Finally, I accidentally discovered here a musical comedy costarring knockout Virginia Mayo!. She was 32, but had the bounce and looks of a 20 y.o. coed. Previously, I had only seen her as the girlfriend of cowpokes, pirates or other adventurous types. I quickly discovered that she was the costar of 3 Warner musicals from 1951-53, although I haven't yet seen the other 2 . Her costar in each of these films was the handsome multitalented Gene Nelson. As far as musicals were concerned, both were best known for their stage dancing skills. Gene also was a decent singer and gymnast, as shown in this film. Apparently, Virginia didn't have a good singing voice, as she was always dubbed. Thus, she was considered a second musical talent to Doris Day, at Warner, at this time. Gene, the lucky stiff, got to do several musicals with both, not to mention several musicals with Fox's blond musical star, June Haver.........The screenplay is not very original, but well done, and fun, for the most part. Pre-President Ronald Reagan play's Virginia's former high school drama teacher, now a professor at Midwestern College. Coincidentally, he again meets Virginia at her last performance as a burlesque queen. He encourages her to matriculate at Midwestern, which she does. Strangely, she rooms in the spare bedroom in Reagan's house. Reagan's wife, Helen(Phyllis Thaxter) is understandably unsettled by this arrangement, suspecting that Reagan has more than a scholastic interest in Virginia. On the other hand, Reagan becomes jealous when the ex-football star(Don Defoe) of his college class shows up to attend a football rally. He and Helen had sometimes dated during their college careers, and he immediately starts to make some moves on Helen, who tries to discourage him. Yet, they do have a date, during which Raegan supposedly becomes drunk, and begins a long rambling speech to Virginia and Nelson, and later, to his rival. Of course, the present football standout, played by Gene Nelson, immediately strikes up a romance with Virginia: the prettiest and most vivacious girl in the college. This make's Patricia Wymore's character 'Poison Ivy" jealous, as she was the reigning campus queen bee, Nelson's steady girlfriend. She gets back at Virginia by discovering her burlesque period and publishing a newspaper headline about it. This causes great turmoil on campus, almost getting Virginia expelled and Reagan fired. But, they received strong support by the student body, causing the Chairman on the Board of Trustees(played by Fred Copeland) to back down and apologize for his hysterical response. All ends well, as Virginia gets to participate in the school play which she wrote....... Incidentally, Patrice Wymore was Errol Flynn's wife for a while, he getting her film career started. I've noticed she usually plays 'the other woman', or a wicked woman or a combo, as in this film. She had decent singing and dancing talent, and gets to sing and dance twice here.........The songs were generally spritely, if not very memorable. Virginia and Nelson as a dancing couple were certainly a handsome sight. At one moment, Virginia puts on a Cleopatra wig, and Nelson, as a soldier(Caesar, presumably) comes beckoning. In all, I enjoyed the film, and recommend it to all lovers of musical comedies.
