"I'm MAE!...I shot a man once, and I've been traveling fast ever since!"
1940-07-24
N/A
61 min
A story of the great-depression era about women hobos, tramps, job-seekers, fugitives and runaways running from or toward something as they hitch-hiked their way across the United States, dodging the police, do-gooders, lustful men and pursuing-husbands in a bad mood. One of them is a killer, another is a girl hitch-hiking to her wedding in order to afford a wedding gown, and there is also the Governor's daughter who crusades on their behalf, while hitch-hiking along with them.
Girls of the Road is a really poor knockoff of William Wellman's Wild Boys of the Road. The movie showcases female bonding a la Thelma and Louise, and exploits the theme of "bad girls" to the max. The time frame for this movie isn't really specific, since the vehicles in the movie are clearly 1940s vintage, but the plot revolves around a group of women hoboing across the country. One of them is the governor's daughter, who sets out to learn the reasons that these women are homeless and transient. Her goal is to provide her father with enough first-hand information so that he can author legislation and policies to end the womens' plight. As she becomes a trusted member of this group, she learns each woman's back-story.
She has ongoing conflict with the self-appointed leader of the group - a woman who is essentially a sociopath who committed murder and uses threats of violence to keep the girls in line. The climax comes when the governor's daughter forces the group to choose between living like feral animals or reclaiming their dignity as human beings. Of course, they choose the latter, turning against the criminal and isolating her. The governor's daughter convinces her father to build a shelter for the women and others like them.
The script stretches credulity to the breaking point, and the characterizations are weak. A great example is that Ann Dvorak (the governor's daughter) takes a Samsonite suitcase filled with clothing, accessories and money with her, and manages to hang onto it throughout most of the journey. None of the women have drug or alcohol problems, something that has always been a problem among the transient population. And with the exception of the murderess, the only crime any of the women were ever picked up for was vagrancy; in real life, women who lived a transient lifestyle often earned eating money through prostitution or fencing stolen goods.
Girls of the Road is a meager attempt on the part of Columbia Pictures to make "message" movies on a small budget. It's watchable, but not notable.
