Girls' Dormitory (1936)

In a Swiss school for girls, a young teenaged French student (Simone Simon) falls in love with the older director (Herbert Marshall) of the school. A teacher (Ruth Chatterton) at the school is also in love with the director but he is unaware of either woman's feeling for him. Someone will end up getting hurt. Directed by Irving Cummings, this minor 20th Century Fox effort introduced the French actress Simone Simon to American audiences who would do a few more films for Fox before returning to France to score her greatest success in Jean Renoir's LA BETE HUMAINE. It's an unsettling film in many ways. The rigid morality of two of the school's teachers (Constance Collier, J. Edward Bromberg) who overreact to a young girls' innocent love letter and want her expelled seems so inexplicable today. Perhaps the most disturbing element is the film's ending which goes the very opposite of how you expect it to end. My favorite performance was Chatterton who gives a rather touching portrait of a woman quietly suffering from unrequited love. The film also features a very early performance by Tyrone Power who comes in the film's last 7 minutes and has about 3 lines. With John Qualen and Frank Reicher.