She Had to Say Yes (DVD)

"Could a good girl stay good when she had to say 'yes'?" is the question put to Loretta Young as a steno girl plucked from the secretarial pool for the dating pool in this pre-Code corker that still astonishes decades after its debut. Sales are down at Sol Glass' (Ferdinand Gottschalk) clothing company when whiz- kid salesman Tommy Nelson (Regis Toomey) makes an immodest proposal -- why not send the young and innocent company girls -- more used to dictation than gold-digging like their sales models -- to entertain important out-of-town buyers. The one caveat being that the girls have to be willing, of course. But Tommy's own lady gets caught up in the scheme, and Flo Denny (Loretta Young) finds herself in a compromising situation with slick tycoon Danny Drew (Lyle Talbot). Surrounded by the hypocrisy of men, Florence's flirtation with seduction may prove to be her undoing. Busby Berkeley makes his behind-the-camera debut, co-directing with George Amy.

• drama