SHE WROTE THE BOOK

Mischa Auer and Joan Davis

SHE WROTE THE BOOK (1946). Director: Charles Lamont.

Jane Featherstone (Joan Davis of Around the World) is a prim and proper, intellectual science professor at the conservative Croydon College. She and everyone else on the faculty are appalled by the publication of a banned tell-all memoir entitled "Always Lulu," in which a woman's many amours are recounted in detail. No one knows that the author is actually the Dean's wife Phyllis (Gloria Stuart of Titanic). Phyllis can't collect the considerable royalties for the book unless she appears in person in New York, so she importunes her friend Jane to impersonate her. But when Jane is knocked out and becomes an amnesiac, she believes what everyone tells her, that she is Lulu, and takes on a whole new glamorous persona.

Joan Davis as "Lulu"

Given the excellent premise of this movie, as well as the cast members, one would think that She Wrote the Book was a laugh riot, but instead it's a disappointment. Joan Davis certainly gives it her all, and she gets some good support from Jack Oakie as the publisher's advertising manager; Mischa Auer as a man hired to woo her for money; Kirby Grant [In Society] as Eddie, a nice young guy who is attracted to Jane but definitely not to Lulu; and Thurston Hall as a wealthy ship builder who is mightily attracted to the supposedly oh-so-sexy and highly experienced "Lulu." John Litel is the dean and Jacquline deWit [The Damned Don't Cry] is the ship builder's jealous wife who threatens more than one person with a gun. The trouble with the film is not necessarily with the players but with a screenplay that lacks wit and never really pulls off the solid laughs it deserves, although there are a few amusing moments here and there. She Wrote the Book still manages to hold the attention and you do wonder how it will all turn out.

Verdict: Cute idea but the execution is only so-so. **1/2.