With the title of Pin Up Girl this film could only star Betty Grable. As the GI favorite in World War II only Rita Hayworth ranked up there with Betty and those legs.With a plot thin as a Gillette razor blade and a leading man who is the definition of bland Betty and the rest of the talented musical cast carry this one. But make no mistake she's box office draw.Betty is a USO hostess in Missouri and she and friend Dorothea Kent get the call to serve as typists in the Navy Department. But that's after first going to New York and appearing in Joe E. Brown's nightclub and scoring a big hit. Betty's also a big hit with John Harvey, medal winner from the South Pacific now on shore duty.But after getting a lecture from another desk bound sailor Eugene Palette, Harvey thinks Betty's just using him as a career booster. So what does Betty do? She puts on a pair of glasses and fools Harvey until the final moments of the film that she's someone else. It does work for Clark Kent and as I remember also for Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman.But with all those numbers from folks like Martha Raye, Charlie Spivak's Orchestra, the Condos brothers, but most of all Betty who really cares about a truly silly plot. Pin-Up Girl cleaned up at the box office, made a lot of money for Darryl Zanuck and 20th Century Fox.The last number with Betty drilling the WACS was a thinly disguised attempt to hide her pregnancy. She hated the number and everyone else did including me.No deep thoughts here, just sheer entertainment.

I am giving this movie a higher rating than a lot of people. I happen to enjoy all the dancing, plus the roller skaters.8/10The worst part, IMO, was the end with the OVERLY LONG women's march led by Betty Grable. This got to be quite monotonous. Betty must have been totally exhausted at the end, giving all those orders and marching around for so long. Were these a bunch of women with uber-patriotic interest in World War II, or real WAACs/WACs? I realize that World War II was waning. Military personnel on leave still, according to this movie, were looking for lots of escapist entertainment while on shore leave. What this movie does not cover, however, was that IRL many of the women entertainers and hangers-on would get pregnant, with perhaps a disease or baby or two as part of the surprises. I realize that this is escapist fantasy, with no real sadness to be had.I was wishing that our recent wars included public fervor and nationwide participation as indicated in some of these WWII musical movies. There were the bond-money-raising, the couponing and rationing, the Rosie-Riveter mentalities, we-can-do-it pulling together of an entire nation. In the recent wars of 1990s and 2000s, where were the tap dancing roller-skating patriotic performers who instilled in the audiences a feeling of winning the battles for the good of the nation? Betty Grable was very sweet in this movie. I enjoyed seeing Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown, the Condos Brothers, Hermes Pan and the Skating Vanities. Viva the red, white and blue!!!I have a recent Bachelor of Arts Degree in American History from The Ohio State University. Believe me, I have studied and researched lots of wars and conflicts. I also specialize in the socio-cultural history of the people back home, including the actors and dancers who performed to make movies of this type in order to inspire the American people.

Perhaps back then this was seen as a bright and bubbly tribute to the Armed Forces everywhere, but surely BETTY GRABLE deserved better material for a musical with a title like PIN UP GIRL. She's pretty and pert as a secretary whose romance with a soldier goes from Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Wins Girl in timeworn Hollywood fashion.No help is the fact that MARTHA RAYE and JOE E. BROWN can usually be counted on to add gags and merriment to any film they're in. Here, they open their big mouths and nothing funny comes out.The songs are weak, lacking interest even for Grable fans--with one exception. A nifty little number called "Once Too Often" has Betty doing a slit-skirt, torrid dance number with Hermes Pan, the famous choreographer who worked with Astaire and Rogers on many of their most famous routines. It's the only musical number worth staying awake for.The climactic military number is a hoot, with Betty doing a parade of arms military drill that reminded me of my boot camp days.Summing up: This is one you can afford to miss.

This is a patriotic flag-waver of a film that could never be made anymore. The emphasis is on pulling together and supporting the armed forces, all in gleaming colour. It is a wartime film that says although the world is in a spin if we work together to beat the foe, things will work out fine in the end. It is sweet as a sugar coated pill, made to cheer the people up in World War 2. And who better to do that than blonde Betty Grable, lively and bright and charming. There are flashes in the film of the classic pin-up picture of her looking saucily over her shoulder.A formula film then but it does have some bright spots. Joe E Brown and Martha Raye being loud and cantankerous. The dancing Condos Brothers who tap dance like furies. The gorgeous technicolour. Charlie Spivack's band. The musical numbers are OK though the roller skating number and the marching sequence hilarious in the wrong sort of way. There is a real gem in the film, a number called 'Once Too Often', which is a sour song of love and betrayal, at odds with the rest of the saccharine mood of the film. Grable sings it well then dances it with the great Hermes Pan. In her split skirt showing those million dollar legs, she and Pan do a sexy routine together. It's the best thing in the whole movie.