My Dear Miss Aldrich

I can watch this movie a couple of times a year. It's astonishing in the MGM ham-handedness of the production. How we are to believe that Maureen O'Sullivan, with her trans-Altantic accent, or Edna May Oliver, with her stage-British, hail from Nebraska, is beyond me. MGM's idea of screwball comedy usually involved.... well, MGM didn't do screwball, unless you count casting Joan Crawford in SUSAN AND GOD.

Yet somehow, everything about this movie works. There's the Herman Mankiewicz script, of course, and the sure comedy direction of George Seitz and Miss Oliver is always absurd. Most of all, Walter Pidgeon is perfect as the lumber-minded Ken Morley.

The best thing about MY DEAR MISS ALDRICH is that it gives MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN a chance to prove that she was not only very pretty but a capable enough actress to ensure that in the future she would be rewarded with more leading lady roles worthy of her charming presence. Not so. MGM gave her this chance to shine briefly and then tossed her back into secondary parts in big films until she was cast as Jane in the hugely popular Tarzan series.

But the film itself appears to have been hastily put together on a modest budget with some good one-liners thrown to EDNA MAY OLIVER, who of course is a sheer delight as Miss Atherton, presumed at first to be the heiress who has inherited a big city newspaper. Of course the real owner is her niece, and when the real owner's identity becomes known to the hero, the story becomes a battle of the sexes with Maureen out to show him that his sexist attitude towards women needs some sort of reformation.

If the script and direction had been a little more sophisticated, this might have earned a better reputation as a screwball comedy in an era when the major studios were churning out things like FOUR'S A CROWD and LIBELED LADY. As it is, it's harmless fluff that gives the spectator a good look at Maureen O'Sullivan at her loveliest, billed over Walter Pigeon who takes full advantage of his role. They both play with assurance as romantic leads, but Pigeon's fans will be delighted to see that his flair for this kind of comedy even existed. He was cast in much more serious roles for the main part of his career.

Obviously produced as a programmer for the lower half of a double bill, this has its moments, thanks chiefly to Edna May Oliver's dominating way with stealing a scene. Her tart remarks are what helps make the film click at all.

Spelling note: I've tried to correct the spelling of Walter Pigeon's name, but it keeps on being switched back to Pigeon by the spell check apparently written into this review by either my computer or the IMDb site. There's a "d" before the "g", for anyone who's curious.

Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan and Walter Pidgeon make "My Dear Miss Aldrich" a very good, heart-warming comedy. Built around New York City's largest newspaper (fictional), the plot here is a relatively mild and not-sensationalist portrayal of the press and journalism of the day. That's the picture that most moving pictures paint of the press of the time. Not that they are far off, but it's just refreshing to have one film whose focus is more on the professionalism of the paper. This has that, with nice doses of humor.

O'Sullivan plays Martha Aldrich, a young small-town teacher from Upper Platte, Nebraska. She inherits the Globe-Leader from a distant relative. Oliver is her aunt, Mrs. Atherton, whom she calls Lu. The aunt is a sort of mother hen, watchdog and companion of Martha. Naturally, she will go to New York with her niece. And Pidgeon plays Ken Morley, the managing editor of the newspaper. After his mistaken presumption of an old maid, stick-in-the-mud schoolteacher, Morley is very pleased to find the young and intelligent Martha as the heiress. One can guess where the film will go from there - with romance between the two.

But some good twists and meat to the story come from a couple of adventures the new owner gets into as a reporter for her paper. The film has some funny dialog, including frequent pithy lines from Aunt Lu. This is a warm comedy with a down-home feel that all ages should enjoy. Well, at least all who don't need constant adrenaline rushes to be entertained.

Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Mrs. (Aunt) Atherton, "You'd live in that school if they'd let you." Martha Aldrich, "I like to teach school." Mrs. Atherton, "Nonsense. Nobody likes to teach school - anybody that isn't homely. I'll say this for you - you may be crazy, but you're not homely."

Mrs. Atherton (Aunt Lu), as the phone rings, "Shall I answer the phone?" Martha, "Oh, you might as well - that's why they ring it. When they don't want you to answer, that's when they don't ring." Aunt Lu, "That's another thing - that sarcastic sarcasm of yours."

Ken Morley, "I expect nothing. That's why I'm never disappointed."

Ted Martin, on the phone, "Where am I? I'm on the other end of the phone."

Doc Howe, "Maybe being a woman ain't a crime - in Nebraska."

Mrs. Atherton, "We've got eight pieces of luggage, countin' the umbrella. See that everything gets off. Everybody in New York's a thief."

Mrs. Atherton, "Well, it seems a funny name to call a place that's free of locusts, Locust Valley."

Mrs. Atherton, "A thing makes sense, or it doesn't make sense."

Mrs. Atherton, "Out in Nebraska, when they give a place a name, the name means something." Martha Aldrich, "Lincoln was never in Nebraska, Aunt Lu, and yet that's the name of the capitol." Aunt Lu, "He could have come if he wanted to - it was there."

Martha Aldrich, "You see, I not only don't know how to play bridge; I don't even know how to watch bridge." Ken Morley, "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if getting away from bridge players keeps as many people occupied at night as playing bridge does."

I'm speaking of Maureen O'Sullivan of course. She is indeed very charming and beautiful, beautiful and charming.

I won't go over the plot. Everybody has already done that. Besides, writing plot summations bores me to tears.

The script is smart and funny, funny and smart. The acting is fairly standard for the 1930's. Not too heavy, not too light. But very professional. It is a comedy after all. And a very good comedy at that. Lots of laughs, lots of funny lines and situations.

A movie to make you smile. A movie to make you laugh. And that was greatly needed in the 1030's. Lots of dark times during that decade. But they sure had some wonderful movies to make them smile.

Martha Aldrich (Maureen O'Sullivan) inherits a New York newspaper when the old owner died without a will. She's a distant relative and an "old maid schoolteacher from Nebraska". She is joined by Aunt Lou. Managing editor Ken Morley (Walter Pidgeon) is dismissive of a female owner or hiring any female reporters. Martha decides to prove him wrong.

This does have the great Maureen O'Sullivan but the character does not measure up in this battle of the sexes. I don't like that she stumbles into her stories more often than not. Her character has smarts and Maureen is really good at projecting smart. I would cut back on some of the girlie frivolity and add some small town ingenuity to her character. The movie takes a very screwball physical comedy turn in the second half. It needs to setup this tone at the start. Martha can have some funny trip back in Nebraska. Also, her getup is insane although old movies sometimes had crazy outfits. This is fine but it could have been better.