When Twentieth Century Fox decided to put out a technicolor period piece about the trials of a working girl in Boston in the Seventies, they apparently thumbed through the Joe Miller index and looked up all the standard japes about the Hub city. Into this essentially fine musical comedy idea they threw Betty Grable and Dick Haymes and proceeded to develop that peculiar mixture of maudlin sentiment and half-hearted satire that passes for musical comedy on the screen. The result, which was supposed to send Bostonians hustling to their desks to write indignant letters to the local papers, is scarcely strong enough to stir up the lunatic fringe of New England nationalism.

The plot in the piece is about as substantial as a black chiffon nightgown and not half as exciting. Botty Grable, the first woman typist, is sent to Boston to work in an office which soon feels the impact of the distaff side as spitoons go out and chintz comes in. You won't be surprised to know that Dick Haymes is the thriving, moderately blue-blooded manager of the company. Emancipated at last, Miss Grable is soon deep in the suffrage movement, of which Mr. Haymes does not approve. Take it from there.

"The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" is guaranteed shockproof, but if you feel in the need of a mild aphrodisiac and like Betty Grable decollate, you could probably do worse than see the source of all this Boston-baiting publicity.