Pillow to Post (1945)

(On Cable TV, March 2022) One of the side-benefits of having seen so many classical Hollywood movies is being able to spot obsolete tropes and micro-phenomenon specific to a brief period of time in history. So it is that Pillow to Post’s premise smashes two things we don’t really see nowadays: the World War II housing shortage and the quaint trope of instant marriages. Watching some older Hollywood film, you could be forgiven for thinking that marriage was quick, cheap and easy, as characters got married on a whim then spent the rest of the film figuring out if they were romantic matches. It’s a big screenwriting conceit more than a reflection of how things were, of course—what better way to crank up the romantic tension than to throw characters together and let them react? Pillow to Post adds one trope to the other and comes up with a narrative in which a vivacious young woman (Ida Lupino, luminous as always), sidesteps a housing crisis by “marrying” a stranger to get a married-couple-only bungalow. Things predictably get more fun once his superior and her family come around and start poking at the situation. The rest is by-the-numbers romantic comedy, somewhat enlivened by the social constructs leading to the complications, and the charm of the lead actors. Sydney Greenstreet is an imposing figure as a high-ranking military office, but it’s really Lupino who’s the focus of the picture. (Louis Armstrong appears in a bit role, but don’t be fooled by mentions of Dorothy Dandridge being in the film—it’s a fleeting glimpse more than even a small role.)  Pillow to Post is not a film that will earn many dedicated fans—it’s slightly fun and nothing more. But it will do the job if you’re just looking for something light and amusing to wrap up the day, or a look at comic devices of past ages.