Movie Screening & Discussion - "How To Be Very, Very Popular"

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1955 comedy "How to Be Very, Very Popular," written, produced, and directed by Nunnally Johnson and starring Betty Grable, Sheree North, Bob Cummings, Charles Coburn, and Tommy Noonan. Based on the 1933 novel She Loves Me Not by Edward Hope. Never before released on DVD.

Stormy Tornado (Grable) and Curly Flagg (North) are two showgirls in a San Francisco cabaret who witness the murder of one of their fellow performers. Seeking to flee the complications of the case, they choose to hide out at Bristol College, disguising themselves as boys. They run in to Fillmore Wedgewood (Cummings), a perennial student constantly looking for ways to forestall graduation. Along the way, the college president Dr. Tweed (Coburn) attempts to coax a sizable donation from a wealthy alumni before being caught in the midst of the farcical fallout of the girls' attempt to disguise themselves. 

A wacky romp with a convoluted Hollywood history. The two main roles were originally intended for Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe, the latter of whom later starred in the more famous "Some Like It Hot" with a very similar premise.