Lana Turner tries to find what life in high society is like and realizes, like what Gary Cooper admitted in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", that the important people aren't really big people. She's a taxi dancer who is invited by drunken college student Lew Ayres (way past the age of college) to a weekend party and finds out when she arrives that he already has a date. In the midst of the débutantes she's placed with when another student asks her to stay on as his date, she finds a bunch of phonies, all troubled and hiding behind their designer gowns and cotillions with insecurities and attitudes that stem from extreme self-hatred.
Actually, not all of these society girls are snobs; A few of them are gracious to her, and the others are obviously jealous of her natural beauty which has all the boys in a tizzy. Then, there's débutante Anne Rutherford who spends so much time nagging her boyfriend that he drunkenly runs off with someone else. The difference between who is a lady and who is a female is obvious. Poor Ayres, too, isn't free from some scandal; In the midst of everything, news about his father is revealed that threatens his own position as a frat boy. The timing couldn't be worse for Ayres to play this part; He was rising up from several years in "B" films because of the popularity of the "Dr. Kildare" series, and it had been 10 years since his smash hit "All Quiet on the Western Front".
Some of the revelations this film makes about high society is pretty revealing in its own way. There's one socialite who has been attending these parties longer than the seniors have been there. Another takes Rutherford's boyfriend to a justice of the peace while he's drunk and when he rejects her she plots a vile revenge. Most of the men are pretty shallow in a stupid way, while the less than moralistic females are young spider women already spinning webs even before they've found their mate. It's an almost who's who of late 30's ingénues here but the ultimate feeling I got was of a more dramatic "Andy Hardy" movie without Andy present. Still, when Turner gets her moxy up and tells off the entire crowd (or better yet, shutting those women up when the men all offer a dime to dance when her true profession is revealed), you might find yourself cheering.
Actually, not all of these society girls are snobs; A few of them are gracious to her, and the others are obviously jealous of her natural beauty which has all the boys in a tizzy. Then, there's débutante Anne Rutherford who spends so much time nagging her boyfriend that he drunkenly runs off with someone else. The difference between who is a lady and who is a female is obvious. Poor Ayres, too, isn't free from some scandal; In the midst of everything, news about his father is revealed that threatens his own position as a frat boy. The timing couldn't be worse for Ayres to play this part; He was rising up from several years in "B" films because of the popularity of the "Dr. Kildare" series, and it had been 10 years since his smash hit "All Quiet on the Western Front".
Some of the revelations this film makes about high society is pretty revealing in its own way. There's one socialite who has been attending these parties longer than the seniors have been there. Another takes Rutherford's boyfriend to a justice of the peace while he's drunk and when he rejects her she plots a vile revenge. Most of the men are pretty shallow in a stupid way, while the less than moralistic females are young spider women already spinning webs even before they've found their mate. It's an almost who's who of late 30's ingénues here but the ultimate feeling I got was of a more dramatic "Andy Hardy" movie without Andy present. Still, when Turner gets her moxy up and tells off the entire crowd (or better yet, shutting those women up when the men all offer a dime to dance when her true profession is revealed), you might find yourself cheering.