The Male Animal

The Male Animal is a 1942 American comedydrama film, produced by Warner Bros., starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie.

Tommy Turner Henry Fonda is an English teacher at footballcrazed Midwestern University. Although he is uninvolved with the politics of the day, Tommy suddenly finds himself the center of a freespeech debate on campus. An editorial in a student magazine praises him for planning to read Bartolomeo Vanzettis sentencing statement to his class as an example of eloquent composition, even in broken English composed by a nonprofessional.The schools conservative trustees, led by Ed Keller Eugene Pallette threaten to fire Tommy if he doesnt withdraw the reading from his lecture. The subject of free speech and Tommys dilemma of conscience anchor the dramatic subplots social significance. The lighter comic triangle plot concerns a return visit to attend the big football game by Joe Ferguson Jack Carson, a former football hero and onetime love interest of Turners wife Ellen Olivia de Havilland. Joe is recently divorced and he rekindles Ellens romantic notions at the very moment when her marriage to Tommy is being tested by the events on campus. ........

Source: Wikipedia