Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

bkoganbing If it were not for the fact that Tyrone Power had a small role that caused Darryl Zanuck to take notice of him, Girl's Dormitory would well be forgotten as it should. I doubt such a film would have been done in an American setting. One was tried called That Hagen Girl and it nearly wrecked the careers of Shirley Temple and Ronald Reagan.Girl's Dormitory was also to be the debut of young French player Simone Simon and she plays one sly little minx who is going to a boarding school in Germany. A couple of days before graduation she writes and then discards a steamy love letter to an unknown lover. The house matron at the school, Constance Collier finds it and shows it to another teacher J. Edward Bromberg.Who then raises a big whoop-tee-do at the faculty meeting. Bromberg wants this immoral young lady made an example of and tossed from the school. Remember this is two days before graduation. Simon confesses to another teacher Ruth Chatterton that it was meant for Herbert Marshall the headmaster. Chatterton also has it for Marshall.After that the film moves right along the path of That Hagen Girl and looks just as stupid as Marshall declares his undying love for Simon. The man was a regular Jerry Lee Lewis, who'd have thunk it, Herbert Marshall.The most interesting character is the repressed J. Edward Bromberg who acts like the grand inquisitor. In an ironic twist of fate, he would face this in real life from House Un-American Activities Committee and would be the cause of his demise.Toward the end of the film, Tyrone Power playing a young nobleman tries to chat up Simon in a café. That small scene brought a lot of fan mail in and Darryl Zanuck who had just put together the 20th Century Fox merger knew he had a new male lead star who would be to him what Clark Gable was to Louis B. Mayer at MGM.So a star was born albeit in a strange birthplace. Girl's Dormitory I'm surprised made it through the omnipresent Code although no sex scenes took place. Other than seeing Ty Power's first real noticeable part, Girl's Dormitory has nothing to recommend it.

mark.waltz Girl's school professor Herbert Marshall is stunned to find out he is the recipient of love from one of his young students (Simone Simon). Ruth Chatterton is his friend who must help them defend themselves in this soap opera made during 20th Century Fox's first year after the merger of William Fox's studio and Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures. It was a secondary role for Ruth Chatterton in her last major year as a Hollywood star. The same year, she scored a major triumph as the selfish wife in "Dodsworth" (and an Oscar Nomination), and appeared in a fine now forgotten women's film, "Lady of Secrets". After two little seen British films, she was never once again on the big screen, making only sporadic appearances on TV years later. Herbert Marshall, a fine romantic actor, is supposed to be in his 30's here, but is obviously a bit older. It is a bit concerting to see Simone Simon chasing him and for him to fall prey to her charms. (Reverse that with Chatterton going after a much younger man, and in 1936, you'd truly have the Hays code going bonkers.) I was happy though that Simon was presented as sensitive and beautiful as the young innocent Marie, and was not at all cloying in her part. I thought with her voice, she would begin to grate after a while, but I was surprised that she didn't.Constance Collier, hit by a rock from a slingshot, later a pillow, which causes her skirt to fall down while searching for her glasses, faces all sorts of deserved indignities here. J. Edward Bromberg deserves more than the slap he gets from Ruth Chatterton. He is appropriately despicable, but gets his share of come-uppance from two other teachers who accuse him of taking out his own family aggressions on his pupils. Tyrone Power, whose DVD box set this title appears under, only has a cameo towards the end, and isn't even billed in the opening credits. It's basically a screen test that confirmed his chemistry with the camera. If you can get past the uncomfortableness of the story between Marshall and Ms. Simon, you might find this enjoyable. It is beautifully filmed and gives director Irving Cummings a chance to do something other than the musicals he would mainly be remembered for.

blanche-2 A young Simone Simon falls for her teacher (Herbert Marshall) in "Girls' Dormitory," a 1936 film set in a European girls' school where the teachers are Herr and Fraulein. When Herbert Marshall is the object of a girl's affections, you know this is an old one. Like the previous poster, this film made me feel old, too, but for a different reason - I didn't like seeing Ruth Chatterton thrown over for this babe! Simon plays a 19-year-old, but like "Ladies in Love" from the same time period, she looks like she's about 15. She's a total dazzler with those pouty lips, exotic eyes, sexy voice, and kittenish presence. She was a natural for "Cat People," that's for sure. And in real life, she was no less of a man magnet - even at an advanced age, she had plenty of male attention.Herbert Marshall plays the world's most absent-minded professor, failing to see that his colleague, Ruth Chatterton, has been in love with him for years and waiting for a marriage proposal. Similarly, he never catches on that Simon is in love with him either. In the story, Chatterton comes to Simon's defense when a love letter is found by one of the sterner teachers, and a move is afoot to expel her. Chatterton is a lovely actress, in her forties in this film. She only made a few other movies after this one, returning to her theatrical roots for the most of the rest of her career.Tyrone Power, then billed as Tyrone Power, Jr., as his son is today, has a small role toward the end of the movie. He's gorgeous.Girls' Dormitory is dated as all get-out, but worth seeing for Chatterton, Simon, and Power when he was beginning to find his place at 20th Century Fox.

aromatic-2 Herbert Marshall does his best with a foolish character and a melodramatic script. Simone is electric on the screen but the chemistry between she and Ruth Chatterton is far more compelling than between Marshall and either one of his leading ladies. I LOVED this movie when I was young, but cannot remember why. Seeing it now just makes me feel very, very old because the mores and standards promulgated are just so outdated.