Back to School Again - She's Working Her Way Through College

Warner Bros, 1953
Starring Virginia Mayo, Ronald Reagan, Gene Nelson, and Don DeFore
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Music and Lyrics by various

This wasn't what I planned on reviewing tonight, but that fell through. This one really fits better with Bathing Beauty anyway. Steve Elliot  is hardly the only person involved in show business to want to bump up his education. This heavy reworking of James Thurber and Elliott Nugent's 1942 play The Male Animal turns it into a stripper's right to attend school and further her education. How does the story look now, as more people from all walks of life attend college despite the costs? Let's start in a burlesque theater, where star dancer Angela "Hot Garters Gertie" Gardner (Mayo), is giving her last performance, and find out...

The Story: Angela opts to start her semester at MidWest State because her former high school English teacher John Palmer (Reagan) is now an associate professor there. She turns a lot of heads at the school from the moment she arrives, including that of football player and dancer Don Weston (Nelson). His girlfriend "Poison" Ivy Williams (Patrice Wymore) was the queen of the school and the best performer in the drama department before Angela came on the scene, and she's badly jealous. Angela's not the only one dealing with jealousy, either. Palmer's wife Helen (Phyllis Thaxter) is gushing over Shep Slade (DeFore), a former college football star-turned-successful businessman who is visiting for the big homecoming game. Palmer is so jealous, he gets raging drunk after a homecoming game party.

Angela and Palmer convince the student body to put on a musical Angela wrote instead of their usual Shakespearean play. The show is threatened when Ivy prints an article on Angela's previous job in the school newspaper. Now the chairman of the board of trustees Fred Copeland (Roland Winters) is calling for her to be removed, lest she corrupt the noble youth of MidWest, and Ivy wants her role and for her to lay off Don. Palmer won't let her leave without a fight, and finally goes up against the school board with a speech of his own to convince them that anyone, no matter where they came from or what their past was, should be able to further their education.

The Song and Dance: Interesting story about the importance of education and college, no matter who you are or what walk of life you come from. Mayo would later go on to call this her favorite of her movies, and I don't blame her. She gets to play a very intelligent and hard-working woman who is determined to get through college no matter what, even if she has to work the lowest rung of show business to do it. Reagan is a little stiffer as the college professor who admires her spirit, but he appropriately (if you know anything about his later political career) wakes up in the finale, when he gives a very stirring and emotional speech to the school about giving everyone the chance to better themselves. Nelson also does well as the jock who fits in equally well among the theater kids and the athletes.

Favorite Number: We open the film with a glimpse of Angela's previous occupation, a glittering burlesque number set to the 30's Warners song "With Plenty of Money and You." Don and the kids reveal how much Angela charmed them when they drive her up to the Palmers' door singing "We're Working Our Way Through College." Mayo and Nelson get two cute duets together to show off numbers for the proposed musical, "I'll Be Loving You" danced spiritedly on a piano in class and "The Stuff That Dreams are Made Of" at the party. Gene Nelson has an incredible dance routine done all over a gymnasium as he swings on the rings, glides around the mats, and even lands a basketball throw in "Am I In Love?"

Trivia: This was Julie Newmayr's first movie.

What I Don't Like: I'm not a big fan of the subplot involving Palmer's wife and the annoying former jock Slade. Palmer was right. If she loved the guy so much, why didn't she marry him? Other than a very funny routine involving him recreating one of his famous football throws (before Palmer grabs the glass out of his hand), De Fore doesn't have much to do. While the dancing is good, the music is pretty forgettable, and the plot is more than a little dull at times.

The Big Finale: Enjoyable enough time-passer with decent numbers if you ever run into it on TCM.

Home Media: Currently DVD only via the Warner Archives.

DVD