Previously on this blog I have written about ten different Gordon Douglas movies and I have referred to him as "protean" because of his ability to work in many different genres, from war movies to science fiction to Westerns. Girl Rush can best be described as a Western, a musical and a comedy. It stars Wally Brown and Alan Carney, who are remembered today (if they are remembered at all) as RKO's attempt to produce their own Abbot and Costello; they made eleven movies together. The film also includes Robert Mitchum (still working his way up after making twenty movies in 1943), at one point in drag as the men bringing women to a mining town during the gold rush have to dress as women so they don't get shot (it's a long story, as the film has a great deal of plot, as well as musical numbers, in a sixty-five minute running time). Brown and Carney make a good comic team, taking turns as the straight man, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca is a master of lighting (especially in the interior scenes), writer Robert Kent keeps the plot moving swiftly, Frances Langford sings some charming songs by Lew Pollack and Harry Harris, there is some vigorous can-can dancing staged by Charles O'Curran and Gordon Douglas directs with impressive energy.
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