A Woman of Distinction

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A Woman of Distinction
A Woman of Distinction FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Edward Buzzell
Screenplay by Charles Hoffman
Frank Tashlin (additional dialogue)
Story by Ian McLellan Hunter
Hugo Butler
Produced by Buddy Adler
Starring Rosalind Russell
Ray Milland
Edmund Gwenn
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Edited by Charles Nelson
Music by Werner R. Heymann
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 16, 1950 (1950-03-16)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Woman of Distinction is a 1950 American screwball romantic comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Rosalind Russell, Ray Milland and Edmund Gwenn. [1] It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Contents

Plot

Susan Manning Middlecott is dean of a New England school called Benton College and it is her whole life, apart from living with dad Mark and raising an adopted daughter, Louisa.

A British astronomy professor she has never met, Alec Stevenson, mentions to a lecture-tour publicist named Teddy Evans that he has a locket belonging to Susan that he wants to deliver to her. For publicity's sake, Teddy invents a story that Alec and Susan are involved in a romance.

Susan is miffed and boards a train to Boston to confront him. She is unaware that Alec has been to her campus and is now on the same train. A photographer snaps their picture getting off the train. Susan, livid, hits Alec with her purse, and Teddy makes sure their spat makes the newspapers.

Susan believes that Alec is a publicity seeker, rejecting his attempts to explain. Susan's dad takes a shine to Alec and wants to encourage her to find time for a love life. To get away, Susan takes her daughter to the family's cabin, but Mark also invites Alec there.

The locket was given to Alec by a concentration camp prisoner named Benoit during the war. Alec tells her how he merely was attempting to bring it to her at the soldier's request. He and Susan attend a college dance, but another misunderstanding prompts her to leave with a student, who promptly gets Susan in trouble by drag racing with another car.

Teddy plants a story that Alec is the real father of Susan's little girl. Susan's job is now in jeopardy from the continuing bad publicity. Alec tries to cover for her, claiming he and Susan are actually married, but a college colleague does likewise, complicating Susan's situation further. She must decide what's important to her in the end, her professional life or her personal one.

Cast

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References

  1. "A Woman of Distinction (1950) - Edward Buzzell, Edward N. Buzzell | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".