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My Sister Eileen

Meine Schwester Ellen
Retrospective 2022
Source: Park Circus, © 1942, renewed 1970 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
After being compromised by a problematic article in the local paper, reporter Ruth Sherwood and her actress sister Eileen leave Columbus, Ohio to try their luck in New York. They move into a loud, cramped, hot, basement apartment in Greenwich Village. It quickly becomes the favourite drop-in spot for passers-by and police, neighbours, and the young women’s would-be beaux. Eileen grapples with the attentions of a meddlesome reporter, Ruth meets an editor who does his sincere best to promote her work … A film about New York as the place for female self-fulfilment. In this screen adaptation of a successful Broadway play, Rosalind Russell, at 5’8”, was predestined to play the elder sister – and the most poised of the characters. Her sharp tongue and elastic limbs are the perfect vehicle for the film’s slapstick moments. With the help of the Portuguese merchant marine and a cameo by the Three Stooges, director Alexander Hall does a crackerjack job of creating a maximum of chaos in a minimum of space.
by Alexander Hall
with Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Janet Blair, George Tobias, Allyn Joslyn, Grant Mitchell, Gordon Jones, Elizabeth Patterson, Richard Quine, June Havoc, The Three Stooges USA 1942 English 97’ Black/White

With

  • Rosalind Russell
  • Brian Aherne
  • Janet Blair
  • George Tobias
  • Allyn Joslyn
  • Grant Mitchell
  • Gordon Jones
  • Elizabeth Patterson
  • Richard Quine
  • June Havoc
  • The Three Stooges

Crew

Director Alexander Hall
Screenplay Joseph Fields, Jerome Chodorov based on the eponymous play by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov (1940) as well as stories by Ruth McKenney
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Editing Viola Lawrence
Sound George Cooper
Art Director Lionel Banks
Producer Max Gordon

Produced by

Columbia Pictures Corp.

Additional information

Print: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Culver City, CA