The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940)

June Cameron has written a best seller about spinsters: women are men's equals and don't need them for fulfillment. Through a series of errors and misunderstandings, the press believes she's married Tim Sterling, a university instructor she's just met. Her publisher wants to let the mistake go uncorrected for a few weeks so she can write a best seller about being married; Tim cooperates because, in hidebound academia, being married may help with a promotion. The flies in the ointment are June and Tim's instant enmity, Tim's stubbornness, and his girlfriend Marilyn, who may not let the charade play out. There's no way everyone can get what they want.