Director Henry Koster had originally intended for Olivia de Havilland to play the lead role and for Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) to be shot on location in England. In the end, Jennifer Jones played the spinster school teacher who has devoted her life to her students, giving Jones a chance to branch out beyond the typical leading lady role, allowing her to play a much older and unglamorous woman. The film, shot in the new "CinemaScope" process, went into production on the Fox lot from July 11th to mid-August 1955, with additional sequences added later in early September. The West German title was Guten Morgen, Miss Fink, and the Fox Publicity Department came up with taglines like, "A Picture of Everybody for Everybody!" and "She's the laughter in your tears and the tears in your laughter." The rest of the cast included Robert Stack, Kipp Hamilton, Chuck Connors, reliable character actress Mary Wickes, two alumni of the The Dick Van Dyke Show - Richard Deacon and Jerry Paris - as well as two actors from the Leave it to Beaver TV series, Ken Osmond and Stanley Fafara.
Stack, who played the doctor who saves Miss Dove's life, later wrote in his autobiography, Straight Shooting, "The film told a touching story of a schoolteacher, a wealthy, lighthearted girl at the turn of the century, who gave up a chance for romance and excitement to devote herself to others. As time passed, she became a spinster geography teacher who influenced the lives of generations of students. I played a doctor who helped her recover from an illness. Miss Dove was played by Jennifer Jones...Jennifer was shy. Very shy. In one scene, as the doctor, I was supposed to give her the knee-reflex test. She kept looking at me, saying Do you have to do that? (In other words, did I have to put my hand on her knee?) I laughed and finally said, Jennifer, I'm the doctor, you're the patient, and it's in the script. She was the only really shy actress I've ever worked with."
Released in New York on November 23, 1955, Good Morning, Miss Dove was one of two big hits for Jennifer Jones that year, along with Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. The New York Times admitted that the film was hokey, but predicted correctly that it would play well with audiences, "Since it is unashamedly sentimental without being excessively maudlin about its heroine, Good Morning, Miss Dove deserves credit for being honest and entertaining. What matter if this nostalgic review of the career of a schoolteacher and her impact on several generations of townsfolk appears obvious and, at times cliché-cluttered? The customers at the Roxy [Theater in New York], where it was unveiled yesterday with benefit of color and CinemaScope, undoubtedly will shed a surreptitious tear and smile in remembrance of their own "Miss Doves." It is, to put it bluntly, far more diverting than going back to school...Our heroine, it might be added, is dedicated and self-effacing enough to avoid the proffered hand of an admirer to pay off her father's indebtedness. Although such a paragon would appear to be improbable, Miss Dove, in the person of Jennifer Jones, is a remarkable but believable character. Although she sounds like a character out of Dickens, her carefully etched portrait of the genuinely dedicated geography teacher is a neat blend of pride, genuine gentility and humor. Robert Stack, as the respectful doctor; Kipp Hamilton, as his sweet, pretty and expectant wife; Peggy Knudsen, as a practical, rough-hewn nurse who yearns to be "genteel"; Chuck Connors, as the cop who is her fiancé; Jerry Paris, as the playwright, and a covey of youngsters, who perform without affectation help make "Miss Dove" a winning personality. Although she is involved in some mawkish situations straight out of soap opera, her bittersweet reflection makes for pleasant memories."
Producer: Samuel G. Engel
Director: Henry Koster
Screenplay: Eleanore Griffin; Frances Gray Patton (novel)
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Mark-Lee Kirk, Lyle R. Wheeler
Music: Leigh Harline
Film Editing: William Reynolds
Cast: Jennifer Jones (Miss Dove), Robert Stack (Dr. Thomas 'Tom' Baker), Kipp Hamilton (Virginia 'Jincey' Baker), Robert Douglas (Mr. John Porter), Peggy Knudsen (Nurse Billie Jean Green), Marshall Thompson (Wilfred Banning Pendleton III), Chuck Connors (William 'Bill' Holloway), Biff Elliot (Alexander 'Alex 'Burnham), Jerry Paris (Maurice 'Rab' Levine), Mary Wickes (Miss Ellwood).
C-107m.
by Lorraine LoBianco
SOURCES:
Straight Shooter by Robert Stack with Mark Evans
The Internet Movie Database
The AFI Catalog of Feature Films
The New York Times Film Review, Good Morning, Miss Dove: The Teacher is a Pet , November 23, 1955
