Dear Ruth (film)

Dear Ruth is a 1947 romantic comedy film starring Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Mona Freeman, and Edward Arnold. It was based on the 1944 Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna. A teenage girl has a soldier for a pen pal, but uses her older sister's name and photograph. Then the man shows up while on a two-day leave.
There were two sequels: "Dear Wife" (1949), with all of the principal actors reprising their roles, and "Dear Brat" (1951), featuring Freeman, Arnold and De Wolfe.
Although it is sometimes mistakenly believed that J. D. Salinger got the name for his character Holden Caulfield, in "The Catcher in the Rye" and other works, when he saw a marquee for the film, the first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy", was published in December 1945, a year and a half before the movie's release.
Plot.
Judge Wilkins and his wife Edie are puzzled when Lieutenant William Seacroft, a complete stranger, shows up at their home, asking for their elder, 22-year-old daughter Ruth. (She has gone to work at the bank, driven by her 34-year-old boyfriend Albert.) Bill has just returned from Italy, where he flew 25 missions over Germany as the bombardier of a B-26 bomber, but he only has a two-day leave. He explains that he has been corresponding with their daughter and has fallen in love with her long-distance. He makes a favorable impression on Ruth's parents and promises to return at 5:30 to meet her for the first time in person.
Ruth comes home and tells her parents she is getting married. They assume she has encountered Bill, but it turns out she is marrying Albert. They soon find out that their energetic 16-year-old daughter Miriam wrote to Bill 60 times, using her sister's name and sending him a photograph of Ruth, just one of her many contributions to the war effort and servicemen's morale. Ruth decides to tell Bill the truth immediately, but when he arrives, she cannot bring herself to do so. When Albert shows up for a date with Ruth, she slips away with Bill so that she can tell him privately, not in front of her entire family.
Bill takes her to a play, dinner and dancing until past 1 am. Albert and Ruth's parents wait up. Later, Ruth tells Albert that after Bill leaves for the Pacific, she will write to him and gently break off their relationship. She then gets the letters from Miriam and starts reading them.
The next morning, Bill's kid sister Martha waits for him in front of the Wilkins home. When Bill arrives, Ruth insists on taking Martha with them, supposedly because she has not seen her brother in two years, but actually to try to keep Bill's amorous behavior in check, so Bill invites a secretly fuming Albert too. Bill takes every opportunity to kiss Ruth, infuriating Albert. Then somebody pushes Albert off a crowded subway car at a station, and he gets separated from the others. He races to another station on the same line, but gets arrested for trying to get in without paying.
A further romantic complication ensues when both Martha and Sergeant Chuck Vincent, Bill's friend, arrive at the Wilkins residence. Martha broke up with Chuck very recently. Lunch is therefore very awkward. Then Bill and Ruth show up and announce they are engaged. When Bill leaves the room, Ruth tells Albert that it is only for a few more hours. However, Bill receives a telephone call informing him that he and Chuck will be instructors in Florida. Chuck and Martha reconcile and decide to get married themselves. Judge Wilkins conducts the ceremony.
Ruth then tells Bill that she only agreed to marry him because he was going back into combat, but nothing more. Miriam inadvertently reveals the whole truth to Bill. Bill accepts the situation, but after Martha and Chuck get married, Ruth has a change of heart. She and Bill also get married by her father, before leaving for Florida. Then a sailor appears, asking for Ruth. Startled, Miriam blurts out his name.
Production.
Norman Krasna's play had been hugely popular on Broadway. Film rights were sold to Paramount in February 1945 for a reported $450,000 with the proviso that a movie not be made until the play finished a two-year run. It was the most money Paramount had ever paid for a property, exceeding the $283,000 paid for the film rights to "Lady in the Dark". Henry Ginsberg, executive vice president at the studio, announced the male lead would be Sonny Tufts and that Ruth would be played by Joan Caulfield or Paulette Goddard while Miriam would be played by Diana Lynn or Mona Freeman.
In March 1946 Paramount announced the film as part of its slate for the following year. Albert Goodrich and Frances Hackett were writing the script.
In July 1946 Paramount announced that Joan Caulfield and William Holden would play the leads. It was Holden's first film since getting out of the army in November 1945. Filming was to begin in August with Sidney Lanfield directing and Paul Jones producing. Arthur Sheekman, Frances Goodrich and Arnold Hackett had worked on the script. In July 1946 Edward Arnold signed to join the cast.
Sidney Lanfield was to direct but in August he asked to be relieved by illness and was replaced by William Russell. Mona Freeman had tested for her role several times but Lanfield did not want her. However when Russell came in, Freeman was cast. Freeman joined the cast in August.
Lawsuit.
Columbia Pictures sued Krasna and the filmmakers for plagiarism, claiming the story infringed the copyright of a story they had bought in 1942 called "Dear Mr Private" and intended to make with Lee Bowman. Columbia was unsuccessful, appealed the decision and lost the appeal.
Reception.
Critical.
Bosley Crowther praised the film in "The New York Times", calling it "one of those simon-pure excursions in fun, which bubbles and sparkles its way into your heart and completely disarms any resistance which an unadorned outline of its conventional plot might invoke" and noting that "the pace never drags, even though the slim story is stretched out over ninety minutes."
Box office.
The film was successful at the box office. It earned almost $4 million during the films first year of release in North America, and led to two sequels.
Sequels.
Paramount purchased the rights to use the characters again. In December 1947 the studio announced it would make a sequel.