Guten Morgen, Miss Fink

I now know that they were definitely the biggest and best influences on my life as a young man. I watched this movie in tears most of the time, and yet enjoyed it immensely. Now I'll buy it for my own children and grandchildren - simply because when they reach old age, they too should look back and realize just how important {a good teacher} was to your life.

A favorite moment - Miss Dove (referring to the town policeman, whom she -of course- had taught when he was a young student): "William Holloway started out with a gift rarer than mathematical genius or perfect pitch. A child in whom the ethical instinct was as innate as the function of breathing." A cop. He knew, he's always known - because of Miss Dove.

God Bless You teachers, each & every one of you. It truly is - a calling.

This wonderful film contains a warm, nostalgic look back at the life of an ailing school teacher. As time and her illness progresses, Miss Dove, best known to the small town as a rigid and stiff disciplinarian, realizes the positive effects she has had on the people around her, and their love for her. Never married, childless Miss Dove finds purpose and contentment in her duty -- to repay her father's debt and thereby avoid a scandal, by working as a teacher, instead of marrying the man she loved.

The film has especially fine direction, performances, and an intelligent, multi-layered script. While Miss Dove appears a one-dimensional, humorless snob at the beginning of the film, the many layers of her story and personality are revealed throughout the course of the film. By the end, you realize why everyone is so fond of her.

Thinking back over this film, I was struck by the image in my mind of an America that seems to no longer exist. Healthy, proud, and affluent small towns, the belief in following one's duty in life instead of whims, and the sense of personal responsibility among these characters are so unusual to see in a modern film -- or modern life. There was a scene in which Miss Dove helped a bank avoid closing, a selfless, altruistic act that seemed so different than anything that could have occurred in the recent banking crisis.

Growing up in the 1980s, I think I was seeing the last of this generation fade away. Perhaps I still am. I remember writing a fan letter to Jennifer Jones years ago. I loved her then as I still do. I never considered it odd that she did not reply. She was a symbol of the grace and dignity of a long gone era. Noticing that she just passed away, I can't help but feel she passed away with the unfortunate changing of our culture, to the violent, seedy, and irresponsible. But what an enduring, magical film legacy she left behind.

Excellent entertainment guaranteed to get the weepy eyes out and the warm and fuzzies too. This movie reminds me of Goodbye Mr. Chips which was good but I thought they could have done more in that movie to stress the point of all the good Mr. Chips the teacher did. Here, they do just that via flashbacks which are highly entertaining and give good background to the story-telling. In a Twilight Zone episode titled "The Changing of the Guard", they also capture the theme of this movie quite well so if you like either example I gave you will love this movie as it takes its place among them. A couple of those flashbacks had me in tears as you realize that those people are you or someone you know who cannot only use a helping hand but also allow us all to contribute to a better world one person at a time. Who hasn't gotten to where they are today without help of some kind? Imagine if you turned that principal up a few notches. That's what is going on here only someone donates their life (literally) to the theme. Good investment by my tally. Good supporting cast too with familiar faces that became famous in their own time. The virtues acted out and displayed in this move are numerous. Humility, sacrifice, service, hope, charity, unconditional love, honesty and commitment all come on the screen throughout this movie and make their points. We are also reminded not to base everything we do solely on money outcomes but instead to invest in the bigger picture of life that build character and joins the everlasting properties into eternity. I am also reminded of the many who we don't hear about, who stay in the shadows doing their share of good happy to do so and going unnoticed for it but perfectly content and satisfied. Why? The simplest answer is found in a well known scripture that keeps teaching us this principal: When you did it to the least of them, you did it to me. I know you. Come forward faithful steward. That's all that counts in the end is that you are recognized by the one who sent you here just for that purpose. Good movie to snack with plus a tasty drink, Kleenex on standby and bring an open heart so your soul can be cleansed too. Enjoy! I did!

Frances Gray Patton wrote this beloved novel of a small-town spinster. She is a determined woman, one who turned a wrecked life and an enormous family debt into a reason to teach generations of New England young people the virtues of going-through-the-pain to get the gain. The theme of this film is the positive effect of her rough-hewn self-assertiveness training on her students. Jennifer Jones plays the schoolteacher, from youth to old-age, and very winningly. The film was directed by veteran Henry Koster. Others in the very large and amiably charming cast include Robert Stack, fine actor Robert Douglas, Kipp Hamilton, charismatic Peggy Knudsen, Chuck Connors, Jerry Paris, Mary Wickes, Leslie Bradley, Marshall Thompson, Biff Elliott, Richard Deacon and many more. What happens in the story is that Miss Dove falls ill one day during class and has to be carried from her students and taken to the hospital. The town's generations, all taught by this remarkable woman, react; some come from far away or start stopping by the hospital for news; and this leads to a flashback of how her life's course was changed by her father's money problems and the desertion of her by her erstwhile suitor; how she then vowed to pay back every cent of her father's debt, though she was not personally responsible; and how she began teaching school and has gone on doing so. This intelligent, heart-warming and thought-provoking story has a climax in her medical crisis and a happy ending; it is not perhaps a great film, but Miss Dove is very probably a great character, and one many can learn from long after the film has ended. Every element here is well-crafted and contributes to a surprisingly entertaining and most-believable presentation. Music is by Leigh Harline, cinematography by Leon Shamroy with contributions by Lyle Wheeler and many others. Cool and beautiful, and as fascinating as is the lady herself

A well-known schoolteacher in a little American town is taken ill, and this causes her to reflect on her life. This unabashed 'weepie' from 20th Century Fox will catch you out unless you have a crisply-laundered hankie pinned to your lapel!

