IMDB reviewers of a certain age may remember the 1944 Norman Krasna Broadway comedy hit "Dear Ruth." These folks would have entered their high school years just as WWII was mercifully winding down, and they thoroughly enjoyed its topical wartime humor, adolescent high jinks, numerous misunderstandings and gentle innocent laughs. It is quite possible that their graduating class play might have been one of the many stage incarnations of DR that then seemed to come out of nowhere in high schools all over America as we moved into the postwar 1940s.
DR perfected the now familiar cliche-driven plot device of a young "miss fixit" teenage girl (Mona Freeman) initiating a romantic penpal correspondence with a naive unknowing serviceman by pretending to be her older more age-appropriate sister. The resulting exchange of letters produced all kinds of interesting complications from this situation that propelled the plot to its inevitable satisfactory resolution and conclusion. DR was so successful that its 1947 big screen version starring an extremely youthful William Holden and an equally attractive Joan Caulfield generated no less than two more almost equally popular sequels within the next few years (Dear Wife (1949) and Dear Brat (1951))!
Although critical praise for the film version of DR may have been somewhat muted, audiences seemed to appreciate the spirited enthusiasm of the lead actors, the splendid additional contributions by the veteran cast of character performers and the good work done by director William D. Russell. And while it is certainly true that by 1947 some of DR's wartime humor began to feel dated, its pace never let up as the likable cast entertained us for 95 laugh-filled minutes.
In DR, Holden clearly demonstrated an appealing natural aspect to his role as well as a more substantial acting range as a performer. In just a few more years, Holden would solidly emerge as one of cinema's major actors and one of the greatest leading men of his generation.
DR perfected the now familiar cliche-driven plot device of a young "miss fixit" teenage girl (Mona Freeman) initiating a romantic penpal correspondence with a naive unknowing serviceman by pretending to be her older more age-appropriate sister. The resulting exchange of letters produced all kinds of interesting complications from this situation that propelled the plot to its inevitable satisfactory resolution and conclusion. DR was so successful that its 1947 big screen version starring an extremely youthful William Holden and an equally attractive Joan Caulfield generated no less than two more almost equally popular sequels within the next few years (Dear Wife (1949) and Dear Brat (1951))!
Although critical praise for the film version of DR may have been somewhat muted, audiences seemed to appreciate the spirited enthusiasm of the lead actors, the splendid additional contributions by the veteran cast of character performers and the good work done by director William D. Russell. And while it is certainly true that by 1947 some of DR's wartime humor began to feel dated, its pace never let up as the likable cast entertained us for 95 laugh-filled minutes.
In DR, Holden clearly demonstrated an appealing natural aspect to his role as well as a more substantial acting range as a performer. In just a few more years, Holden would solidly emerge as one of cinema's major actors and one of the greatest leading men of his generation.