Nine Girls

The rarely acknowledged Leigh Jason was a talented and prolific director of B-musicals and comedies at RKO and Columbia before continuing with equal success in television. NINE GIRLS is a wonderful place to start a critical re-evaluation; a brisk and sly comedy-murder mystery set among a small town college sorority whose problematically most prominent member is the vituperative Paula, a spoiled socialite whose fang marks scar each of the other members. “Someday that snake in silk underwear is going to find her neck in a sling!” predicts one of the sisters, and quite correctly when Paula’s brutal murder en route to an induction ceremony leaves the remaining seven and two nervous inductees, together with their matronly chaperone, stranded in the sorority’s mountain lodge wondering who among them committed the crime they all not so secretly desired. Buoyed by a spirited cast donning competing heart-shape beehive hairdos and including Anita Louise (briefly), Nina Foch and Evelyn Keyes, NINE GIRLS is laced with deliciously catty repartee adapted from the original play by Karen DeWolf and Connie Lee, regular writers for Columbia’s popular BLONDIE series. (Haden Guest)

With THE FALCON AND THE CO-EDS