This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Boring

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

"Smiling Jim" was William Holden's disparaging name for the characters he was usually assigned throughout the 1940's. Those characters were mostly insipid twits whose depth was puddle deep and whose only purpose was to be pleasant and smiling.There is no better example of a "Smiling Jim" role than "Lt. William Seacroft" in this forgotten piece of WW2 era fluff. Based on a popular wartime stage play by Norman Krasna (who should have been credited for the story of William Wyler's 1953 "Roman Holiday" because it's pretty much a remake of 1943's "Princess O'Rourke" for which Krasna won a screen-writing Oscar), "Dear Ruth" introduces the "Wilkins" family: father (Edward Arnold), mother (Mary Philips) and two daughters: "Ruth" (Joan Caulfield), a bank employee in her early 20's, and "Miriam" (Mona Freeman)- a teenage activist who has really taken aiding the war effort to heart. It's Miriam's activism that sets everything in motion. Besides petitioning the War Department to allow women to be drafted and volunteering her father as a blood donor, she's also taken to writing airman Seacroft encouraging him to greater efforts against the enemy. However, Miriam knew that her age would limit the effectiveness of her letter writing campaign. So, she used Ruth's name and enclosed Ruth's photo for good emphasis. Ruth, of course, is a knock-out whose looks quickly ensnare Lt. Seacroft into a lengthy correspondence with Miriam. He's so entranced that he volunteers for hazardous duty so he can get a two-day leave to go courting Ruth stateside.Thus, Lt. Seacroft shows-up unannounced on the Wilkins' doorstep to the bewilderment of everyone except Miriam. Upon discovering why he's there wartime contingencies demand that everyone play along that Ruth actually did write those letters in order to avoid hurting Seacroft's feelings. However, Seacroft isn't there just for a meet-and-greet, but to propose. Most of the comedy comes from the alleged "hilarity" caused by the fact that Ruth is already engaged to her fussy, thirty-something year old 4F boss, "Albert Kummer" (Billy De Wolfe). Various hi-jinks and misunderstandings accrue before everything is sorted out at film's end.I found this film's stage origins to be too obvious and the plot too far fetched and predictable to be interesting. The biggest problem is there is no contest between Lt. Seacroft and his alleged rival, Kummer. Let's see, on one hand, we have Seacroft a decorated officer and war hero, who is also extremely handsome and charming, and, on the other, we have Kummer- a homely, boring fuddy-duddy who works in the despised banking profession and is 4F due to an alleged bad back. Also, it's quite obvious that Kummer plays for the Pink Team. The question really isn't whether Ruth will choose Seacroft over Kummer, but what in heaven's name did she ever see in Kummer in the first place? (Also, it appears that Ruth's "gaydar" badly malfunctioned.)Overall, William Holden as Smiling Jim, oh, I meant Seacroft, is charming. Joan Caulfield is pretty. Edward Arnold has fun playing a put-upon but understanding father. And Billy De Wolfe is amusing despite being hopelessly miscast. However, the film's predictability and its reliance on too many far-fetched misunderstandings for its humor eventually got pretty tiresome.

This Norman Krasna play of the war era was a surprising Broadway hit and makes for an above average domestic comedy where surprising performances and a charming light-heartedness make it much better than predicted. Joan Caulfield is Ruth, the 21-year old bank employee who still lives at home (with parent Edward Arnold and Mary Phillips, and pesky teenaged sister Mona Freeman) and finds herself the victim of an unintentional deception which the impish Freeman played by writing letters in Ruth's name to a lonely soldier (William Holden). Freeman, a teenaged champion of causes, is an amusing pest to everyone in the house who can't help but be bemused by her devotion to war causes, particularly her fight for peace and her devotion to the poor soldiers drafted all in the cause of freedom. Caulfield has somehow became engaged to bank executive Billy De Wolfe, a stuffy older man who gives impressions of interests other than in women, especially when being offered a drink and asked if he'd like it "straight". Holden shows up and all is revealed in time, and when Caulfield meets the lonely soldier on leave from Europe, she can't help but be charmed by him.The best performances in these types of films are those which really don't seem to be acted, and in the case of romantic leads Caulfield and Holden, they do their job so effectively it really seems as if they are real people, not movie stars giving a "performance". Arnold, of course, displays his usual boundless energy, showing that while more grandfatherly in appearance towards the two young girls, he still has what it takes to rule the roost, chew the scenery and steal the moment every chance he gets. But for me, the real star of the show is young Mona Freeman who takes what could be truly an obnoxious character and turns her into someone very likable. What Shirley Temple was doing at the same time shows the difference that less is more, and Freeman's ease in her portrayal makes for a much more tolerable character than Temple and certain other young actors were doing at the same time in films somehow more remembered today.There's lots of surprises here and a delightful adventure on the New York Subway is a comic gem, especially when De Wolfe gets his nose out of joint for something which got him a summons. This plot has been repeated so many times (with a nebbish young man loosing the pretty heroine to the handsome hunk) that it could have been a predictable generic sitcom like film, but the fresh writing, fast direction and amiable performances make this a delight from start to finish. Two sequels popped up after this became a hit and are curios to search out to complete the saga of this wacky family where the judge isn't always moralizing and the mother isn't always fretting for Andy Hardy to stay out of trouble.

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?

what a wonderful movie and how handsome does that William Holden look?? a love story i can see repeated in some modern movies too such as "you've got mail".....i wonder how many times letters were written during the war under false pretenses....its story plot is simple: Ruth's younger sibling writes letters to a serviceman in her name and he learns to care for her...Ruth losing her heart in spite of herself seems to sum it all up...would love to have a copy but the movie never seems to be around... i have a grainy VCR recording of it from the eighties..would love to see it on DVD..Joan Caulfield (not a particularly gifted actress in my opinion) shines in this performance and i laugh at Billy DeWolfe's antics each time i see him.i guess i long for a simpler time of life, though i imagine those who lived through WWII would say i was crazy..i cannot believe i found this site and that others enjoyed the movie too!!! i have an original program from the play also....