LeonLouisRicci This was Made just a Heartbeat away from the Full Implementation of the Hays Code and it Confronts a Virginal, Pre-Marital Reproductive Concern that would be Totally Absent in just a Year and would be Virtually Gone from Cinema for Decades.The Third Act is Unimpeded by the Code and Francis Dee's "Situation" is a Result of Her Affair with Bruce Cabot . But that is Only One Facet of the Depression Era Societal Philosophies in this Dram-Com. The Income Inequality and Pompous Personalities of the Ruling Class Elite is Central to this Fine Film.Ginger Rogers Peppy Character Pony (wanna go for a ride?) is a Welcome Upbeat Relief from the Drama as the Movie is Brutal in its Display of Parental Disconnect and the Regimental and Stifling "Finishing" of Upper Crust Debutaunts. Their Hypocrisy and Hubris are Picked Apart and Pounced Upon in this Scathing Dismantling of the Heartless 1%.

xerses13 As one of the 'BIG FIVE' RKO had to have a constant stream of pictures to meet the demands of their theaters. Typically output was about fifty-plus (50+) features a year and with the Great Depression budgets had to be kept tight. You cannot afford many KING KONG's each year so Executive Producer Merian C. Cooper kept most budgets to $100,000.00 or less. This kept the studio profitable and the staff busy and employed.FINISHING SCHOOL (1934) is filled with the current stock company of RKO. The story is of a idealistic and naive young women VIRGINIA RADCLIFF (Frances Dee) who goes to her Mother's (Billie Burke) 'Finishing School' and has her eyes opened up. The students led by CECELIA 'Pony' FERRIS (Ginger Rogers) spend most of their time dodging the rules. Principal MISS VAN ALYSTYNE (Beulah Bondi) and teachers like MISS FISHER (Sara Haden) are mainly interested in the appearances of propriety not the substance. Fortunetly VIRGINIA becomes aware of the hypocrisy and with the love of RALPH McFARLAND (Bruce Cabot) and the support of her Father MR. RADCLIFF (John Halliday) breaks free from the School and it's influences. One of those left behind is BILLIE (Dawn O'Day) who four (4) films later will become ANNE SHIRLEY! Least you think institutions like FINISHING SCHOOL no longer exist, guess again. Just GOOGLE and you will find extensive listing of such schools. Though judging from their 21st Century curriculum's they appear have more substance then just how to serve Tea.

Maliejandra Kay Helen Radcliff (Billie Burke) wants her daughter to attend the same finishing school that she did when she was young, so Virginia (Frances Dee) packs her bags and enters a new life of refinement. Miss Van Alstyne (Beulah Bondi) is a no-nonsense kind of a woman who briefs Virginia on the rules of the school and warns her not to step outside of the lines. Virginia agrees, but she never reckoned on having Cecilia (Ginger Rogers) for a room mate. Cecilia makes it impossible not to break the rules, and Virginia takes the heat for it. It doesn't help that Virginia falls for a poor medical school student (Bruce Cabot).This film starts out strong and ends strong, but the middle leaves a little to be desired. However, this is pure entertainment and escapism, just like the teen movies of modern times. There isn't a whole lot that is shocking about this film except the ending which is the reason why the film was condemned by the Catholic Church. By today's standards, it is nothing, and the twist is so ambiguous that a trained pre-code fan might be the only one that understands it.

Greenster Think about it: a Frances Dee, Ginger Rogers, Billie Burke, Beulah Bondi, Anne Shirley, Jane Darwell, Bruce Cabot film banned by the Catholic Church in 1934 over a theme treated as considerably tame within a matter of decades.Finishing School (RKO-Radio 1934), produced in January and February of that year, opens with a frame of an application accepting Virginia Radcliff (Frances Dee) to Crockett Hall Finishing School, this dated September, 1933.For some reason, Mrs. Helen Crawford Radcliff (Billie Burke) neglected to send away her now-young-adult daughter to her alma mater until she decides to embark upon travels with Mr. Frank S. Radcliff (John Halliday), who appears rarely here, while being granted no say in disobeying his scatterbrained society matron, a quintessential of Miss Burke's film career.Upon her arrival at snobbish Crockett Hall (This institution is thusly billed as a character reminiscent of the Hawthornian Gothic novel), Virginia complaisantly agrees to heed the do's and don't outlined by stern and proper Miss Van Alstyne (Beulah Bondi, made up to appear elder than her current age and less sympathetic than her typical characters although Miss Bondi conveys a degree of likability in developing her character here).When Virginia is introduced to her new roommate, Cecilia "Pony" Ferris (Ginger Rogers), Virginia expresses surprise that Cecilia, along with the "in-crowd," Ruth Wallace (Marjorie Lytell) and Madeleine Kelly (Adalyn Doyle) not only know the ropes, but pull them at every possible turn. Young Billie (Anne Shirley, billed as Dawn O'Day) cries to fit in with this "mature" set, but remains largely overlooked (but accepted as a pal to Cecilia--a role which Miss Rogers fans come to admire).Cecilia sticks up for Virginia, who--to the dismay of Ruth and Madeleine--breaks the bottle of liquor which she had smuggled into Crockett Hall with the notion to conform to Miss Van Alstyne's edict.But after Virginia accompanies Cecilia and her "Aunt Jessica" (Irene Franklin) upon an outing to the city, the tables turn upon her desires to choose "right" over "wrong." As she attempts to escape the clutches of a forcible escort, a hotel night busboy, Ralph McFarland (Bruce Cabot), rises to the occasion of returning Virginia unto Crockett Hall, at which point both she and Ralph tread into steaming puddles back at the Finishing School campus, for doing what the viewer realizes is perfectly acceptable conduct.Dr. Ralph McFarland, an intern at a city hospital, exchanges barbs with Nurse Maude (Jane Darwell) and a milkman in this script resplendent with fast-paced wisecracking (also a hallmark of Ginger's character here) throughout much of this film, which efficiently segues into a subliminal study of Miss Dee's character, whose very mind proves a battlefield between right and wrong in near "Capraesque" fashion.P.S. In a dormitory scene, Ginger also performs a song which she has reportedly composed: "Never Hit Your Grandma with a Shovel."