Yes, high school senior? Margie's(Jeanne Crain) bloomers did occasionally fall to her ankles at inappropriate times, in a running gag, providing a bit of humor and embarrassment. Hip 'Jazz Age' girls, like Margie's next door classmate friend/enemy Marybelle(Barbara Lawrence), were spared this problem, because they or their mothers had abandoned bloomers as antiquated undergarments for women and teens. Margie lived with her grandmother, who thought bloomers were still appropriate, even in this liberated 'Jazz Age' of the late '20s. But Grandma McSweeney wasn't old-fashioned in all her thinking. In fact, she's a rabid feminist in some ways. She still proudly displays the chain that, back in the day, she chained herself to the White House with, to draw attention to the women's rights movement. She tells Margie's quasi-boyfriend that she is grooming Margie to be the first women president of the USA! (Someone else was grooming Eleanor Roosevelt to be first!).
For the most part, this screenplay contrasts Margie and her quasi-boyfriend Roy(Alan Young) as the class nerds, with knockout blonde Marybelle, who apparently thinks of herself as the class 'queen bee' and her boyfriend :Johnny(or Johnkins) : the football captain, who wears a heavy racoon coat, as the epitemy of the 'cool' kids. Whereas, Margie is also beautiful, but in a more subdued way, but is a rather shy bookworm, wears traditional long skirts, is sensitive about being the youngest in her class and her unpopular mortician father, is small-framed, and prides herself in being the class champion debater, and Roy appears to be awkward and clumsy, judging by his difficulty staying on his feet in the ice-skating rink, Marybelle is a social butterfly, wears trendy clothes, like short skirts and lipstick, appears to be athletic, judging from her ice skating, is probably among the older in her class, and is probably the head cheerleader. Whereas Marybelle and Johnny are a clear romantic couple, who often smooch and hold hands, Margie and Roy are just friends, not really a romantic couple. Margie is jealous of Maribelle's association with Johnny, but Maribelle is jealous of the special attention that the new handsome bachelor French Prof. Gives to Margie, while ignoring her. Actually, Margie is more attracted to the Prof. Than to Johnny, but is afraid to promote this, as a taboo romantic association, at least while she is still his student. The Prof. Is often seen in the company of the cute librarian, played by Lynn Bari. But, it gradually becomes apparent that he actually prefers Margie as a companion. Thus, in the end, Lynn once again succumbs to her Fox typecast role as a perennial 'other woman' loser, as we discover in the ending, as Margie ends her flashback story to her daughter, the Prof. Showing up as her father.
I should point out a few age incongruities among the cast. Barbara(Marybelle) looks like she could be 21, whereas Jeanne(Margie) looks like she is, at most,16. Actually, Jeanne was 21, whereas Barbara was 16, still in high school! Also, while Roy said he was 17, actually Alan Young(Roy) was 27, and looked it.......... Also, I should point out that 34y.o. , handsome Cornnel Wilde, was the first choice to play the Prof., but turned it down. Maybe he didn't want to be in 3 films in a row where he eventually ended up as 20-1yo Jeanne's romantic partner(the others are "Leave Her to Heaven", and "Centennial Summer".
Margie often emphasized her skill at formal debates. However, I was very unimpressed with her one sample. I more agreed with her opponent! I thought her flag-waving argument was superficial and irrelevant, although the prejudiced audience ate it up, like she was Donald Trump! Actually, neither debater really dealt with the actual reasons that US marines were still stationed in Nicaragua(This being 1928). In 1927, the Nicaraguan congress had requested US troops to help end the current civil war. The US was agreeable, since this political instability created problems for US fruit corporations in Nicaragua. Also, they were part of a long-term strategy to prevent other nations(like the UK or France) from trying to build a trans-American canal through Nicaragua, that would compete with the US-built Panama Canal...............I fault the script writer for this debate debacle(from my point of view).
In addition to the drama, the film can be thought of as sort of a musical, as a number of '20s songs, of course, including Maggie at the beginning and end, are played in the background, or briefly sung by Margie(dubbed), or Marybelle.
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