Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Michael_Elliott Grand Old Girl (1935) ** (out of 4) May Robson plays a college principle who gives her life to make sure her students get their education and stays out of trouble. All of this is at risk when a local ice cream shop starts an illegal gambling house in one of its back rooms so Robson must go out of her way to get it shut down. This is one of the earliest "teachers doing good" films that I've seen and it's amazing that they even followed familiar turf way back then. The film offers no surprises and plays everything pretty straight without ever trying to be real or serious. The way Robson finally brings down the gambling house is incredibly stupid and the ending, which is meant to be emotional, falls flat on its face. The supporting cast incudes a good performance by Fred MacMurray and a small role from Edward Van Sloan.

David (Handlinghandel) This is far from May Robson's best movie. But it has its appeal. She is a school principal -- and a more caring one than I ever had. She's also meddling and a bit of a prig. But so were the ones I did have and they didn't show the interest in their students that her character does.Living alone with her cat, Robson gives all her energy over to her young charges. She helps a young football player not only pass his math exam but also learn that he's not so stupid as has been thought.She's also on a crusade to shut down a gambling parlor behind a soda shop. It's called the Back Room. Very racy for small town 1935, I'd think. As to the time, I have to wonder if a high school at that time would have a black student accepted as a member of his peer group. The exact location of the town is never specified but it appears to be the Midwest, New York, or New England. (In other words: No Southern accents.) There he is, though -- a black boy named Neptune who hangs out with the other kids.Fred MacMurray is implausibly cast in a small role and does nothing one way or the other to the movie.I like May Robson and she was in some truly bad movies. This is not bad. It just isn't good. And she puts her heart into the role.

bkoganbing May Robson, two years after her Academy Award nominated performance in Lady for a Day, got roped into doing this film about a school principal in small town USA. The premise is actually an interesting one and you can follow the concept from a film like Grand Old Girl right up to a television series like Boston Public. She's a school principal 24 hours a day and takes an interest in all that goes on in her small town.The problem was that the script just had so many saccharine characters in it who in the end don't really turn out to be as bad as they first seem that it gets ridiculous. Alan Hale who runs a malt shop, but who has a back room where gambling and liquor are available to the kids, is one of her foes. In the end however he feels sorry for the old gal and turns out to be her rescuer. This is after she attempted to run him out of business.Mary Carlisle in the next generation would be labeled a high school hellcat. At first she is one spoiled rich kid tramp and then she breaks down and cry when the town fathers led by her father put Robson out to pasture. Among Robson's former pupils is a man who became an unnamed mythical President of the United States who makes a dramatic appearance in his home town. It can't be FDR since the president's face is never shown. Sort of like how Jesus was portrayed in films like The Big Fisherman or Ben-Hur later. Also the president is walking unaided which FDR could not do. But Gavin Gordon who plays the president has an FDR like mellifluous voice.Fred MacMurray here is wasted, none of his gifts of comedy are utilized and that's a shame. He's a delivery man who Carlisle has a yen for.Cecil B. DeMille made a controversial film two years earlier called This Day and Age about high school kids fighting corruption in their small town. Some of the same elements are here in Grand Old Girl, but the scriptwriters I believe were trapped by the persistent mythology of small town America and the good people in it. So the film got watered down to nothingness.Sad to say, but there's nothing of any real interest in Grand Old Girl.

75groucho Set in a small town that may as well have sprung from the pages of Archie & Jughead comics, Mrs. Bayles is the venerable principal of the local high school. She's a kindly soul, dedicated above all to the education and welfare of her students. You can tell as she painstakingly tutors a cement-headed member of the football team in geometry. There's one major bee in her bonnet, though; 'Click' Dade, who runs a gambling den out of the back room of his malt shop (yeah, you read that correctly...) Her own sleuthing turns up enough evidence for an indictment, but not a conviction. Outraged at her concern for the students, the school board issues her a stern warning. Still, she can't resist her urge to serve. When a shy, stuttering boy comes to her, Ms. Bayles tells him of another of her students, many years before. He, too, had been shy and teased by others, but he grew up to be *gasp* PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Still fighting, the foxy old gal connives to beat Dade at his own game. In a heartwarming scene of good old-fashioned racism, a black student teaches Ms. Bayles how to shoot craps with loaded dice. She wins enough money from Dade to open her own malt shop (with a jazz band, no less), but a fistfight erupts, leading the school board to close her storefront and fire her from the school. She's packing her bags and getting ready to move on, when who should come in to save the day? Yes, Ms. Bayles former pupil, the Chief Executive himself who just happens to be rolling through town in a motorcade. The Prez delivers a lecture on the holy calling that is the life of an educator, and the film ends with the town cheering their Ms. Bayles.Oh, yeah, and there's some stuff about some rich man's party girl daughter who has eyes for a local delivery driver (a young Fred MacMurray), but it's all rather plodding and stagy. Final word on "Grand Old Girl": Not aggressively bad but still not unique enough to be a true curiosity piece. You needn't go out of your way for it.