Dear Wife
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Richard Haydn
William Holden
Joan Caulfield
Billy De Wolfe
Mona Freeman
Edward Arnold
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Teenager Miriam Wilkins goes door-to-door, petitioning to get her brother-in-law, Bill Seacroft, elected to the state senate without his knowledge. Bill, a war veteran who works at a bank, is frustrated by living with his wife Ruth's family because he does not feel independent. Everyone is shocked when they learn that Ruth's father Harry, a judge, has been nominated to run as state senator, and that Bill will be his opponent. Although Harry accepts the idea with equanimity, he is outraged when opinionated Miriam publishes an article in the local newspaper in which she describes him as a political "fathead." Dissension soon erupts in the household. Ruth becomes jealous of Bill's beautiful female campaign manager, Tommy Murphy, and Harry's manager, Albert Kummer, who was once Ruth's fiancé and is Bill's boss, encourages the conflict. As Bill starts to take his campaign seriously, he publicly opposes Harry on the issue of a new local airport, which would force many residents out of their homes. One morning, Miriam uses her influence as secretary of the Civic Betterment Committee to arrange a live radio broadcast from her home. The broadcast is a disaster because everyone is angry at one another, and Bill and Ruth separate after she stubbornly refuses to join him and move out of the house. Harry disapproves of the separation, and he later tips off Bill about a duplex that Ruth is showing in her new job as a real estate agent. Bill rents the duplex and he and Ruth almost reunite, but she is still too jealous of Bill, whose relationship with Tommy is strictly business, to move in. Later, however, Tommy admits that she has fallen for Bill, but he rejects her advances. When Ruth accepts a job in Chicago, Miriam decides to reunite her sister with Bill, and convinces him to take her to a dance, as she is having a fight with her boyfriend Ziggy. Ruth, however, is already on her way to the train station with Albert, who hopes to renew their relationship, so Harry arranges for the police to arrest Albert for bad brakes. Albert and Ruth are brought into court, and Harry insists that they remain in town for a trial until the next week. At the dance, Albert informs Bill that he has been disqualified as a candidate because he moved to another district, and Harry's sponsor announces that land will be donated to any homeowners displaced by the new airport. With the political conflict resolved, Bill gives Albert a black-eye for interfering, and Harry lectures Ruth about her wifely duties. Ruth and Bill finally reunite, and Miriam starts a new petition to nominate him for state senator.
Director
Richard Haydn
Cast
William Holden
Joan Caulfield
Billy De Wolfe
Mona Freeman
Edward Arnold
Arleen Whelan
Mary Philips
Harry Von Zell
Raymond Roe
Elisabeth Fraser
Bill Murphy
Mary Field
Irving Bacon
Gordon Jones
Marietta Canty
Don Beddoe
Stanley Stayle
William J. Cartledge
Ralph Montgomery
James Cornell
Bill Meader
Charles Dayton
Franklyn Farnum
Edward Biby
Roger Davis
Jimmie Dundee
Len Hendry
Harry Harvey
Tom Dugan
Frances Sandford
Skipper Davenport
Bess Flowers
Harry M. Templeton
Paul E. Burns
Alma Macrorie
Harland Tucker
Patty Lou Arden
Dorothy Vernon
Leon Tyler
George Magrill
Tim Ryan
Frank Darien
Ida Moore
Clifford Brooke
Claire Dubrey
John Butler
Bea Stephens
Crew
Frank Brock
Malcolm Bulloch
Harry Caplan
Sam Comer
R. D. Cook
Kenneth Deland
Mary Kay Dodson
Hans Dreier
Gene Garvin
Robert Goodstein
Hubert H. Soldier Graham
Doane Harrison
Earl Hedrick
Harry Hogan
Emile Kuri
Joseph J. Lilley
Ronnie Lubin
Richard Maibaum
Archie Marshek
Gene Merritt
N. Richard Nash
Wally Nogle
Otto Pierce
Skippy Sanford
Arthur Sheekman
Charles Sickler
Lavaughn Speer
Stuart Thompson
Van Cleave
Lenore Weaver
Wally Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The opening credits read as follows: "Written for the screen by Arthur Sheekman and N. Richard Nash as a sequel to Norman Krasna's Dear Ruth." Although the Motion Picture Herald release chart and copyright records list the film's running time as 96 or 98 min., the running time is listed as 87 or 88 min. in reviews such as Daily Variety, which was based on a press screening. It has not been determined if the discrepancy reflects an error in running times, or if further edits were made after the film's initial preview. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, some scenes were filmed on location in Beverly Hills, CA. For further information on the "Dear Ruth" series, see the entry above for Dear Ruth, and consult the Series Index.
