Girls' School (1938)

Director:

John Brahm

Writers:

Tess Slesinger (story), Tess Slesinger (screenplay),

Stars:

Anne Shirley, Nan Grey, Ralph Bellamy

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anne Shirley	...	Natalie Freeman
Nan Grey	...	Linda Simpson
Ralph Bellamy	...	Michael Hendragin
Dorothy Moore	...	Betty Fleet
Gloria Holden	...	Miss Laurel
Marjorie Main	...	Miss Honore Armstrong
Margaret Tallichet	...	Gwennie
Peggy Moran	...	Myra
Kenneth Howell	...	Edgar
Noah Beery Jr.	...	George McClellan
Cecil Cunningham	...	Dean Brewster
Pierre Watkin	...	Mr. Alfred Simpson
Doris Kenyon	...	Mrs. Eleanor Simpson
Heather Thatcher	...	Miss Dawn Brackett
Virginia Howell	...	Miss MacBeth

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

engagement | duty | marriage proposal | expulsion | fight | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Romantic Age

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ann Doran (Miss Smith) and Franklin Pangborn (M'sieur) are in studio records/casting call lists for those roles, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.

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Soundtracks

"Natalie Freeman's Body"
(uncredited)
(Sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body")
Music by William Steffe (1856)
Lyricist unknown
Sung a cappella by students

User Reviews

Sappy trifle aimed at adolescent female audience of the thirties

This is a so-so film, of no great import, whose message is one of communication as opposed to assumption. Great affairs occur at a private girls school when one girl stays out all night. The poor monitor who is there on a scholarship is scapegoated as the tattletale and made to feel just awful. She goes out of her way to restore herself in the eyes of the others but the snooty little female brats are just not having it. The reconciliation in the end is very tacked on. None of this is in any way believable and it all turns out to be a package of fluff not worth bothering with. Anne Shirley, looking for all the world like a young Olivia de Havilland, does well as the put upon girl. The score, sometimes way over the top in melodramatic scoring, has about 14 cues in this 71 minute film but never manages to impress - irregardless of this fact, it copped an Oscar nom. Go figure!