"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.
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.