Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955)

“To study a people and their customs is valuable. But to know a people and their customs is a privilege seldom attained without the luxury of travel. ” – Miss Dove

Number of Times Seen – 1 (10 Jun 2020)

Brief Synopsis – After being admitted to the hospital, a lifelong teacher reflects on her years of service and on all of the children she has helped during her tenure.

My Take on it – This is a film that I came across by accident and knew nothing about it besides the fact that it is all about a teacher.

The film has a great premise that works really well since it manages to stay interesting throughout.

Jennifer Jones does a superb job in the lead role and we are given a very realistic portrayal of how a teacher could have so much of an influence on so many of her students over so many years.

Her actions helped mold these student’s minds over the years as they become adults and it’s intriguing to see how they eventually turned out due to her influence over them.

The stories about these students are told in relatively quick vignettes and things could have been even more impactful had they spent a bit more time focusing on these students and their stories even though we still are given a nice perspective on the way that their lives were changed by this very influential educator in their lives.

The film does a ice job keeping these sub-stories quite diverse and this allows us to get an even broader overview of the way that her teaching methods helped them each move on to bigger and brighter things later in their young lives.

Bottom Line – Really interesting tale that works due to the great performance by Jones. The story is able to show us the kind of effect that a teacher can have on her students and see how her actions helped mold these children as they become adults. The film could have focused more on some of the stories of these students, but we still get a nice perspective on how their lives were changed by her actions as a teacher for so many years. Really liked the diversity of the various sub stories to help give us a broader overview of her influence on these young minds and why she was so integral in their lives even decades after they moved on to bigger and brighter things in the world. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Six uncredited actors in this film played regular or semi-regular roles on TV’s Leave It to Beaver (1957): Richard Deacon (played Fred Rutherford), Pamela Baird (Mary Ellen Rogers), Cindy Carol (Alma Hanson), Stanley Fafara (Whitey Whitney), Tiger Fafara (Tooey Brown), and Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell). (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)