ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Nessieldwi
Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
vincentlynch-moonoi
I'm trying to think if I ever saw a film starring Claudette Colbert that I didn't like. None that I can remember, and this film is no exception. It's an utterly charming story of a school teacher with 2 men -- an elementary school boy that has a crush on her, and a fellow-teacher who marries her. Along the way, the teacher almost loses her job when she spends a summer in the same resort (gasp!) as her future husband. A scandal is averted when the male teacher resigns, but before too long they secretly marry. Eventually, the young boy grows up to be a presidential candidate, and the husband disappears in World War I. At the beginning of the film, the teacher is trying to meet the presidential candidate to wish him well, and at the end of the film she succeeds. In between, the back-story is told via flashback.Claudette Colbert is wonderful as the teacher...but she was always wonderful! John Payne was excellent as her future husband, and Payne is an actor who may not have been given his due; always dependable. Shepperd Strudwick plays the boy as an adult, while Douglas Croft plays him exceptionally well as the boy.While I can't quite say this is a "great" film, it's certainly a very, very good one. It only finally popped up on TCM very recently.
edwagreen
A marvelous film in the genre of Miss Dove, Mr. Chips and every wonderful teacher you ever had.The role was just perfect for Claudette Colbert. She really worked magic with co-star John Payne.This picture really offers Americana circa 1916 in Indiana. The embodiment of the school structure at that time is so well done. The obedient student, the prim and proper schoolteachers who dedicated their lives to teaching and nothing else.Nora Trinell (Colbert) is a dedicated, wonderful teacher but she goes against what society thought of as a role for teachers when she finds love with Payne.The "crisis" that leads to his dismissal and his ultimate redemption on the part of the principal is beautifully done here.For me, the picture was so good because Trinell reminded me of my grade 5 teacher who inspired me in the field of social sciences.Colbert, as the teacher who found love and tragically lost it, has one of her best film roles here. A caring person to her students, especially Dewey, she certainly tells the truth when she says that each year a teacher finds a student who she can really love as her own. Those words will forever stay with me.As the typical spinster teacher, Anne Revere, was wonderful. Prone to be a gossip, she embodied what society thought was the role of a teacher in this period.The ending will tug at your heart. Nostalgic and so wonderfully realized.
bfred
Turned to this channel and was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. I read all of the previous postings especially the one written by the young girl who talked about the style of dress for the characters. People did not dress as they do now. Today we have grandmothers running in pageants in swim suits. In 1941 any woman in her 50's would never put on such an article much less wear it in public. Further a woman who had been a schoolteacher would have held herself up to a very high standard of respectability and social standards and mannerisms. Many women today seem to debase themselves publicly for the sake of looking young and in the know.If you look at the "gowns" worn by Colbert they are not correct for 1915-1916. True dresses of the period would have been much longer and a great deal dowdier. The one outfit where she is wearing fur trimmed coat and hat would have been impossible to buy in Indiana where the movie is set. Someone like Mary Pickford in New York might own something like that but never a 23 year old teacher in the Midwest. In fact the white, bowed dress is more appropriate for 1936-1937.The tailored, cinched waisted suits worn by Payne are clearly 1940's. An average suit in 1916 would have looked more like a black bag hanging on him. His shirts would have high starched (celluloid) collar and cuffs that were removable and changeable. The body of the of the shirt would be washed once per week. But then Payne could have worn a black bag and still looked as delectable.
Faye-9
The depiction of the characters being dramatically more "aged" than we'd expect today is not an error. In those days people DID age more... but more importantly, they looked older than our "seniors" of today. The thinking in those days was once you are an adult you act and look like one. It was an outdated attitude, true, but none the less, it is how they "thought". I remember my own mother at age 38 in the 60s acted like a woman of 70 would act today...and also the way she "looked" as well. I remember my older relatives of the 60s wouldn't get on a bicycle because it was for "kids". That was an ignorant way of thinking, but it was how they thought. This movie was right on for the times. Sometimes you have to be more open to "others" views of things before you draw a conclusion and form an opinion that you state on this website.
