Nine Girls

Ann Harding is the house mother of a sorority chapter with nine members. One is snobbish, one is smart -- she wears glasses -- another is athletic.... well, you get the idea. Then one of them is dead. And then the police (in the persons of wise, avuncular Willard Robertson and dumb cop William Demarest) show up to investigate the murder.

This junior-league version of THE WOMEN has a lot to recommend it, even if only three of the actresses playing college students were of college age; the others ranged from 25 to 30: not that I'm complaining. They are a lovely and talented bunch, and attention is given to each of them in the script, even if Evelyn Keyes get a lot of attention and Jeff Donnell gets to be straight man to Demarest.

Director Leigh Jason was mostly a B director, but he seems to have had a knack for directing ensemble casts of women. I think his best movie is tHE MAD MISS MANTON, also a comedy-mystery. If this one isn't as good, well, it's a solid cast, even if it doesn't have Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. But it does have Ann Harding.