Nine years after her sex-kitten role in "Lust In The Dust", Jennifer Jones pulls off a tour de force as the prim Miss Dove. Henry Koster's direction plays it straight down the middle in this simple yarn of small town life.

Liberty Hill, we hear, is a typical American town. There are a hundred like it, in which "a sense of life's continuity hangs in the air". It is not clear whether the narrator is describing Liberty Hill as 'snug' or 'smug', but it doesn't matter - both adjectives apply. In Cedar Grove School a graduation ceremony is attended by parents who were themselves pupils here. This is the deep complacent sleep of Eisenhower's America, a world in which everybody has a pre-ordained place and the doctor, the policeman and the pastor are all ex-pupils of Miss Dove.

It is seemingly a day like any other. Miss Dove is enforcing classroom discipline when she starts to fall ill. Typically, she instructs a child, "I am indisposed. Mention this to no-one."

The stricken teacher looks back on her life in a series of reveries, starting with her happy youth in the 1920's. We see her as a beautiful, vivacious young woman who shares her father's passion for geography. The two plan an overseas vacation together, ensconced in their improbably lavish parlour which is only slightly smaller than the Houston Astrodome. It seems odd that Miss Dove's father should command such opulence, and after his death certain banking irregularities come to light. To prevent a slur on her father's memory, Miss Dove undertakes to work to pay back the 'debt'.

Miss Dove places duty before personal happiness, declining Wolf Pendleton's offers of marriage and an expedition to the Himalayas, because she must teach here in Liberty Hill. The stiff, correct character of Miss Dove is illustrated by the way she remains formal until Wolf has left, then collapses in grief, and coming out of her daydream, composes herself as Doctor Tom Baker arrives. Public displays of weakness just won't do. "It is not my custom to wobble."

Tom Baker (Robert Stack) is, of course, an alumnus of Miss Dove. The classroom undergoes minor changes over the years, but the American kids keep being churned out like little Ford Thunderbirds. China was coloured orange on the wall map ten years ago, now it's purple (the communist bloodbath?) and Eisenhower's portrait has replaced Truman's. But Miss Dove never alters. She enumerates her symptoms to Doc Baker like a talking medical textbook and as she is carried to hospital she assures him, "You have defined my responsibility. I shall keep my spine rigid." No-one doubts that.

We meet various ex-pupils who have thrived under Miss Dove's tutelary genius. Bill Holloway (Chuck Connors) was an impoverished kid whose true worth was recognised by Miss Dove - " a child in whom the ethical instinct was as innate as breathing". He adores his former teacher. He is now a police officer. Virginia was a pretty but confused youngster until a year ago, when under Miss Dove's guidance she met and fell for Doc Baker. She has found her vocation in motherhood.

Maurice Levine and Fred Makepeace turn up. Fred is now a gangster, but he's an OK kind of guy. He breaks out of prison to be with his teacher in her hour of need. Thanks to Miss Dove, his American morality is pristine: "When I hear some commie jerk belittling this country ..." Maurice first comes to Cedar Grove in the 1930's (the wall portrait is Roosevelt). He is a jewish child, freshly escaped from Hitler's Germany, and speaking no English. Miss Dove protects him from Liberty Hill's ingrained xenophobia and nurtures his literary talent. Single-handedly, she cures her class of antisemitism, and Maurice goes on to become a Broadway playwright.

This lady's influence reaches beyond the school gates. Mr. Porter was the incoming Bank President who handled Miss Dove's father's indiscretion so unsympathetically. Now he visits her in hospital, an older, humbler man. "She's always been a stiff-necked termagant," he says, but confesses that he owes everything to her. In the Depression, she acted with courage and authority and averted a run on the Liberty Hill Bank.

As for the film's weaknesses, the script is cast in a quaint literary style which grates. Nurse Green shows the cop into the room, announcing "Police Officer Holloway begs to intrude." The sentimentality is laid on too thickly. Doc Baker recounts how he survived shipwreck and thirst thanks to a shining vision of Miss Dove - "She was right there with me all the time!" The hushed crowds on the hospital steps are 'over the top'.

The establishing shot of the colonial church's spire, repeated as the hours pass, reinforces the film's themes of parochialism and continuity. Ex-pupils donate blood, symbolising their ties to Miss Dove and the reciprocity of the relationship.

The sick woman contemplates death and concludes that, whatever people may think, her life has been happy. The dreams of world travel were never realised, but she knows the world through study. Learning has compensated her for lost opportunities. This is a metaphor for her having sacrificed love and a family. Yet in the last 30 years, every child in Liberty Hill has been 'hers'. She has touched every young life. "Kids?" says Officer Holloway, "She has a thousand of 'em!"