Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941)

Dedicated Midwestern teacher Ella Bishop is distressed when her fiancé runs off with her vixenish cousin Amy. After Amy dies in childbirth, Ella is left to care for Amy's daughter Hope.

Director:

Tay Garnett

Writers:

Bess Streeter Aldrich (novel), Stephen Vincent Benet (screen adaptation),

Stars:

Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Martha Scott	...	Ella Bishop
William Gargan	...	Sam Peters
Edmund Gwenn	...	President Corcoran
Sterling Holloway	...	Chris Jensen
Dorothy Peterson	...	Mrs. Bishop
Sidney Blackmer	...	John Stevens
Mary Anderson	...	Amy Saunders
Donald Douglas	...	Delbert Thompson
Marsha Hunt	...	Hope Thompson
John Archer	...	Richard Clark (as Ralph Bowman)
Lois Ranson	...	Gretchen Clark
Rosemary DeCamp	...	Minna Fields
Knox Manning	...	Anton Radcheck
John Arledge	...	'Snapper' MacRae
Jack Mulhall	...	Professor Carter

Storyline

Ella Bishop is an inhibited girl whose frustrations grow as she approaches womanhood. As a women, her ambitions to teach cause her to lose her only opportunity for true love. Ella's life becomes one of missed chances and wrong choices. As she reaches old age, she reflects back and realizes she allowed the years to go by without achieving what she believes to be her true fulfillment. However, her years have not been without glory, and her moment of triumph arrives when her numerous now-famous students from over the years, return to honor their beloved Miss Bishop.

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Plot Keywords:

student | teacher | teaching | retirement | college | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 February 1941 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dona de Seu Destino

Filming Locations:

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Richard A. Rowland Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Debut of Rosemary DeCamp.

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Quotes

John Stevens: [Reading from J. M. Barrie's book, The Little Minister] The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.
Ella Bishop: [Interrupting] Would you mind reading that again? Just the last sentence.
John Stevens: The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story... and writes another.
Ella Bishop: I suppose that's true, isn't it? We dream dreams and... Do go on.

User Reviews

Life And Job Become Bound As One

Most of Cheers for Miss Bishop is told in flashback as Martha Scott reminisces with old friend William Gargan about her fifty years as a professor of English at Midwestern University. In fact the whole film is held together by Martha Scott's powerful performance in the title role.

Scott tells of her life beginning with her accepting a position at a small college after graduating from same as an English teacher. She's one of those rare people who's life and job become bound as one and finds she has no use for the other aspects of life like home and family. Even Robert Donat's Mr. Chips married Greer Garson albeit ever so briefly.

Not that she didn't have chances to marry, but her career and her students came first.

Martha Scott gets good support from a nice ensemble of players that also include Edmund Gwenn and John Hamilton as her college presidents, Dorothy Peterson as her mother, and Mary Anderson as her great niece.

Particularly impressive to me was Rosemary DeCamp as a young Scandinavian immigrant student who Scott recognizes intuitively as being an incipient genius with a photographic memory. When she's accused of cheating Scott saves her from expulsion by having her recite the Declaration of Independence from memory. It's a very powerful screen debut for Rosemary DeCamp.

Still the film is Martha Scott's show and a good show it is too.