Government Girl

Government Girl is a 1943 American romantic-comedy film, produced and directed by Dudley Nichols and starring Olivia de Havilland and Sonny Tufts. Based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns, and written by Dudley Nichols and Budd Schulberg, the film is about a secretary working in Washington for the war administration during World War II who helps her boss navigate the complex political machinations of government in an effort to build bomber aircraft for the war effort. Plot Automobile engineer Ed Browne (Sonny Tufts) comes to Washington to appear in front of the War Construction Board. His mission is to supervise the building of bomber aircraft for the war. But when he arrives at the crowded hotel he is supposed to stay at, there are no rooms available. A friendly clerk at the hotel recognizes him from the paper and offers him room 2A. Ed is unaware that the same room is reserved by Elizabeth "Smokey" Allard (Olivia de Havilland), for her friend May (Anne Shirley) who will marry an army sergeant, Joe Bates (James Dunn), that very night. The wedding takes place in the hotel lobby, but the groom has lost his ring, and Smokey borrows one from Ed, which leads him to believe that Smokey is the woman getting married. A series of unfortunate events that night leads to Joe being arrested by M.P.s, and he leaves a borrowed motorcycle behind in the hands of Smokey. Smokey tries to find someone who can return the bike, and Ed happens to pass by on his way to the War Construction Board. When Smokey tells him she works at the board, he agrees to drive her there. It turns out Ed is Smokey's new boss. He learns that she is dating a man named Dana McGuire (Jess Barker), who is an adviser to Senator MacVickers (Harry Davenport). Dana soon proves to be too egoistical and ambitious for Smokey's taste.