All Women Have Secrets


59m 1939

Brief Synopsis

When they decide they might as well be penniless husbands and wives as penniless campus sweethearts, three couples at a Midwestern university, against the advice of their friends, get married. Joe (John Arledge) and Susie Tucker (Betty Moran) prove that two can live as cheap as one by setting up housekeeping in a trailer, and working at whatever odd jobs turn up. Slats (Peter Lind Hayes as Peter Hayes) and Jennifer Warwick (Virginia Dale) marry because they can fight better under the same roof then when separated, and use Jennifer's allowance from home to pay for their groceries. John Gregory (Joseph Allen Jr.), a brilliant pre-med student, and his bride, Kay (Jean Cagney), are in the most serious situation. Kay's allowance is suddenly cut off by her unsympathetic step-mother, while the scholarship on which John is depending is threatened by his inability to do two jobs at once - study all day and work at night to support them. Kay, determined to prevent John from giving up college, takes a series of back-breaking jobs in order to give him time to study. She gets a job singing in a night club, but has to quit when the stork announces an imminent arrival. Her secret, being pregnant, helps her to make up her mind to go back home and leave John free to accept the offer of a professor who wants the promising student to work with him abroad.

Film Details

Also Known As
Campus Wives
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Dec 15, 1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
59m
Color
Black and White
Film Length
8 reels

Synopsis

Sorority sister Kay Parker is engaged to medical student John Gregory, but resists marrying him so that he can finish his degree. After months of diligent study, Kay and John impulsively marry and rent a bungalow. When Kay's stepmother cuts off her allowance, John is forced to work several jobs, and as a result, his studies begin to suffer. To relieve John's burden, Kay takes on work in addition to her job singing in a nightclub. Despite these hardships, their marriage thrives, but their friends, Jennifer and Slats Warwick, another married couple who moves in with them, fight constantly. When Kay discovers that she is pregnant, she keeps it a secret from John, but loses her job at the nightclub and asks John's professor, Dr. Hewitt, if John can take some time off from school. Dr. Hewitt adamantly opposes this, because he has won a research grant and intends to take John, his star pupil, to Europe with him. Kay decides to stay with her stepmother for a year and have her child without John's knowledge, but after she leaves him a goodbye note, she and Slats are called away to spend the evening with their pregnant friend Susie Blair while her husband is at work. Susie goes into labor and her child is delivered by Doc, a gas station owner who had to give up his medical studies when his wife became pregnant. When Kay returns home, John has read her note and intends to leave college to save their marriage. Dr. Hewitt, however, learns that Kay is pregnant, and offers to help support them with a scholarship while John continues his studies.

Film Details

Also Known As
Campus Wives
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Dec 15, 1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
59m
Color
Black and White
Film Length
8 reels

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The working title of this picture was Campus Wives, and it marked the screen debut of Jean Cagney, the sister of actor James Cagney. News items in Hollywood Reporter note that Eddie Albert was originally slated for the lead, and Michael Curtiz was to have directed. Cameraman Charles Schoenbaum temporarily filled in for Theodor Sparkuhl when Sparkuhl fell ill, according to Hollywood Reporter.