She's Working Her Way Through College (1952)

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Uninspired part-remake of "The Male Animal," in loud Technicolor, and its origins aren't the only prefabricated thing about it. Rather than furnish a whole new score, Warners offers three so-so new songs by Vernon Duke and Sammy Cahn and buttresses them with old songs out of its catalog. At least one of these, "Am I in Love," is the basis for a stunning Gene Nelson solo, where he taps, plies, boxes, trampolines, and does who knows what else in one take. Then it's back to the limp plot about Virginia Mayo, formerly Hot Garters Gertie, forsaking burlesque to go to college, where her crush on Professor Ronald Reagan is quickly abandoned because it doesn't fit into the rest of the action. Reagan, never an inspired actor, is embarrassing here, with a long, unfunny drunk scene, and the rest of the cast--Don DeFore, Phyllis Thaxter, Patrice Wymore--isn't what you'd call exciting. It's an awfully white-middle-class college she's working her way through, and H. Bruce Humberstone, responsible for probably more dull Fox musicals than anyone else, does this other studio no favors. There are a couple of good numbers sprinkled throughout, and the script's endorsement of an erstwhile stripper is quite commendable for the puritanical Fifties. But there are dozens of better Warners musicals out there.

This is a color musical remake of Warners' classic "The Male Animal". In this version, Henry Fonda is replaced by everyone's favorite future President, Ronald Reagan. Reagan is again cast as a college professor, after his brilliant performance in "Bedtime for Bonzo". Musical-comedy was certainly not Reagan's strong point, but he is not embarrassing at all in this splashy color remake. And Bonzo is nowhere in sight. The "I'll Be Loving You" number, written by expert songwriters Vernon Duke and Sammy Cahn, is a standout. I find it hilarious that Virginia Mayo's singing is dubbed by Bonnie Lou Williams, Gene Nelson's singing is done by Hal Derwin, but the Pres sings his one line in the number for himself. I believe it is Reagan's only performance in a full production musical number. Thank goodness he was not asked to dance! Mayo and Nelson do that very well on their own. It is surprising that none of the Duke-Cahn songs from this film became standards. Their songs in this film, as well as Warner's "April in Paris" are first rate.

This is a horrible apolitical McCarthy Era remake of "The Male Animal" starring Henry Fonda and Olivia DeHavilland. The original had Fonda as a professor standing up to regent Eugene Palette to read a letter by Sacco of Sacco and Vanzetti while simultaneously battling Jack Carson as the faded college football star for the affections of DeHavilland. This is mindless fluff. Reagan is to Fonda as an actor what Reagan was to Roosevelt as a President, a cheap imitation. The only interesting thing is that Dan Defore ("Hazel") is in both films. He is the half-witted football player suitor for the affections of DeHavilland's sister in the original, and the half-witted former football player suitor for Thaxter's affections in this film, reprising Jack Carson's role.

I thought this movie was good. I was on vacation and I was staying one night in Zurich, and this just happened to be on TV. I couldn't stop watching it. It was really good, I never knew Ronald Reagan was such a good actor, I just thought of him as a president, nothing else, go figure. Anyway, if ever you are bored and looking for an amusing movie, this one will do you good. Even though it takes place in the early 1950s it is still really good. I didn't see the very beginning of the movie though, but everything I saw I liked, so thats that.