More Power

It's time for another Tyrone Power double-bill that isn't really: Café Metropole/Girls' Dormitory.

Cafe Metropole features Tyrone Power betting more than he has and losing to casino/cafe owner Adolphe Menjou. To pay back the debt, Power must impersonate a Russian prince and woo rich American Loretta Young.

Power doesn't have much to do in this movie except look good in evening clothes and fake a bad Russian accent. Loretta Young gets to do a little more, being a spoiled society type. (Her dad, Charles Winniger, is a sketch.) This is really an Adolphe Menjou movie. He is suave and sleazy, and when he has to persuade his bookkeeper to do a little stealing, he exerts a hilariously hypnotic force of will. He is the only reason to watch this.

Girls' Dormitory has even less Tyrone Power. It features Herbert Marshall as Herr Direktor of a Swiss girls' school. He lectures outdoors with the Alps in the background and a class full of beautiful teenaged girls literally at his feet.

He has a handsome and intelligent female assistant, Ruth Chatterton, who he treats with respect and admiration. She is obviously just as crushed on him as the girls.

But his number one admirer is Simone Simon, a radiant young thing just about to graduate. She makes a strrong play for Herr Direktor, reminding him that she will soon graduate and be gone from his life. At this point, he has barely noticed her as more than a student, but he begins to think differently.

This movie is the purest male fantasy imaginable - to be the noble, handsome, brilliant ruler over a domain of women and teenaged girls. This makes my Jane Powell/Deanna Durbin/Diana Lynn interest seem innocent (which it is, I assure you!). On the other hand, Simone Simon is undeniably gorgeous.

In conclusion, --SPOILER-- Marshall dumps Chatterton and runs off with Simon. It seems shallow and skeevy and not likely to end well. But, let's face it - it is realistic.

Oh yes, and Tyrone Power is an earl or something who wants to marry Simon. I didn't even notice him.