Finishing School might be one of the most tepid stories of youthful rebellion in the name of love that you’ll ever see. A stodgy, overly strict head matron is defied, a love connection is made, and we learn that sometimes you have to fight authority while listening to it. Alright, the film’s take on authority is shaky at best, but it has a firm position on the pursuit of love: love is something to be pursued. Well, that is, if it has good job prospects. Your love interest is a blue collar man paying his way through school as a waiter? Stay away. Oh, he’s paying his way through med school? He’s going to be a respectable doctor? Well, still no, he’s a waiter first and foremost. Apparently.
Finishing School wants to tell the love story between a girl from a rich family training for a clerical position who falls in love with a med student waiting tables at a hotel. Had it just been left at that, the film could have pulled off a few sentimental moments in the midst of some jokes about a female prep school. Instead, the film is a half-baked story with a Miss Hannigan-like (from Annie) character playing a two-bit villain to the film’s wide-eyed protagonist Virginia (Frances Dee) whose honesty and goodwill seem to earn her nothing but trouble as she pursues her romance with Ralph (Bruce Cabot). The socio-economic disapproval of Ralph just comes across as a weakly placed obstacle attempting to add tension to a story whose romance is devoid of any real drama. Oh my, he hasn’t written or visited in 10 days! Excuse me, this is 1934, the age when people still had to write and wait for correspondence to arrive by mail. And we’re to believe she’s desperate after 10 days? Everything here is forced, and if it weren’t for the protagonists being mostly likable, there’d be little to nothing going in this film’s favor.
DVD Bonus Features
As a Warner Brothers Online Store made-to-order DVD, there are no extras besides a trailer for the film.
"Finishing School" is on sale February 15, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy, Drama, Romance. Directed by George Nichols Jr, Wanda Tuchock. Written by Laird Doyle, David Hempstead. Starring Bruce Cabot, Frances Dee, Billie Burke, Ginger Rogers.
