Movie Screening & Discussion - Dream Boat

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1952 comedy film Dream Boat. Directed by Claude Binyon and starring Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis and Jeffrey Hunter, the film was based on John Weaver's 1950 comedic serial story "Love Man" published in Collier's.

The respectable lives of English professor Thornton Sayre (Webb) and his daughter Carol (Francis) are turned upside down when it is revealed that Thornton once performed as a romantic matinee actor under the stage name of Bruce Blair. Adored then by his fans as the "Dreamboat" for his good looks, Thornton now faces calls from his college administration to resign for misrepresenting his past and scandalizing the student body. Thornton and his daughter hastily travel to New York to seek an injunction against the TV show, hosted by his former costar Gloria Marlow (Rogers) turned enemy, from re-airing the old films. After many hijinks and adventures, Thornton successfully gains his injunction against Gloria and the show but loses his job at the college anyway when it is revealed that college president Mathilda Coffey was a jilted fan. It seems that all works out when a major movie studio is interested in reviving the Dreamboat's acting career, only for Gloria to reveal that she bought his new contract and is now his boss.

A madcap satire featuring a deliciously eloquent Clifton Webb dishing out cutting remarks and showcasing an amusing picture of middle-aged vanity.