Prune-face: Jennifer Jones as Miss Dove |
55-year-old geography teacher Miss Dove (Jennifer Jones) has to go into the hospital for tests, and uses the time to reflect upon her life and her influence upon her students. Known as "the terrible Miss Dove" by certain townspeople, she is a rather grim and completely humorless, outwardly unemotional old maid, but despite her demeanor she can be kind to her pupils, especially a young boy named William who grows up to become a cop (Chuck Connors). Both her nurse (Peggy Knudsen) and doctor (Robert Stack) and his wife (Kipp Hamilton of War of the Gargantuas), as well as the town priest (Biff Elliot) are also former students.
Chuck Connors with Jones |
Priest and doctor: Biff Elliot and Robert Stack |
In addition to Jones, most of the cast members (including some marvelous child actors) acquit themselves nicely, with Thompson notable in his one sequence with Jones, and there's also good work from Connors [South Sea Woman] , Stack, etc. and especially Peggy Knudsen [Hilda Crane] as the nurse Billie Jean, who had a child out of wedlock. Leigh Harline has contributed a pleasant and soapy score that is effective for the picture. Good Morning, Miss Dove is quite similar to the 1941 movie Cheers for Miss Bishop, which also examines a small town and the life of a teacher, but is a much, much better movie.
Verdict: Good night, Miss Dove. **1/2.
2 comments:
Have never seen this one; I am a fan of Martha Scott in Cheers for Miss Bishop. But as I get older, I appreciate the odd charm of Jennifer Jones more and more. She certainly was a unique actress; my favorite role of hers is as the eldest daughter in Since You Went Away (when Selznick fell in love with her.) If Miss Dove comes on TCM, I will give it a look.
-Chris
Jones, like Norma Shearer, was often devalued as an actress because her husband was a powerful man in the motion picture business. But as people often remarked, "he couldn't get up there on the screen and act for her."
Oddly, Jones and Shearer both starred in different versions of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street," and both were very good.
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