Variety Girl Blu-ray review
Apr 18, 2026- Permalink
George Marshall’s 1947 musical comedy Variety Girl is the sort of movie that could only be made during the studio contract system as it features cameos and roles for dozens of performers and directors contracted to Paramount Studios at the time. The plot of the film is a hanger to hang all these appearances on. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby may get top-billing here, but the main plot sees two aspiring actresses, Amber LaVonne (Olga San Juan) and Catherine Brown (Mary Hatcher), as they try to break into Hollywood and get confused for each other along the way. A pre-__Star Trek__ DeForest Kelley plays talent scout Bob Kirby who wants to help Catherine while dealing with studio head R.J. O’Connell (Frank Ferguson). O’Connell just so happens to have been one of the cinema owners who helped Catherine when she was left as a baby at a Pittsburgh movie palace – an event that led to the real-life creation of the Variety children’s charity that inspires the title of the movie. It’s a fun musical that along the way gives us laughs from Hope and Crosby, and a multitude of appearances and performances by Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, Sonny Tufts, Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Gail Russell, Diana Lynn, Sterling Hayden, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, Pearl Bailey, John Lund, William Bendix, George Pal, Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Da Silva, Macdonald Carey, Cass Daley, Spike Jones & His City Slickers, Patric Knowles, Mona Freeman, Cecil Kellaway, Virginia Field, Richard Webb, Frank Faylen, Cecil B. DeMille, Mitchell Leisen, George Marshall, Paula Raymond, George Reeves, Wanda Hendrix, Stanley Clements, Walter Abel, and Pinto Colvig. The movie also features a George Pal Puppetoon sequence of Romeow and Julicat. Sadly the Technicolor elements of that sequence appear lost, so, like the rest of the film, it’s in black and white. Thanks to Universal Home Entertainment (who has the rights to this Paramount oldie) and Allied Vaughn, I had a chance to take a look at this release.
The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation is very good, with sharp detail and a wide grayscale in most scenes accompanied by a light grain structure. There’s a few moments, like the Puppetoon sequence, that are a little darker and grainier, but that’s only an occasional issue. The source material does have the occasional scratch or blemish, but it’s really nothing to write home about.
On the audio side of things, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The dialogue and score sound good with only minor and occasional hiss, crack and pops from the source materials.
The movie does not come with a digital code or any extras.
Variety Girl is a light musical comedy that’s a fun way to pass 93 minutes gawking at Paramount’s contract players get up to various hijinks. Sound and video are quite good and if you like a little piece of studio history loaded with Hollywood stars, this is recommended.