She Wrote the Book (1946)

A plain-Jane math professor (Joan Davis) at a small midwestern college is talked into journeying to New York on behalf of a colleague who has written a steamy bestseller under an assumed ... See full summary »

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

Warren Wilson (original screenplay), Oscar Brodney (original screenplay)

Stars:

Joan Davis, Jack Oakie, Mischa Auer

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Joan Davis	...	Jane Featherstone
Jack Oakie	...	Jerry Marlowe
Mischa Auer	...	Joe aka Count Boris
Kirby Grant	...	Eddie Caldwell
Jacqueline deWit	...	Millicent Van Cleve
Gloria Stuart	...	Phyllis Fowler
Thurston Hall	...	Horace Van Cleve
John Litel	...	Dean Fowler
Lewis L. Russell	...	George Dixon (as Lewis Russell)
Cora Witherspoon	...	Carrothers
Selmer Jackson	...	Fielding
Frank Dae	...	Professor

Storyline

A plain-Jane math professor (Joan Davis) at a small midwestern college is talked into journeying to New York on behalf of a colleague who has written a steamy bestseller under an assumed name. While in the big city, the math prof receives a bump on the head which brings on a form of amnesia. She begins to believe she is the author of the sultry book, and has actually lived its story. Now freed from her inhibitions, the lady professor sashays about with abandon. With a PR man (Jack Oakie) in tow, she crashes a party of swells at the home of a wealthy industrialist (Thurston Hall) and pressures him into making a large contribution to her tiny college back home.

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Plot Keywords:

female math professor | b movie | double feature film | stock footage | deception | 

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Taglines:

She wrote the years BLUSHING best-seller... then had to live it... page by burning page

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

This would be Gloria Stuart's final acting role until The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) and her final film until My Favorite Year (1982).

User Reviews

She Thinks She Did

Joan Davis is a buttoned down professor at an Indiana college. She's on her way to a conference to read her paper on abstruse mathematics, when dean's wife Gloria Stuart explains she wrote a tell-all novel called ALWAYS LULU. She wants the royalties for the college, which is just about broke, but for publicity publisher Thurston Hall and publicity man Jack Oakie want her in New York. They claim she has to sign papers. Miss Stuart asks Miss Davis to pretend to be her. Miss Davis reluctantly agrees, meets nice Texas engineer Kirby Grant and dates him up.... then comes down with total amnesia. Oakie, thinking her the real Lulu, tries to educate her in the ways of the vamp by reading to her from the book.

It's an amusing albeit unlikely comedy set-up. The problem for fans of Miss Davis is that it gives her far too chances for her outsized clowning. Except for a few moments when Jack Oakie is reading the book to her, she seems far too much the mild math professor. The movies always had problems with the level of her clowning: too much in one movie, too little in another, like here, where usually the script rarely gives her a chance to show her comic chops.

It was also the last film for three decades for Miss Stuart. Two more examples of how Hollywood often failed to know what to do with the talent it had.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 May 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aina vain Lulu

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1