Directed by Charles Walters with a screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green that was based on a play by Lew Brown, Lawrence Schwab, Frank Mandel, Buddy DeSylva and Ray Henderson, this remake of the 1930 college Musical features the Academy Award nominated Song "Pass That Peace Pipe" and a cast that includes: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Patricia Marshall, Joan McCracken, Ray McDonald, Mel Torme, Robert Strickland, Donald MacBride, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg, Loren Tindall, and Connie Gilchrist (among others). It's 1927 and the guys are called Sheiks and the gals are called Flappers.
Set on the Tait campus, the story involves college football (action), dating and other romantic plights among several different students like hard working (class) librarian and teacher's aide Connie Lane (Allyson), football captain Tommy Marlowe (Lawford), perky Babe Doolittle (McCracken) who's interested in weakling Bobby Turner (McDonald) though she's being pursued by jealous football star Beef (Tindall), who vows to kill anyone that comes near his sweetheart, and others like Danny (Tormé, whose character sings and dances without otherwise being involved in the plot). The drama starts when a new girl, Pat McClellan (Marshall) joins the sorority. She's a gold digger that speaks (fakes) a bit of French; naturally, her first interest is Peter Van Dyne III (Strickland), who's worth millions, in lieu of playboy Tommy, who makes all the other girls swoon but initially puts off Pat. To entice her, Tommy learns a bit of the foreign language from Connie, who quickly falls for him, and the feeling is somewhat mutual.
But Tommy's French doesn't impress Pat, who's only interested in Peter's money, until Connie's best friend Babe, unaware of the new romance and wanting Tommy to be happy so that he'll do well in the pending big game, tells Pat that the football captain is son of a Pickle magnate. Once Tommy's within Pat's clutches, his performance on the gridiron and in the classroom suffers to a point of concern for his frantic Coach Johnson (MacBride), the trainer Pooch (Dugan), and the rest of the students who fear that Dean Griswold (Morris Ankrum) will keep Tommy from playing in the next big game. Ironically it's the French professor Burton Kennyon (Sundberg), for whom the love abandoned Connie works, that gives Tommy his only failing grade. She's then asked to tutor him for the good of the team, which she does reluctantly especially because Tommy and Pat are to be engaged after the game, that is until Connie and Cora (the sorority's housekeeper) conspire to turn gold digging Pat onto now injured Beef, which has the added benefit of freeing Babe to be with Bobby.
Of course, Tommy and Connie are the rage, a stirring dance number (the climactic prom) ends the picture.
Set on the Tait campus, the story involves college football (action), dating and other romantic plights among several different students like hard working (class) librarian and teacher's aide Connie Lane (Allyson), football captain Tommy Marlowe (Lawford), perky Babe Doolittle (McCracken) who's interested in weakling Bobby Turner (McDonald) though she's being pursued by jealous football star Beef (Tindall), who vows to kill anyone that comes near his sweetheart, and others like Danny (Tormé, whose character sings and dances without otherwise being involved in the plot). The drama starts when a new girl, Pat McClellan (Marshall) joins the sorority. She's a gold digger that speaks (fakes) a bit of French; naturally, her first interest is Peter Van Dyne III (Strickland), who's worth millions, in lieu of playboy Tommy, who makes all the other girls swoon but initially puts off Pat. To entice her, Tommy learns a bit of the foreign language from Connie, who quickly falls for him, and the feeling is somewhat mutual.
But Tommy's French doesn't impress Pat, who's only interested in Peter's money, until Connie's best friend Babe, unaware of the new romance and wanting Tommy to be happy so that he'll do well in the pending big game, tells Pat that the football captain is son of a Pickle magnate. Once Tommy's within Pat's clutches, his performance on the gridiron and in the classroom suffers to a point of concern for his frantic Coach Johnson (MacBride), the trainer Pooch (Dugan), and the rest of the students who fear that Dean Griswold (Morris Ankrum) will keep Tommy from playing in the next big game. Ironically it's the French professor Burton Kennyon (Sundberg), for whom the love abandoned Connie works, that gives Tommy his only failing grade. She's then asked to tutor him for the good of the team, which she does reluctantly especially because Tommy and Pat are to be engaged after the game, that is until Connie and Cora (the sorority's housekeeper) conspire to turn gold digging Pat onto now injured Beef, which has the added benefit of freeing Babe to be with Bobby.
Of course, Tommy and Connie are the rage, a stirring dance number (the climactic prom) ends the picture.