Dear Ruth

Norman Krasna was a highly successful playwright and screenwriter who specialized in romantic comedy. He won an Oscar for the Olivia de Havilland romp Princess O'Rourke, but is perhaps best known for penning the 1954 holiday classic White Christmas. A decade earlier, Krasna's comedy Dear Ruth took Broadway by storm, running for 683 performances and reaping the writer a cool $450,000 for the movie rights - the largest sum Paramount Pictures ever paid for a property up to that time. Though he didn't adapt Dear Ruth for the screen - that task went to Arthur Sheekman, who Groucho Marx once called "the fastest wit in the West" - the script contains much of Krasna's original dialogue, and it's those quips, comebacks, and exasperated outbursts that fuel and sustain this pleasant, predictable romcom.

It's 1944 and when Lt. William Seacroft (William Holden) arrives on the doorstep of the Wilkins family home in a bucolic New York City suburb, almost everyone in the household is perplexed. The handsome, affable, almost giddy William tells a nonplussed Judge Wilkins (Edward Arnold) and his wife Edie (Mary Philips) he's been corresponding with their 22-year-old daughter Ruth (Joan Caulfield) for months and has fallen deeply in love with her. He's anxious to finally meet her, and plans to propose to her when she arrives home.

There's only one problem. Ruth, who has just gotten engaged to her long-time sweetheart Albert Kummer (Billy De Wolfe), has no idea who Lt. Seacroft is...until her 16-year-old, teen activist sister Miriam (Mona Freeman) confesses she wrote to William as part of a G.I. correspondence program, but because she's underage, she passed herself off as Ruth and even included Ruth's photo in one of the dozens of letters she sent. Ruth is shocked, dismayed, and furious, and intends to tell William the truth when they meet, but when she learns he only has two days of leave before going back to Europe to fight, she decides to keep up the charade to keep up William's spirits when he returns to duty. Of course, that's all easier said than done when William knows practically everything about her and she knows absolutely nothing about him.

Albert is understandably apolplectic about his fiancée cavorting around town with another man, especially one as handsome and smitten as William. And though Ruth seems devoted to Albert, the more time she spends with William and the more she learns about him...well, you can guess what happens next.

The premise of Dear Ruth is quite clever, but the mechanics are a bit dated and the film struggles to sustain its joke over its 95-minute running time. Some laugh-out-loud one-liners, a few madcap moments, and the relatable dynamics of the Wilkins family keep us engaged, but there's not much meat on the narrative's bones. The adaptation by Sheekman, who was married for 44 years to future Titanic actress Gloria Stuart and a founding member of the Screen Writers Guild, fails to sufficiently open up the story, and the static, unimaginative direction by newcomer William D. Russell, who would spend the bulk of his career helming TV sitcoms, lends the film a stagy feel.

Yet despite these hiccups, Dear Ruth still delivers cute entertainment. Holden, in his first film after serving in World War II, brims with youthful energy and boyish charm, though it's hard to reconcile the William Holden of Dear Ruth with the William Holden who would file such a cynical and searing performance in Sunset Blvd. just three years later. Caulfield, who enjoyed brief Hollywood success in the late 1940s, is natural and competent in what was likely her best film role, but lacks sufficient spark to fully ignite her character.

While the two leads do a fine enough job, it's the supporting actors who really make Dear Ruth worth watching. The shameless scene-stealing antics and priceless mugging of Billy De Wolfe, the dry, acerbic retorts of the always first-rate Edward Arnold, the earnest, starry-eyed enthusiasm of the young Mona Freeman, and the wise, even-tempered observations of the under-appreciated and under-used Mary Philips (who was married to Humphrey Bogart for 10 years early in his career) all combine to create a tight ensemble that keeps the movie chugging along even when the story sputters.

Dear Ruth was a huge hit when first released, raking in more than $4 million at the box office. It also spawned two sequels - Dear Wife, which reunited Holden, Caulfield, Freeman, De Wolfe, Arnold, and Philips, and the strangely titled Dear Brat, which passed the torch to Freeman, but also included De Wolfe, Arnold, and Philips. Though Dear Ruth often shows its age, it hits all the proper romcom notes and gives us just what we expect - a cozy, amusing, romantic trifle that pleasantly passes the time. We could certainly ask for more, but thankfully, the movie doesn't provide anything less.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Dear Ruth arrives on Blu-ray packaged in a standard case. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu with music immediately pops up; no previews or promos precede it.

KLSC supplies a very good 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer that survives a (literally) shaky start to deliver a crisp, pleasing picture. Some image instability plagues the opening credits, but it's pretty smooth sailing after that. The original grain structure remains intact, producing a film-like look that faithfully honors the cinematography of eight-time Oscar-nominee Ernest Laszlo, who finally won the award in 1965 for Ship of Fools. Deep blacks, bright, stable whites, and nicely varied grays enhance detail and depth levels and sharp close-ups highlight Holden's matinee idol looks and Caulfield's glamor. Some sequences are sharper and sleeker than others and some print damage crops up here and there, but such deficiencies rarely infringe on the viewing experience. It doesn't seem as if a new master was created for this release (there's no mention of any remastering on the packaging), but the source is in good shape overall, so fans of this romcom should be pleased.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track supplies clear, well-modulated sound. Dear Ruth is a dialogue-driven movie, so there's not much in the way of sonic accents or atmospherics, but all the witty exchanges are easy to comprehend. A wide dynamic scale embraces all the highs and lows of the music score by eight-time Oscar-nominee Robert Emmett Dolan, and no age-related hiss, pops, or crackles intrude.

The only extras are an audio commentary by film historian Farran Smith Nehme and a few trailers for other KLSC releases.

Dear Ruth is a pleasant war-time romantic comedy that coasts along on the strength of its script and performances. The story may be predictable, but the actors infuse it with plenty of personality, and KLSC delivers a solid A/V presentation that heightens enjoyment. If you're a fan of this type of material - and especially of Holden - you'll want to pick up this disc. Recommended.