Spring Madness

This one starts out rather silly. The premise is that a college girl is in love with a college boy who wants to go to Russia for two years. She doesn't want to force herself on him but her friends will do anything to get them together. At first the whole thing looks and feels ludicrous. The stereotypes of the black porters today are insulting. The women - Maureen O'Sullivan, Ruth Hussey, Ann Morriss, Joyce Compton, and Julie Bishop (here credited as Jacqueline Wells) - are all gorgeous of course, more like models than college girls. Lew Ayres plays the would-be wanderer and Burgess Meredith his friend in tow. Everybody is a bit too old for the parts but as the film progresses somehow this becomes irrelevant as the comedic elements begin to overshadow the shortcomings. The first to look out for is the gym scene where O'Sullivan coyly agrees with everything Ayres says while he tries to convince her (and himself) of the nobility of his plans. O'Sullivan floats around the gym in her trademark elfin way and you wonder how this poor man can resist her. Joyce Compton, as the ditsy blonde, has several moments such as her overt manipulation of the police chief. Also throughout the film Hussey's presence is elemental. She, perhaps more than O'Sullivan, contributes to its enjoyment. Her strong, wise-cracking portrayal makes you forget this is a terribly outdated sexist story and you begin to enjoy it for what it is: silly fun! One last scene to point out. The look on Ayres' face when he sees his car has been taken apart is priceless. Of course don't bother to ask how that was done with bare hands and in about ten minutes. That would spoil the magic.

This is an amusing comedy with a simple plot. After the Easter break, college men and women of the Northeast return to school. On the train back to Boston, the men of Harvard and Dartmouth, in particular, express their rivalry. And the women of the Northeast College for Women interact with the men and talk about their plans for the upcoming shindig, the Spring Dance.

The five women who are housemates at NCW are played by Maureen O'Sullivan (Alex), Ruth Hussey (Kate), Ann Morriss (Frances), Joyce Compton (Sally), Julie Bishop (Mady) and Marjorie Gateson (Miss Ritchie).

The action follows two Harvard seniors, Sam (Lew Ayres) and his buddy, known as The Lippencott (Burgess Meredith). They have plans to visit Russia for two years, working and studying. They want to avoid the usual post-graduation path---a conventional job and, probably, marriage. The crux of the conflict in this rom-com is that Sam and Alex met during the break and strong feelings are undeniable. As Alex has stars in her eyes, Sam is finalizing plans to vamoose.

Yes, the story is simple, but the execution is so much fun. The dialogue is steeped in the lingo of the day. The cast is charming. And it is always fun to watch the upcoming stars of the era. For instance, this is the last of five films released in 1938 starring Maureen O'Sullivan, and it is after her third appearance in a Tarzan film.

In addition to Miss O'Sullivan's usual charms, I especially enjoyed Miss Hussey. And when it comes to fun, Miss Compton has "plent". Sally is a prodigious flirt and can wrap any man, it seems, around her little finger.

Ayres and Meredith are, likewise, great together. The men try to remain true to their pact to travel to Russia, but the women develop a three-pronged strategy to assist Alex's plans.

My favorite scene is where the girls goad the police into giving the boys a ticket. And the big dance scene is quite fab and tres cray.

Spring Madness is adapted from a flop Phillip Barry play Spring Dance that only ran for 24 performances in 1936. As this was a flop and not a hit like The Philadelphia Story MGM let it's B picture unit handle it. So we see no big stars like Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn in it.

A good B picture cast like Maureen O'Sullivan, Ruth Hussey, Julie Bishop, and Ann Morriss head the cast which is set at a girl's ivy league college. They do fine.

But I think the reason this play flopped because the leading male character played by Lew Ayres is really a fathead. He and his sidekick Burgess Meredith want to take a slow boat to Vladivostok and live and study in Russia.

By 1938 only the most hardened Stalinist would want to go there. When the play was running on Broadway the purge trials were getting started. When the film was released they were in high gear. Very few believed the babble defense the Daily Worker had of them.

There are some funny scenes and Burgess Meredith steals all scenes he's in with some outrageous overacting. On Broadway his part was played by a young Jose Ferrer.

The film has a few good laughs many with Burgess Meredith.

Certainly some big, fun, familiar names in this MGM 67 minute shortie - a YOUNG Burgess Meredith, almost 30 years before he was the Penguin in Batman. I didn't really get him in the old black and white films. He and Lew Ayres were both about 30 by now, although they both look younger than that. Maureen O'Sullivan is "Alex", the heroine of our story, who is determined to drag her man to the spring dance. Sterling Holloway (was also the voice of Winnie the Pooh!) has about four lines in this one. The first half of the film is all about the girls and their antics as they lay out their plans for the dance. lots of giggling. In spite of all the great comedians with whom the director worked over the years, i found this one pretty bland and monotone. I'd recommend watching L. Ayres in "Holiday" instead; also from 1938... that one is 100 times funnier. I think they cast gave it their best, but had to work with a lame, whitewashed script. Might have been a little more interesting before the Hays Commission. The men take the women to Maloney's restaurant, and Sam (Ayres) tells Alex he is going to Russia, and can't attend the dance with her. Then the scheming starts.... Directed by Sylvan Simon, who had made a bunch of movies with Red Skelton, Abbott & Costello, and even Lucille Ball. Simon croaked at age 41... heart attack.

Very silly story about serious Harvard man, Sam (Lew Ayres), all set to go on a two year trip to Russia to study the economy and write a book on the youth movement. One problem though - his girlfriend Alex (Maureen O'Sullivan), student at a nearby girl's college, doesn't know he is going. Alex and her slang-talking gal pals at college seem to care about one thing and one thing only - the spring dance. Alex is determined to get her man to that dance, but he actually has plans, along with his chum "The Lippencott" (well played by Burgess Meredith), to leave college before graduation and get on that ship to Russia - and he'll be leaving just *before* the dance. Dear oh dear.

The plot of this film really just had nothing to hold my interest and most of the actors seem a bit long in the tooth to be realistic as college students. The only thing that saves this movie at all is some of the acting, especially by some of the character actors, which is pretty well-done. I like Joyce Compton as Sally, man crazy blonde who only comes to college for the weekend dances, and Sterling Holloway as a Yale man, who seems to mainly hang about in the girl's college dorm lobby. And, well, Lew Ayres does look kind of cute in his polka dot pajamas in one scene. All in all, though, this movie is really just plain dumb.