Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

atlasmb The first indication that "Finishing School" is worth watching is that the Catholic church placed the film on its condemned list for 1934. But it has so much more than that to recommend it.The star of the film is Francis Dee, who plays Virginia Radcliff, the teenage daughter of rich parents who send her off to get educated in the finer aspects of life. The mother--played by Billie Burke--seems to have little use for the daughter and is quite happy to "drop her on the doorstep" and retire to her social agenda. Crockett Hall is an exclusive girls school where exclusivity implies a lack of racial diversity and an emphasis on blueblood backgrounds. At first the school seems like a backdrop for a film comedy about coming of age and the harmless hijinks of young women. But Virginia soon learns that Crockett is little more than a prison where the ridiculous rules of etiquette are but a small part of the personality engineering to which the girls are subjected.Virginia forges quality relationships with a small clique, including "Pony" Ferris, played by Ginger Rogers. Being a fan of Ms. Rogers, I was pleased to find that by this time in her career she is a fully-formed, competent actress. As the harsh headmistress, Miss Van Alstyne (played by Beulah Bondi), cracks down on the indiscretions of Virginia--especially the indiscretion of being "too different"--and we find that this teen comedy has morphed into a significant drama. Francis Dee is more than up to the challenge with her convincing portrayal of a woman who is fighting for her sanity and her life. Indeed, she raises Virginia to the level of heroine."Finishing School" is a stylish film with great acting. It deals with sophisticated issues and gives the viewer an emotional journey.

kidboots If Frances Dee hadn't been so beautiful and opted for marriage with Joel McCrea, her talent would have carried her far (in my opinion). At the end of "Finishing School" she has a scene where she is contemplating suicide and it is very reminiscent of her work in "The Silver Cord" (1933). "Finishing School" was just one of several features made around this time, in imitation of the arty German feature "Madchen in Uniform" (1931). Frances plays Virginia Ratcliff, who is enrolled at Crocket Hall, an exclusive finishing school only for girls with families of breeding and inheritance. Of course she finds life at the school a "double standard", as room-mate Pony (Ginger Rogers) gives her the low down - anything goes but "don't get caught". When Virginia is invited by Pony to a "chaperoned" party and finds it anything but, she is rescued from the drunken embraces of a fresh footballer by Mac (Bruce Cabot), a waiter who is working his way through medical school. Frances Dee reminds one that she could have been a very fine actress. She has several dramatic scenes when she finds herself in the "usual" sticky situation. Bruce Cabot is fine as Mac and surprise! surprise! he doesn't play a jerk but a genuine ah shucks!! kind of guy. Beulah Bondi plays the matron in her usual acidic manner. John Halliday had a thankless role as Virginia's exasperated father. Ginger Roger plays peppy Pony but unlike Dawn O'Day (Ann Shirley) who played Billie, both she and Dee were beyond the proper age to be believable as young debs.An interesting story about Anne Shirley. She was just about to get her big break in "Anne of Green Gables" but before that happened she had to put up with the indignity of her part in "Finishing School". Anne had been in films since she was a baby and ten years later had still not received that "special" part that would push her out of the supporting ranks. Her pushy mother was convinced a role in "Finishing School" was the film to do it. She was given the role of Billie but as always seemed to happen to her, RKO changed it's mind and offered the part to Mitzi Green. So, once again, Anne, a ten year film veteran was shunted aside and given an extra's part while a less experienced player was given her role.... ...but a week later Green left the film, her father didn't think the role was big enough for his daughter (and it wasn't that big) and Anne was re-instated. George Nicholls Jnr, was assistant director and the next movie he was assigned was "Anne of Green Gables". He remembered Anne's work on "Finishing School" and was sure she would be perfect for the role of the red haired orphan - and she was.Highly Recommended.

MartinHafer Twenty-five year-old Frances Dee is dropped off at a girls finishing school. All the young ladies are supposed to be about 18 to 20, but like Dee, many look far older. Dee is a nice girl, though she is placed in a room with trampy Ginger Rogers. Despite initially resisting temptation, she succumbs very quickly to Rogers' urging to be a party girl. While on her first and only binge in the big city, Dee happens upon nice-guy, Bruce Cabot. They instantly fall in love and Cabot escorts Dee back to college. However, the dried up old prune who runs the place (Beulah Bondi) decides Cabot is EVIL and forbids Dee to see him again. When Cabot writes her, Bondi intercepts the letters and destroys them! Additionally, all passes are canceled for Dee--even though so far she really hasn't been all that bad.As a result of virtually being held prisoner, Dee is lonely. And, to top it off, is one of the only girls who is stuck in the school through Christmas--though she is able to sneak away for a tryst with Cabot. How far they go is strongly implied but never directly alluded to--though the intimation is that they did "the nasty". It also seems like MAYBE she was pregnant, but the makers of this film were so deliberately vague in their details that it's all very confusing. In the end, Cabot arrives in the nick of time to sweep Dee off her feet and leave this prudish girls school.All in all, this film had a lot of silly acting and ridiculous characters. In particular, Bondi was rather tough to believe with her one-woman anti-sex campaign she waged ONLY against Dee. This film is pretty silly and only worth seeing as an example of a sleazy film that is vague and confusing due to its desire to appeal to a very adult crowd AND be acceptable to the censors. It failed pretty miserably on both counts and was banned by the Catholic Legion of Decency.

movingpicturegal Melodramatic film that basically tells the story of a girl who gets out from under the thumb of her wealthy, thoughtless, overbearing yet absent mama (Billie Burke) and under the influence of her new chums at Crockett Hall, an exclusive finishing school for young ladies ("the choice of first families for fifty years"). Virginia Radcliff (played by Frances Dee) is a gentle and sweet young lady who wants to follow, with all her heart, the set of rules put before her on her first day of school - no smoking, no drinking, no locked doors - and NO lipstick. Her wisecracking roommate, Cecilia (Ginger Rogers) aka "Pony" (she's just goofy about horses) thinks the "prissy" rules are just there to please the parents - and soon a couple of other gals are brawling on the floor of their room over a bottle of liquor! When Pony gets the girls out for a "weekend party" at a hotel by tricking the headmistress into thinking they are being escorted by her "aunt" (seedy actress who gets paid 5 bucks for the job) our good girl goes bad - she decides to get herself "tight" for the first time and they are soon boozing it up with a couple of shady fellows. But when Virginia can't handle her drink (or her creepy date) - the good-looking hotel waiter comes to her rescue, she's smitten, and is soon sneaking out of the school to see this guy. But trouble soon brews when our girl gets herself into another sort of "trouble" after her fellow meets her at the school's boat house - Virginia is soon butting heads with the snooty school headmistress who is mainly worried about the school's reputation.I found this to be an enjoyable, interesting film that starts out pretty light, but the story becomes much more serious towards the end. The trouble - pregnancy, is never mentioned being this was released in 1934 - they do everything but say the word to imply what is going on here though. The film features lots of top-notch performances that help keep the action rolling along - Frances Dee is excellent as the innocent good girl, Ginger Rogers is really fun to watch (as usual), and Billie Burke is in this film all too briefly, playing the sort of scatterbrained character that is typical for her. The school itself is actually introduced as a character known as "The Snob". And watch for a young Anne Shirley (aka Dawn O'Day) as a younger schoolmate, an innocent the older girls consider a pest - especially amusing is her scene where she asks Pony to borrow her brassiere. Quite a good film.