Teacher's Pet (1958) on Netflix

Plot summary

Instructor Erica Stone asks James Gannon, city editor of the Chronicle, to speak to her night class. Jim believes reporters are made on the job rather than in a classroom, so he answers with a rude letter, and his managing editor orders him to accept anyway. Sitting at the back, he listens while Erica reads that letter aloud, mocking him as old-fashioned, without recognizing him. Offended, he registers as a student under the name Jim Gallagher, a wallpaper salesman, to prove her methods wrong. She hands him a fact sheet and asks for a 250-word story; he returns 150 words in five minutes, and she reads it to the class. Intrigued by the older man who claims no training, she offers to tutor him in the evenings.