''She's Working Her Way Through College'' is a 1952 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

produced by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

, it is directed by

H. Bruce Humberstone H. Bruce Humberstone (November 18, 1901 – October 11, 1984) was an American film director. He was previously a movie actor (as a child), a script clerk, and an assistant director, working with directors such as King Vidor, Edmund Goulding, and ...

, and stars

Virginia Mayo Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros.' biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. S ...

and

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. The screenplay is based on the 1940 Broadway play ''The Male Animal'' by

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his gag cartoon, cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' an ...

and

Elliott Nugent Elliott Nugent (September 20, 1896 – August 9, 1980) was an American actor, playwright, writer, and film director. Life and career Nugent was born in Dover, Ohio, the son of actor J.C. Nugent. He attended Ohio State University. He successf ...

, although the play's title is not mentioned in the screen credits.

Plot

In the early 1950s, Angela Gardner is a

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

star known as Hot Garters Gertie. She started working as an

exotic dancer A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

solely to earn money for a college education. She wants to be a writer, and has been working on a play for many years. She enrolls at Midwest State, where her former high-school teacher John Palmer is now a professor of English. Palmer, aware of Angela's occupation after having seen her perform, encourages her enrollment. Angela mistakenly thinks that Palmer wants to meet her privately after she receives a fur coat, but she discovers that the coat was sent by one of her admirers who tries unsuccessfully to seduce her. Palmer has a longstanding rivalry with former college-football jock Shep Slade, who is fond of Palmer's wife Helen. With the help of fellow student Don Weston, and despite interference from the jealous "Poison Ivy" Williams, Angela succeeds in her studies. Palmer suggests that she turn her play into a musical. When the theatrical arts class votes to stage a musical instead of the usual work by Shakespeare, Angela's play is a natural. After "Poison Ivy" discovers Angela's past and exposes it in the college newspaper, chairman Fred Copeland of the board of trustees demands her expulsion. Palmer is defiant and defends Angela at an open-school assembly. Angela asks Copeland not to expel her and discovers that he is the man who had tried to seduce her. Embarrassed, he accepts her return of the mink coat, which his wife unknowingly wears at the performance of Angela's play.

Cast

as Angela Gardner / 'Hot Garters Gertie' (singing voice was dubbed by Bonnie Lou Williams) *

as Professor John Palmer *

Gene Nelson Gene Nelson (born Leander Eugene Berg; March 24, 1920 – September 16, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, screenwriter, and director. Biography Nelson was born Eugene Leander Berg in Seattle, Washington. By 1924, he and his parents mov ...

as Don Weston (singing voice was partially dubbed by Hal Derwin) *

Don DeFore Donald John DeFore (August 25, 1913 – December 22, 1993) was an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the sitcom ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' from 1952 to 1957 and the sitcom ''Hazel'' from 1961 to 1965, the former of w ...

as Shep Slade *

Phyllis Thaxter Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter (November 20, 1919 – August 14, 2012) was an American actress. She is best known for portraying Ellen Lawson in '' Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) and Martha "Ma" Kent in ''Superman'' (1978). She also appeared in ' ...

as Helen Palmer *

Patrice Wymore Patrice Wymore Flynn (born Patricia Wymore; December 17, 1926 – March 22, 2014) was an American film, television and stage actress of the 1950s and 1960s, known for her marriage to Errol Flynn. Early life and stage career Born Patricia Wymor ...

as 'Poison' Ivy Williams *

Roland Winters Roland Winters (born Roland Winternitz; November 22, 1904 – October 22, 1989)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 287. was an Ame ...

as Fred Copeland *

Raymond Greenleaf Raymond Greenleaf (born Roger Ramon Greenleaf; January 1, 1892 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor, best known for ''All the King's Men'' (1949), '' Angel Face'' (1952), and '' Pinky'' (1949). Early life He was born as Roger Ramon Gre ...

as Dean Rogers * Ginger Crowley as Lonnie - Ivy's Friend * Norman Bartold as 'Tiny' Gordon * Ramon Blackburn as Singer / Dancer * Royce Blackburn as Singer / Dancer

Reception

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' declared that the best thing in the film was Gene Nelson's gymnastics-dance number. He warned his readers that if they looked closely they would realize that the unnamed play in the opening credits "is none other than those authors' vastly humorous and neatly trenchant ''The Male Animal''... (The) Warner boys have so rearranged and watered down the plot of the original that the resemblance is blissfully remote...And where Mr. Thurber and Mr. Nugent made the fate of their hero turn upon his daring to read a letter by Bartholomew Vanzetti to his English class, Mr. Milne has worked up a crisis over the rights of the little lady to stay in school... But, plainly, the stubborn endeavor to weave a musical story line into the stout fabric of ''The Male Animal''—and such a silly musical story line, at that—has resulted in a combination that does credit to neither one. The musical story is routine...the play has been woefully stripped of humor, pertinence and sting. Bruce Humberstone, who directed, must have felt himself working on mud". In his afterword to TCM's June 2020 airing of the film, Dave Karger observed that in 1952, a production using the plot of the original play and the 1942 film adaptation would have been impossible, because Hollywood was in the grips of the anticommunist attitudes of the McCarthy era.

References

External links

* * * {{H. Bruce Humberstone 1952 films 1952 musical comedy films 1952 romantic comedy films American musical comedy films American romantic comedy films American romantic musical films American films based on plays Films based on works by James Thurber Films directed by H. Bruce Humberstone Films set in universities and colleges Warner Bros. films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language romantic comedy films English-language musical comedy films