“Girls’ Dormitory” Introduces Exciting New Star

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 5

“Girls’ Dormitory” Introduces Exciting New Star

SIMONE SIMON MAKES DEBUT IN DISTINGUISHED COMPANY (State: Screening Soon.) A brilliant new screen star —talented, glamorous, beautiful—is revealed in “Girls’ Dormitory,” Twentieth Cen-tury-Fox picture. Hailed as the most important screen discovery in years, Simone Simon makes her debut in a stirring and enthralling film that stands as one of Hollywood’s outstanding achievements. Herbert Marshall and Ruth Chatter ton are starred in the production and their inspired performances aid in making “Girls’ Dormitory” what it is—the most human, realistic and revealing story of rapturous first love ever brought to the screen. Darryl F. Zanuck especially selected this film to introduce Simone Simon to the American screen, and the chieftain of the Twentieth Century-Fox studio also surrounded the famous Continental star with an impressive cast which, in addition to Marshall and Miss Chatterton, features Constance Collier, J. Edward Bromberg, Dixie Dunbar, John Qualen and Shirley Deane. The story of a young girl knowing the tumult of lovo for the first time, “Girls’ Dormitory” opens in an exclusive finishing school where the daughters of the very wealthy are sent to complete their education.

Herbert Marshall is director of the school, and it is with him that Simone, a pupil, falls in love. Ruth Chatterton, a member of the faculty, also loves Marshall but conceals her affection behind a mask of friendliness and admiration. Like a schoolgirl, Simone at first whispers her love only to her heart but then, like a woman, she lights for the liappiuess that only love can bring. In the lightning flash of a summer storm, Marshall and Simone kiss and she confesses her love.

Simone’s ecstacy is shattered when she discovers that Marshall and Miss Chatterton are really in love. In a brilliant scene, Simon© brings thei: tangled affairs to a climax —a climax that reveals the newcomer one of the most inspired actresses ever to grace the screen.

Under Irving Cummings deft direction, Simone reveals the talents that stamped her the most brilliant star of the Continent, while Marshall and Miss Chatterton are superb in their respective portrayals.