American drama film based on the novel Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It was directed by Tay Garnett, produced by Richard A. Rowland and released through United Artists. Martha Scott stars in the title role, and the other cast members include William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Dorothy Peterson, Marsha Hunt, Don Douglas and Sidney Blackmer.
One of 1941's most inspired pictures is a warm, glowing story of real American people. Their gayety and laughter, the dreams and desires, their problems, their loves, all the poignant romance and exciting drama of living. That make up the very fabric of American life. Brilliantly combined in a great film. Well worth the cost of $0.25 for a theater ticket.
Plot: Spinster septuagenarian Ella Bishop, on the brink of retirement from her 52-year career as freshman-English teacher at small-town Midwestern University, her alma mater, wants to look toward the future, but can't help reflect upon her past, what brought her to this point. Although she always wanted to be a teacher and was both surprised and ecstatic when her mentor, Midwestern's then-President James Corcoran, offered her the English teacher opening upon graduation, she only saw it as one short phase of her life until she got married and had a family, unlike her younger cousin Amy Saunders, who solely needed romance and love to feel fulfilled. She thinks about the two men with whom she was mutually in love and would have married if she could have, if not for one circumstance or another, and the one man whose love for her was--and is--unrequited, at least in the romantic sense, but who was and has always been there for her. Although she never birthed her own child, she thinks about the many to whom she acted as mother or grandmother, practically or emotionally: her many students, some of whom have gone on to great things; her niece Hope whom she practically raised; and her great-niece Gretchen. She also thinks about having stayed at Midwestern in her hometown, in her career which was not always smooth sailing, especially with the changing times. Credits Martha Scott as Ella Bishop William Gargan as Sam Peters Edmund Gwenn as Professor Corcoran Sterling Holloway as Chris Jensen Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Bishop Sidney Blackmer as John Stevens Mary Anderson as Amy Saunders Donald Douglas as Delbert Thompson Marsha Hunt as Hope Thompson John Archer as Richard Clark (as Ralph Bowman) Lois Ranson as Gretchen Clark Rosemary De Camp as Minna Fields Knox Manning as Anton Radcheck John Arledge as 'Snapper' MacRae Jack Mulhall as Professor Carter Howard C. Hickman as Professor Lancaster (as Howard Hickman) Helen MacKellar as Miss Patton William Farnum as Judge Peters Anna Mills as Mrs. Peters John Hamilton as President Watts Pierre Watkin as President Crowder Charles Judels as Cecco Sue Moore as Stena Rand Brooks as 'Buzz' Wheelwright Mary Field as Mary, the Dressmaker
Directed by Tay Garnett Screenplay by Sheridan Gibney, Adelaide Heilbron Step
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