AllMovie

The early days of talkies saw a surfeit of backstage musicals, and items like Glorifying the American Girl irritated audiences so much that the genre very quickly fell out of favor. Girl is not the worst of the lot, but it's pretty bad. Clearly written by a committee, the screenplay is disjointed, full of incident but devoid of development. There's no depth here, either to the story or to the characters, although as with some other early backstagers, Girl promotes the interesting idea that stage stardom is not worth the price of attaining it. Unfortunately, it doesn't really explore that idea any more than it explores its characters or story; as a result, Girl becomes quickly tiresome. While it does start off with an arresting sequence showing hundreds of girls flocking to New York, the rest of the picture has little that is as imaginative. The musical numbers often have a certain degree of opulence, but they're stodgy and static and quite boring. Star Mary Eaton has no charisma to speak of; her acting is just adequate, her singing less so. She dances rather better, but without any personal style or true distinction. Eddie Cantor is initially amusing in his tailor skit, but it goes on for far too long, especially considering the straight-on, unimaginative manner in which it has been filmed. Rudy Vallee is wasted in what is almost a cameo; of the Follies performers, only Helen Morgan succeeds. Of the rest of the cast, Sarah Edwards does well as the domineering mother; no one else is any better than passable.