Review of Her Twelve Men

Of course, that's in the beginning fantasy scene of Greer Garson's character, Jane Stewart, where she views her life in various fantasies that range from ridiculous to hysterically funny. A shot of her in a Lizabeth Scott hairstyle sets the tone for the irreverence of the story. As a movie about teaching, it is an okay but predictable of the first female teacher at an all-boys school, dealing with young Tim Considine who is troubled by family relationships. Yes sir Carson must deal with principal Richard Hayden and fellow teacher Robert Ryan who doesn't believe in female teachers. The students call her sir and play all sorts of pranks on her but eventually, they come to adore her. For the Christmas sequence, Greer sing a verse of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" which explains why MGM never cast her in a musical where she had to sing.

Garson of course is lovely, but this is basically Mrs. Miniver gets an education degree, fixes everything, and finds romance. The film manages to mix sentiment and humor and only be slightly cloying, but the prologue just really has no purpose after you get into the film's storyline. In fact, the prologue seems to take advantage of still standing sets and available costumes to give a little bit of advertising to other recent MGM films. When compared to Garson's early MGM films, it seems an afterthought, desperate to keep her on contract, and rather old fashioned considering the important films of higher substance that they were making at the time.