"Girls' Dormitory" is supposed to be a romantic drama, and many viewers may have expected that of it and seen it that way. It's based on a play, which I suspect may have had a slightly different plot. That would be a drama that was more of a cultural and social play. I say that because I could see that plainly in this film. Actually, it would be two cultural subplots.
The most obvious one has much of the story of the film built around it. A teen-age girl in a Swiss girls finishing school wrote a letter that she never intended to send, expressing love for a man or boy. She threw it in the wastebasket, but a prudish, judgmental and mean woman professor found it. Some members of the faculty want the girl expelled just three days before she will graduate. Most of the faculty see it as a young girl's dream and putting her romance on paper.
As the story plays out, the girl, Marie Claudel, confides in a trusted and well-liked Professor Anna Mathe, that the object of her letter was the school director, Dr. Stephen (Stefan) Dominik. Professor Mathe herself had been in love with Dominik for several years, and they had been close as she researched and helped him with a book he had just finished. The feelings of Mathe for Dominik is the closest this film comes to romance. The rest of what some may think as romance is little more than infatuation, adulation, and extreme naiveté. All of those apply with Miss Claudel, and the naiveté is even more extreme with Dominik.
Most adults know about and understand infatuation. Indeed, many of us have experienced it ourselves when young. How many were attracted to or thought they were in love with a teacher - female or male? Marie has been in an all-girls school for all of her transition years into a young lady. The very girlishness of the girls there even at the age of high school graduation, shows their youthful immaturity. The students have little contact with or exposure to males other than members of their family and the school faculty. Marie has not even seen other young men, let alone dating or mixing with them in these few years.
But the big problem within the story is the naiveté of Dr. Dominik. He has a scene with another older male professor, when Dominik refers to them as long-standing bachelors. In another scene, he is said to be 37 years old. So, here's a man who apparently has had no amorous interests or feelings at all for women. He's apparently not dated before, and his closeness with Professor Mathe has in no way tweaked any love interest or sexual attraction. Then, he's bowled over to find that Marie's letter was written with him in mind, and so now he suddenly is in love with her?
In reality, this character never got out of boyhood in his own maturity. Such a sudden awakening to physical attraction on his part is his infatuation. And, his real immaturity shows in his not realizing that, even after noting that he is twice the age of Marie. And his not realizing that Marie, who has come into young womanhood physically in the past three years, is yet far from emotional and mental maturity.
While there may have been some in the mid-1930s who saw romance in this movie, as there are now in the next century, I think most of the audience then would have seen this as a drama tragedy. The film ends, supposedly on a high note for the infatuated couple, and it leaves the audience, when it awakens from this fairy tale, to ponder its likely outcome in real life. A girl graduate marries the school director - if there was scandal over a girl writing a love note and throwing it away, just think what the gossip and suspicions would now be among the school board, parents and the public. And what of their future now? He will continue on as the school director, and she will be the dutiful wife at home? Or will she go off to study further, so that she and Stefan can converse by the fire over authors or educational topics? Or, will she become attracted to a young man or two whom she sees and meets in time?
None of the acting here is particularly noteworthy. Herbert Marshall, with his usual reticent and demurring persona, is well suited for the role of Stefan Dominik. Most of the school faculty seemed somewhat wooden, even Ruth Chatterton. This film introduced Simone Simon as Marie, to American audiences. But she didn't resonate much with movie fans, and after a few films she returned to France.
There is a scene with some humor when the faculty is discussing the mysterious crumpled love letter found in a wastebasket. Some of the dialog is humorous, but that even seems strange and out of place in this otherwise somber and slow drama. Here are those lines.
Dr. Hoffenreich, "Your wife must treat you very badly." Dr. Spindler, "What?" Dr. Hoffenreich, "I've observed that teachers who are browbeaten at home are inclined to take their revenge in school."
Dr. Wilfinger, "Anyone who pokes around in the garbage can shouldn't 't be surprised when he finds garbage."
Dr. Spindler, "Have you ever noticed any boys hanging around outside waiting for girls?" Toni, scratching his head, "Well, yes. There's one good-looking young fellow that waits every day at the corner." Dr. Spindler, "Uh huh. And do you know for whom he waits?" Toni, "Certainly. For Frau Professor Wimmer." Professor Augusta Wimmer, 'You idiot! That's my nephew." Toni, "Well, I didn't say he was your sweetheart."
