Girls' Dormitory
Encyclopedia
Girls' Dormitory is a 1936
American
romance film
directed by Irving Cummings
.
, the main focus of the film is Dr. Stephen Dominick, the school's popular director who is secretly admired by teacher Professor Anna Mathe and the 19-year-old French student Marie Claudel. At a state fair
, the girls draw lots to see who gets to ask Dr. Dominick for a dance. Marie wins and nervously asks Dr. Dominick. Because he thinks it is inappropriate to dance with a student, he refuses, causing Marie to burst out in tears and run away. Thereby, she is late for the bus, returning to the boarding school.
A week later, Professor Augusta Wimmer, a strict, unlikable woman, goes through the personal belongings of her students and finds a love letter in the trash. Dr. Dominick and Professor Mathe are assigned to find out who wrote the letter, and conclude Marie is responsible. Upon confronting her, she denies having written the letter, fearing Dr. Dominick will find out about her crush on him. Some of the uptight, old-fashioned teachers, including Professor Wimmer, suspect that while she was gone at the fair, she visited her supposed boyfriend she wrote this letter to. Because the strict rules at the school include not being allowed to date, Marie risks being suspended two days before graduation.
In tears, Marie admits to Professor Mathe that she wrote the letter to Dr. Dominick. Anna informs Dr. Dominick and both sympathize for the girl and prevent her from being sent away to her mother. Dr. Domick secretly admits to Marie that he feels attracted to her as well, and they start an affair. One night, Marie overhears a conversation in which Professor Mathe admits to being in love with Dr. Dominick and that she will leave the school because she is heartbroken. Trying to prevent this, Marie lies to Dr. Dominick by saying that she lied to him about being in love with him, claiming that she only told him she loved him so she would be able to graduate.
Soon after graduation, Marie is about to be driven back home by her cousin Vallais, when she is suddenly visited by Dr. Dominick. He tells her he could never fall in love with Anna, after which they kiss.
's first American film. The press praised her performance, with The Hollywood Reporter
noting that "Hers is a performance unprecedented in Hollywood productions. Fresh, bright and alive, her face mirrors expressions with an ease that transcends acting".
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
romance film
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
directed by Irving Cummings
Irving Cummings
Irving Cummings , born Irving Camisky in New York City, New York was an American movie actor, director, producer and writer....
.
Plot
Set in the fictional Montreaux School for Girls in SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the main focus of the film is Dr. Stephen Dominick, the school's popular director who is secretly admired by teacher Professor Anna Mathe and the 19-year-old French student Marie Claudel. At a state fair
State fair
A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....
, the girls draw lots to see who gets to ask Dr. Dominick for a dance. Marie wins and nervously asks Dr. Dominick. Because he thinks it is inappropriate to dance with a student, he refuses, causing Marie to burst out in tears and run away. Thereby, she is late for the bus, returning to the boarding school.
A week later, Professor Augusta Wimmer, a strict, unlikable woman, goes through the personal belongings of her students and finds a love letter in the trash. Dr. Dominick and Professor Mathe are assigned to find out who wrote the letter, and conclude Marie is responsible. Upon confronting her, she denies having written the letter, fearing Dr. Dominick will find out about her crush on him. Some of the uptight, old-fashioned teachers, including Professor Wimmer, suspect that while she was gone at the fair, she visited her supposed boyfriend she wrote this letter to. Because the strict rules at the school include not being allowed to date, Marie risks being suspended two days before graduation.
In tears, Marie admits to Professor Mathe that she wrote the letter to Dr. Dominick. Anna informs Dr. Dominick and both sympathize for the girl and prevent her from being sent away to her mother. Dr. Domick secretly admits to Marie that he feels attracted to her as well, and they start an affair. One night, Marie overhears a conversation in which Professor Mathe admits to being in love with Dr. Dominick and that she will leave the school because she is heartbroken. Trying to prevent this, Marie lies to Dr. Dominick by saying that she lied to him about being in love with him, claiming that she only told him she loved him so she would be able to graduate.
Soon after graduation, Marie is about to be driven back home by her cousin Vallais, when she is suddenly visited by Dr. Dominick. He tells her he could never fall in love with Anna, after which they kiss.
Cast
- Herbert MarshallHerbert MarshallHerbert Marshall , born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk...
as Dr. Stephen Dominick - Ruth ChattertonRuth ChattertonRuth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
as Professor Anna Mathe - Simone SimonSimone SimonSimone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
as Marie Claudel - Constance CollierConstance CollierConstance Collier was an English film actress and acting coach.-Life and career:Born Laura Constance Hardie, in Windsor, Berkshire, Collier made her stage debut at the age of 3, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer's Night Dream...
as Professor Augusta Wimmer - J. Edward BrombergJ. Edward BrombergJoseph Edward Bromberg was a Hungarian-born American character actor in motion picture and stage productions dating mostly from the 1930s and 1940s....
as Dr. Spindler - Dixie Dunbar as Luisa
- John QualenJohn QualenJohn Qualen was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles....
as Toni - Shirley Deane as Fritzi
- Tyrone PowerTyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
as Count Vallais - Frank ReicherFrank ReicherFrank Reicher , was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer.-Early life:Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann...
as Dr. Hoffenreich - George Hassell as Dr. Willfinger
- Lynne Berkeley as Dora
- June StoreyJune StoreyJune Storey June Storey June Storey (born Mary June Storey, (April 20, 1918 – December 18, 1991) was a Canadian-born American film actress during the mid-late 1930s and into the 1940s, who most often appeared in B-movies as the heroine of westerns....
as Greta - Christian RubChristian RubChristian Rub was known as a character actor from the late 1910s to the early 1950s, and was featured in more than 100 movies, often uncredited. He was born in Passau, Bavaria, Germany. His first appearance was in the movie The Belle of New York...
as Forester - Rita Gould as Professor Emma Kern
- Diana Serra CaryDiana Serra CaryDiana Serra Cary , best known as Baby Peggy, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie....
as Student - Lynn BariLynn BariLynn Bari , born Margaret Schuyler Fisher, was a movie actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in over one hundred 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s.-Career:Bari was born in Roanoke, Virginia...
as Student (uncredited)
Reception
The film was Simone SimonSimone Simon
Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
's first American film. The press praised her performance, with The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
noting that "Hers is a performance unprecedented in Hollywood productions. Fresh, bright and alive, her face mirrors expressions with an ease that transcends acting".