My Sister Eileen

Meine Schwester Ellen

Retrospective 2022

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

Alexander Hall

Filmography

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022