Watch Girls of the Road For Free

Just what I expected

It is a performances centric movie

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

In the city where this movie was made, where Columbia Pictures studio stood, where across the years probably millions of people have sought their dreams, in this year of A.D. 2018, anywhere from 40- to 60,000 people, men and women and children, are homeless.Because it is Los Angeles, one of the most corrupt and incompetently run cities in these United States, the homeless are both coddled and harassed by various government bodies.But genuine long-lasting help? Not in Los Angeles! One not so famous singer, with his own hands started building "tiny houses," giving them to homeless people of his acquaintance, and of course the city moved in garbage trucks and armed agents and stole at least three of them!Eventually they were returned, but with the solar cells missing!Private individuals and companies have donated land on which to erect the tiny homes and, again of course, have run into all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles. It is, to repeat, Los Angeles."Girls of the Road" was produced in one of the worst years of the Depression. After several years of the "New Deal," millions more people were out of work, tens of thousands more businesses had collapsed, and the Roosevelt administration, which had sought for answers in Italy, Germany, and Soviet Russia, had concluded only a war could save the situation. And, in the next year, got one.In this excellent movie, beautifully written, and superbly acted, desperate people exhibit the best and worst traits one would expect from people who have experienced the worst from other people.They have lost all dignity, and have had to beg for hand-outs since, being "road girls," no one will hire them for real jobs.One outsider sees a way, and, in this film, is well-enough connected to bring about a partial, and maybe temporary, solution.In modern life, governments have destroyed jobs and erected impossible obstacles for the creation of new jobs.Supposedly free human beings are required to carry government-issued cards embossed with government-issued numbers, without which those supposedly free human beings cannot even apply for jobs.And in many situations cannot even apply for hand-outs from allegedly Christian agencies.Helen Mack has long been one of my favorite actresses. Her performance in "The Milky Way" made me think she was perfect in comedy parts, but her performance in "Girls of the Road" showed me she is perfect in any role she wanted to play. She is powerful, mesmerizing, as "Mickey."Ann Dvorak is, as usual, also perfect. She was an elegant-looking lady, although she's also been perfect as much rougher characters, and she had a nearly musical voice, very noticeable in this role.Having some experience and knowledge of the current problems of homelessness, I was moved to tears by this movie, by the script as well as by the performances.Solutions to our problems are not be found in government -- please be sure to listen to what "the governor" says in the opening scenes. It accurately sums up why governments are not to be looked to for answers.Voluntary co-operation between and among individual human beings, caring human beings, perhaps working with voluntary organizations, including such loving and generous agencies as the Salvation Army, can, though, immensely lessen these kinds of human problems, sometimes known as "societal problems." But they are not "societal." They are human.Please do watch "Girls of the Road." Remember the context, the worst years of the Great Depression, and try not to let the too-dark print at YouTube prevent your seeing what great drama and, at the same time, what a great message of hope is presented.

A governor's daughter (Ann Dvorak) is concerned about girls living on the road with no family, no jobs and no money. She becomes one and, almost instantly, becomes friends with a hardened "road girl" named Mickey (Helen Mack). We then see a (purpotedly) truthful version of what girls on their own have to do to survive.No budget Columbia picture. In 1940 this might have been a little shocking but today it comes across as silly and not even remotely truthful. Supposedly all these girls have lived on the road without clean clothes, showers or food for days--but they all look well fed, they're in clean clothes and are pretty healthy with makeup and beautiful hair. Even their hideout looks pretty opulent! Also when this film strives to make a message it's so overdone it comes off as comical. The funeral of one of the girls is supposed to be tragic but it comes off as unintentionally funny! Still, it's well done and Mack gives a good performance. It's marginally worth seeing if you're into obscure older movies (like me). I give it a 5.

You have the tough-talking dames, the innocent-victim girl, the crusading do-gooder, all on the Depression road, but indulging in personality dynamics much like those in "Caged." Columbia pretends that this is social commentary a la "Wild Boys of the Road," but it's untethered melodrama, wildly improbable and directed without distinction. Especially unconvincing is the framing device, where a governor's daughter (Ann Dvorak, always good, but playing such a virtuous character here that she has a hard time making her interesting) decides to impersonate a poor homeless girl, then at the end it turns out the state had the money to help these girls all the time, but the governor needed to be convinced that they really needed help. Still, it's nice pictorially, and Helen Mack, as Dvorak's sidekick (she was also terrific that year in "His Girl Friday"), is a great sarcastic broad.

Once again, Turner Classic Movies has rescued another rough-cut gem from obscurity in the musty vaults of Hollywood! TCM has changed my life by showing the classics that most of us never even knew existed. And "Girls of the Road" is definitely in that category.Okay, so it's not "Gone With the Wind," but it's a classic even so. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's about female hobos from the Depression, running from the cops, fighting each other, living the vida loca al camino! Only in this subculture, all the women are young, beautiful and "good on the inside." Closest thing to this story I've seen is the "women in prison" movie genre of the period. There's a social-reform angle to it, as there was in many of the women in prison films. Remember, this was 1940--the Production Code ruled Hollywood. It was not possible to depict any vagrants or criminals in a positive light, at least not until they received a moral makeover.Watch it for entertainment, though, not for any particular message. Such as it was, the message was about as substantive as a mouthful of cotton candy. The stars had some funny lines, almost all were good looking, and life didn't look so bad at the end. What more can you ask for?