Dancing Co-Ed (1939)

A professional dancer (Lana Turner) is planted in a Midwest college to win a rigged Hollywood contest. The prize is a starring role in a big movie musical. But complications arise when she falls in love with a crusading college journalist (Richard Carlson). Based on a short story by Albert Treynor and directed by S. Sylvan Simon (THE FULLER BRUSH MAN). An enjoyable piece of college hijinks fluff if you don't ask too much. Lana Turner is still in her perky redheaded ingenue phase and she's delightful here showing an aptitude for comedy that she never played on during her Star years. It's a second tier programmer but it turned a tidy little profit for MGM and solidified Turner as one of the studio's upcoming stars although it would take a couple of years before her breakthrough in ZIEGFELD GIRL. With Monty Woolley, Lee Bowman, Ann Rutherford, Leon Errol (who comes close to stealing the movie), Mary Beth Hughes, June Preisser, Roscoe Karns, Mary Field and Artie Shaw (who Turner would marry the following year) and his band.