Despite its popularity the only claim this utterly mediocre romantic comedy has to fame is that rumor had it the author of Catcher In the Rye took the name of his main character from the last names of the two stars on a marquee. The story pivots somewhat mechanically on the confusion between two sisters (such a plot gimmick was a favorite of original playwright Norman Krasna) and on family jokes, not all that funny, which Edward Arnold laughs at.
If this material had been made during the heyday of screwball comedies about a decade earlier it might have been enlivened by "behavioral" touches but by the post WWII era American film humor had gotten more coarse and crude. Columbia was churning out some of the more unsubtle and obnoxious examples of this kind of farce so it is surprising to see that Dear Ruth is a Paramount production: a studio once known for the sophistication and subtlety of Lubitsch, Sturges and Leisen.
If this material had been made during the heyday of screwball comedies about a decade earlier it might have been enlivened by "behavioral" touches but by the post WWII era American film humor had gotten more coarse and crude. Columbia was churning out some of the more unsubtle and obnoxious examples of this kind of farce so it is surprising to see that Dear Ruth is a Paramount production: a studio once known for the sophistication and subtlety of Lubitsch, Sturges and Leisen.