She's Working Her Way Through College

1952 "She's a Burlesque Queen who becomes a co-ed--and gives the Student Body a brand new twist!"
6.1| 1h44m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 12 July 1952 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Shapely burlesque dancer Hot Garters Gertie aka Angela Gardner meets her future drama professor. Her new landlady proves to be the professor's wife. Angela helps breath life into the annual school stage show...but someone has discovered her secret past.

Genre

Comedy, Music

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Director

H. Bruce Humberstone

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

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She's Working Her Way Through College Audience Reviews

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Nicole 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.
Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
daneldorado Imbibition Technicolor, the most perfect method of adding color to film, was at its glorious apotheosis when the Warner Bros. musical "She's Working Her Way Through College," came along in 1952. Let the words of one of the men who worked on the process, Don Berry, inform us:"The results were striking. No other color process – notably the cheap processes of Eastman Kodak – could even come remotely close to achieving the vibrant, saturated look of IB (imbibition) Technicolor."With musical films, especially, looking for a prism through which to display their charms, the wedding of Technicolor and "She's Working Her Way Through College" was a match made in cinematic heaven.Elsewhere, you may read that this musical was an inferior version of the Warner Bros. 1942 drama (in black and white), "The Male Animal." The names of James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, writers of the 1942 movie, do appear in the credits of "She's Working…" but the musical uses only a few of the former film's lines. . . and it has a great foundation, hummable tunes, and that wonderful Technicolor going for it.Briefly: "She's Working Her Way Through College" starring Virginia Mayo, Ronald Reagan, and Gene Nelson, is a delight from the first scene on. Reagan plays John Palmer, a college professor who's doing dramatic research; and at one of the theaters he visits, he sees a rousing and colorful production number starring a burlesque queen (played winningly by the beautiful Ms. Mayo). Reagan doesn't remember her at first, but she remembers him as her high school teacher. They meet in her dressing room and she learns that her former teacher is now a professor at a small college, Midwest State. Ms. Mayo decides to quit the theater and enroll in his college.Once at Midwest State, Ms. Mayo receives a lot of wolf whistles from the male students, but responds only with smiles. She meets Don Weston (Gene Nelson), who is quarterback of the football team, but is also a terrific singer and dancer. Together they co-write a musical play for the school to present at one of the better theaters in town, and give their classmates a sneak performance right in their classroom. Professor Palmer has no objections, and is in fact drawn into the performance. The Mayo-Nelson routine is a winner, to the song "I'll be Loving You" by Sammy Cahn and Vernon Duke. In all, the production of "She's Working Her Way Through College" is a delight. And those who criticize it as an inferior "The Male Animal" need to look again. The two films are ages apart… and "The Male Animal," whatever its virtues, lacks the effervescent and vivid hues afforded by the Technicolor palette.By Dan Navarro -- daneldorado93@yahoo.com.
MartinHafer "She's Working Her Way Through College" is a bizarro version of college life--where students wear perfectly coordinated outfits, the average age of a co-ed if 30 and everyone breaks into song in giant choreographed numbers on a college set that is obviously a sound stage! It's very glossy but also very trivial--the sort of forgettable film you see once and soon forget.The film begins with a college professor (Ronald Reagan) stopping by to watch a burlesque show. Now 'burlesque' is the term they use, but for burlesque, the show shows an amazingly small amount of skin--practically none! Well, it turns out that the leading lady of this show (Virginia Mayo) is an ex-student of Reagan--he taught her years ago in high school. They have a nice but brief little reunion. Afterwords, she decides that the dancing life sucks and she should go back to college to improve her writing ability--as she's written a play and wants to polish it. Naturally, when Mayo comes to campus she finds a room to rent with Reagan and his wife! You know this will cause some friction, but bookish Ronnie doesn't seem to anticipate this. What he is focused on are two things--how unfair it is that the football team gets all the funding and how he does not look forward to producing another dull Shakespearian play as their annual fund-raiser. Virginia, however, convinces him to try something new and different--and Ronnie thinks they should put on her play--after, of course, adding a lot of singing and dancing to the script. Sadly, while all the ensuing songs are pleasant enough, they really are pretty forgettable.So, can good Professor Reagan manage to pull off a hit AND finally show up that accursed football team (headed by fat-headed Don DeFore)? If you care, see for yourself.Although it's hard to recognize, Warner Brothers took one of their old scripts ("The Male Animal") and re-worked the story into "She's Working Her Way Through College". It's very different but the conflict between Ronnie and DeFore as well as DeFore's interest in the Professor's wife is exactly the same one in "The Male Animal"--with Reagan and DeFore filling in for Henry Fonda and Jack Carson. My advice? See "The Male Animal"--it's a much better film. While it lacks all the songs and burlesque queen plot (thank goodness), it has a nice infusion of humor--something curiously lacking in "She's Working Her Way Through College". Forgettable and a bit silly.silly musical numbers reworking of The Male Animal.
lilkid4eva 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.
eastofeden87 This film may be seen as a rather slight offering in the musical genre of the early 50's; however, it's been a favorite film of mine since I first saw it years ago. Virginia Mayo sparkles as Angela, a sincere girl who wants to attend college, but has to work in burlesque as "Hot Garters Gertie" to earn the money. Ronald Reagan is her professor, and thankfully, the film is less concerned with his career woes (being passed over for promotions at the college, a rivalry with the football coach, etc.) than it is with the college kids and the musical numbers. Gene Nelson is handsome and an excellent dancer, and Patrice Wymore has the right degree of archness as "Poison Ivy". The musical numbers are a lot of fun, especially "With Plenty of Money and You" (Virginia, clad in gold fringe, pulls out the stops for her burlesque number), "I'll Still Be Loving You" (Virginia and Gene sing the cute romantic number in class), and the title song. It's a film I can enjoy watching again and again.