These pictures almost seem as though they could have been taken from Triumph of the Will. They’re frames from 1934’s Eight Girls in a Boat, an American version of the German film, Acht Mädels im Boot.
Starring Dorothy Wilson, Eight Girls in a Boat is a universal human interest tale of an unmarried girl in trouble. It’s a theme that the Hays Office soon banned from movies. Which was silly, considering the New Testament begins with the story of a teen girl in trouble.
I first mentioned the thoroughly charming and disarming Dorothy Wilson six years ago, in a post about the pre-code movie The Age of Consent.
A newly restored print of Eight Girls in a Boat will be screened next Sunday. If a Blu-ray release is forthcoming, I will certainly buy a copy.
