What a Woman 1943

Henry Pepper, the top writer for Knickerbocker magazine, is assigned to write a profile on Carol Ainsley, who has just been named the outstanding career woman of the year. Carol, a brilliant and relentless agent and star-maker, has just scooped the movie rights to the romance novel Whirlwind and is spending a fortune to find the perfect actor to play the male lead. When Carol learns that the book’s author, Anthony Street, may be the man to play his own hero, she hunts him down and discovers that he is actually Michael Cobb, a professor at Buxton College who is handsome and blonde but deeply immersed in Elizabethan literature.

Although the professor is attractive, he is an intellectual snob who recoils at the idea of romance in his life. Horrified when he is exposed as the writer of a romance novel, Michael is swept up by Carol’s plan as she convinces him to accompany her to New York. There she takes over his life, teaching him manners and charm, and tries to coax him into acting out the hero he wrote. Michael, however, is a clumsy romantic and proves unable to speak the lines his pen produced. After a dismal screen test, he decides to return to Buxton, leaving Carol to rethink her bold experiment.

Meanwhile, Henry Pepper becomes intrigued by Carol and believes she could become even more remarkable if she could reveal a more human side. Intent on testing whether she values more than money, Henry contacts Michael and persuades the professor that he is in love with Carol. With the confidence and warmth Carol has taught him, Michael begins to court her. Their relationship quickly becomes headline material, and though Carol is not in love with him, she fears admitting the truth might jeopardize his contract and derail her carefully curated plan.

Henry finds himself drawn into the situation, even as Carol’s feelings remain uncertain. He kisses her and begins to fall for her himself, adding a new layer of tension to the unfolding romance. Carol tries to steer Michael toward Hollywood while she hides at her father’s house in Washington, D.C., but Michael outsmarts her, follows her home, and publicly declares their engagement. Trapped by circumstance, Carol agrees to marry him.

On the eve of the wedding, guests mingle through the rooms of the Ainsley house. Carol, furious at Henry for agreeing to be the best man, goes to confront him in his room. After Henry insults her and accuses her of being only a “ten percent woman,” she slaps him, hurries into the hallway, and proclaims that she will call off the wedding because she is not in love with Michael and refuses to marry just for business. In the end, Henry listens to her speech with admiration, and when she finishes, he rushes into her arms.