Virginia Mayo is most famous as the tough moll playing against James Cagney in White Heat (1949), but the actress had a matter-of-fact sensuality that worked in noirs, westerns, and musicals. Here, in a movie titled to evoke memories of her previous musical She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), Mayo plays theater-turned-film star Catherine Terris who slinks back to Broadway after her movie career goes belly up. Problem is, the part offered is in a play directed by theater impresario Gordon Evans (Gene Nelson), the man she escaped many years ago. Ironically, Mayo had also come to Hollywood via Broadway, but was let go from Goldwyn after spurning Howard Hawks. (Undeterred, she moved on to Warner Brothers.) Directed under duress by former "Our Gang" gagwriter and director Gordon Douglas (who privately admitted to interviewers years later that "the script wasn't good" and Mayo only did the picture to avoid a suspension), Mayo still captures the eye in dance numbers that highlight her animal appeal. Even though she was only five foot five, her dancer's legs in action stretch out for miles.

By Violet LeVoit