightful hour and twelve minutes. Cukor’s direction is clearly a cut above other director’s work of the time; you feel the infectious joy he had for his performers. They are relaxed, loose and the whole thing feels like a good time was had by all. Even Eugene Pallette, who we now know to have been a racist, anti-semitic son of a bitch…