She Knew All the Answers
1941 film by Richard Wallace

She Knew All the Answers is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wallace, and starring by Joan Bennett, Franchot Tone and Eve Arden. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film tells a story about a chorus girl who wants to marry a rich playboy, but first has to prove herself to his financial advisor. The screenplay was written by Kenneth Earl, Curtis Kenyon, and Harry Segall, adapted from a short story written by Jane Allen entitled "A Girl's Best Friend Is Wall Street," published in 1938 in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Plot
A chorus girl, Gloria Winters (Joan Bennett), is overjoyed that wealthy young Randy Bradford (John Hubbard) is so eager to marry her, he's asked her to elope. Before they can leave, Randy is contacted by Mark Willows (Franchot Tone), a partner with the Wall Street financial organization that Randy's father founded, as well as Randy's financial advisor. Willows stipulates that Randy will be disinherited should he elope with this girl.
Gloria is naturally upset. She comes up with a plan to gain Willows' approval through work and receive a letter of recommendation, which can then be used as their marriage license. When she goes to see Willows, she expects an older man and is thrown off-balance by his youth and charm.
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This entry incorporates text from “She Knew All the Answers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.