Bill is the rich man, Joan is the poor girl, respectively played by Robert Young and Ruth Hussey (the female half of the tabloid journalist team in The Philadelphia Story). Joan is Bill's secretary, and he wants to marry her, but she comes from a tight-knit lower-income family and is afraid that if she marries Bill she will become distant from her family.  Bill decides to allay her fears and prove that he can become part of her family by moving in with them and sleeping on the davenport. Lew Ayres plays the opionated Cousin Henry, and Lana Turner has her biggest role to date as sister Helen.

Familiar face: Marie Blake (Grandmama Addams) as the neighbor.

Marie Blake on the right

Lana Turner

Rich Man, Poor Girl trailer on TCM

Spring Madness with Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, and Burgess Meredith.  Sam Thatcher (Lew Ayres) and his college roommate, 'The Lippencott' (Burgess Meredith), plan to continue their education after Harvard by living and working in Russia for two years, studying the economy and perhaps writing a book on the "youth movement".  The fly in the ointment is the whirlwind romance Sam has had with Alex Benson (Maureen O'Sullivan) over Easter break of their senior year.  Sam has not broken the news to Alex that their relationship has no future because he is leaving the country immediately after graduation.  Alex attends the nearby New England College for Women where romances are made official by parading the beau at the spring dance.  When the freighter on which Sam and Lippencott have booked passage must leave two weeks early, Sam must break the news to Alex that he will be leaving for Russia and will not even be able to attend the dance.  Or will he?

The supporting cast carried this movie, with eye-catching performances by Meredith as Lippencott and Ruth Hussey (Jimmy Stewart's photographer sidekick in The Philadelphia Story) as one of Alex's college friends.

Familiar faces:  Sterling Holloway as a Yale man on the prowl at the girls college; Willie Best as a train porter; Thurston Hall (the embezzling Dad from Women Are Like That) as a college friend's father; Frank Albertson (Sam Wainwright from It's a Wonderful Life) as another Harvard buddy.

"Sam Wainwright" and Burgess Meredith