Girls gone wild!

TCM is showing the fun romantic comedy Theodora Goes Wild tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM ET.

Irene Dunne stars as Theodora. She lives in a small town in Connecticut and, unbeknownst to the townsfolk -- or the spinster aunts she lives with (Spring Byington and Elizabeth Risdon) -- she's written a novel. The reason that nobody knows this is because it's a novel almost as steamy as Peyton Place. Having written the book, she has to go to New York City to deal with the publisher, although she's also got an uncle and cousin living there. At the publisher's, she meets the book's cover illustrator, Michael (Melvyn Douglas). He doesn't know anything about her real identity and she, not wanting to give away any hints, tries to portray herself as worldly.

However, things don't go according to plan, and Theodora leaves some ID at Michael's apartment, leading him to come out to Connecticut to figure out what's really going on. In order to buy off his silence, Theodora hires him as the family's gardener. But, it turns out that Michael has a secret too: he's estranged from his wife, and would divorce her if it weren't for the fact that his father is running for political office and the divorce would scupper his chances of election. Still, when Theodora's secret gets out, she decides to reveal Michael's....

Theodora Goes Wild is a pretty wild screwball comedy. Irene Dunne did quite a few of them, notably The Awful Truth, but Melvyn Douglas did slightly more urbane stuff like Ninotchka. Although the movie is a bit predictable in its attitudes toward the straitlaced small towns of the day, it's still quite enjoyable, thanks in no small part to excellent performances from the two leads. For whatever reason, though, Theodora Goes Wild isn't as well-remembered today as other screwball comedies of the era. Thankfully, however, it has been released to DVD, so despite its relative obscurity, you don't have to wait for TCM to show it again.