COLLEGE SCANDAL. Paramount, 1935. Arline Judge, Kent Taylor, Wendy Barrie, William Frawley, Benny Baker, William “Billy” Benedict. Screenplay by Frank Partos, Charles Brackett & Marguerite Roberts, based on a story by Beulah Marie Dix & Bertram Millhauser. Director: Elliott Nugent.

   College Scandal sounds like a story ripped from today’s headlines or a typical 1930s musical with superannuated students indulging in sophomoric capers.

   And in fact, it starts off with Billy Benedict as a manic Mickey Rooney type whipping up a college musical revue. Then we go to the offices of the College Newspaper, where an earnest young editor ponders the ethics of running a story about a handsome teacher dating the campus flirt.

   Everything seems set for a mid-autumn night’s dream of misunderstanding, music and romance, when suddenly the editor turns up poisoned in his own office.

   Whoa! I didn’t see that coming. Nor the hints in the script about the campus flirt’s awkward relationship with her stepfather. Nor a strangling in the middle of a musical number. Or a wrinkle in the plot about death by hazing as College Scandal quickly turns into a fast-paced and quirky mystery that delighted this jaded viewer with every twist.

   No fewer than five writers worked on this (including Billy Wilder’s partner-in-wit Charles Brackett, and Bertram Milhauser, who worked on the Universal Sherlock Holmes series) and they all seem to have added something worthwhile without tripping each other up.

   Staffed with a cast of reliable “B” players, including Wendy Barrie and Kent Taylor, under the slick direction of Elliott Nugent, this turns into a real surprise, and a flick worth checking out.