60 lettere d'amore

I recently had the opportunity to see this film as what a delight! I can not understand that so many wonderful films of the 40's are not shown on the multiple cable channels. This films was packed with great stars and a very funny storyline. Just having the chance to see a very young Willam Holden was worth anything... What a handsome man!!! These family films seem to be all but forgotten, and it is a shame- I only wish that some of the movie executives would take a second look at some of these treasures and decide to release them on DVD. There were two sequels and they were also really great. What a good idea to release all three in one DVD set! If anyone out there is listening, we want this film on DVD!!!!

One of the most delightfully hilarious movies ever made.

That's not an overstatement. If you've never seen William Holden in a comedy, this film shows how brilliant he was. This is a real gem,and it's simply baffling, to say the least, why it's languished on the shelf somewhere, without having ever been released on VHS or DVD. It's actually quite a relevant film for these times, about a veteran returning from war and a wartime pen-pal correspondence that results in a big mixup. Oddly, you can get the sequel, but not this one. Whoever manages these things, please: make it available for us. Even the classic movie channels haven't shown this.

IMDB reviewers of a certain age may remember the 1944 Norman Krasna Broadway comedy hit "Dear Ruth." These folks would have entered their high school years just as WWII was mercifully winding down, and they thoroughly enjoyed its topical wartime humor, adolescent high jinks, numerous misunderstandings and gentle innocent laughs. It is quite possible that their graduating class play might have been one of the many stage incarnations of DR that then seemed to come out of nowhere in high schools all over America as we moved into the postwar 1940s.

DR perfected the now familiar cliche-driven plot device of a young "miss fixit" teenage girl (Mona Freeman) initiating a romantic penpal correspondence with a naive unknowing serviceman by pretending to be her older more age-appropriate sister. The resulting exchange of letters produced all kinds of interesting complications from this situation that propelled the plot to its inevitable satisfactory resolution and conclusion. DR was so successful that its 1947 big screen version starring an extremely youthful William Holden and an equally attractive Joan Caulfield generated no less than two more almost equally popular sequels within the next few years (Dear Wife (1949) and Dear Brat (1951))!

Although critical praise for the film version of DR may have been somewhat muted, audiences seemed to appreciate the spirited enthusiasm of the lead actors, the splendid additional contributions by the veteran cast of character performers and the good work done by director William D. Russell. And while it is certainly true that by 1947 some of DR's wartime humor began to feel dated, its pace never let up as the likable cast entertained us for 95 laugh-filled minutes.

In DR, Holden clearly demonstrated an appealing natural aspect to his role as well as a more substantial acting range as a performer. In just a few more years, Holden would solidly emerge as one of cinema's major actors and one of the greatest leading men of his generation.

This was one of the most delightful films I have ever seen. Film makers have forgotten what the elements of a good film are. This one has it all: character development, snappy dialogue, humor, love, and a happy ending. The actors and actresses tell their story not only with words, but with their expressions and other non-verbal communication. Who needs fantastic stories, mindless violence, etc. This kind of film really entertains.

On Broadway Dear Ruth by Norman Krasna debuted on December 13, 1944 and ran for 680 performances until 1946. By the time it got to the silver screen there certainly were enough people in the audiences who got all the wartime references in the story though peace had been around for two years at that point.

John Dall and Virginia Gilmore starred on Broadway and in the film their roles were played by William Holden and Joan Caulfield. If there ever was a 'smiling Jim' role for Bill Holden as he liked to call the nice guy parts he was stuck typecast in the Forties this part in Dear Ruth is the quintessential. He even played this same part in a sequel entitled Dear Wife and virtually the same type part in Apartment For Peggy.

Caulfield is the eldest of two daughters of Edward Arnold and Mary Phillips. The youngest is a rebellious bobby soxer played by Mona Freeman. To do her bit for the morale Freeman wrote a letter to an unknown soldier Holden who was in the Army Air Corps. They become soul mates in the correspondence, but he encloses a picture of Caulfield and signs her name to it. Not pleasing to Caulfield and even less to her 4F co-worker Billy DeWolfe.

After that they see the earnest and idealistic Holden and the whole family just can't let him down when he surprises her with a 48 hour pass visit. She goes through with the masquerade, even DeWolfe reluctantly agrees.

The film is cute and has some laughs, but really if a woman had a chase between the Bills, Holden and DeWolfe who do you really think she would choose?