Our Miss Brooks

source: Our Miss Brooks

Trailer—Our Miss Brooks

Our Miss Brooks

Eve Arden had a unique combination of class and comedy, and this witty and fun movie is a perfect showcase of her talent. The supporting cast are excellent as well.

What caught my ear with the radio shows was the laugh out loud humour and the incredible cheekiness/cleverness of Miss Brooks. The situations were off the wall and kept your attention. I was thoroughly dismayed by the movie! I haven't seen the TV show, so I don't know how bad or good it was, but I can tell you the movie was a waste of my time! The story is terribly boring, the "serious" parts are unnecessary, the real laughs are few and far between. And there isn't enough Walter Denton! Since Al Lewis is credited for the writing and directing of both the radio shows and the movie, I can only suspect that he didn't bring his gag writers along for the screenplay or the movie was heavily reworked by the studio. This had the potential of being really great...

I, too, was a fan of the radio and TV series (via recordings--I'm was born after the movie was made). The problem with this movie, the TV series, and the later episodes of the radio series was that the cast was getting too old. The story is not so disappointing. And if they used another group of actors to be the same characters, that would be disappointing. Many years later, when the cast of the Saturday morning TV series, Saved By the Bell, became too old looking to be high school students, they graduated them and put in different students. Maybe it's like the proverbial soap opera storyline: An egg takes two days to fry. A pregnancy lasts two weeks. A baby remains a baby for five years. And Helen Trent still hasn't found a husband.

I saw "Our Miss Brooks" with the incomparable Eve Arden. This comedy tickles your innermost being. I am a fanatical devotee of the TV series, and this movie disappoints me not. He who hasn't watched it or TV series has missed the finest morsels human wit has to offer. I never laughed, but my whole body chuckled. (From my diary).

This film was made immediately upon the completion of the popular four-year run of the TV series, which itself followed a successful radio show, YET for some reason, the filmmakers chose to treat the storyline as if they hadn't existed. It would have made sense had the film been made twenty years later, as in "The Brady Bunch," "Mission Impossible," "Charlie's Angels'" etc. Starting from scratch seems to be backpeddling, but I guess it didn't bother folks in 1956.

I've had a crush on Eve Arden since forever. There was something incredibly cool about her sharp diction and haughty, well-heeled demeanor that sent this cat into wayoutsville, man. Never a big star, Arden popped up in supporting roles in lots of comedies and even some dramas (she's great in Mildred Pierce) but is best remembered for her 130-episode stint on the popular CBS television series Our Miss Brooks in the early 1950s. The series ended in 1956 but immediately made the transition to the big screen in this independently produced feature, which (in contemporary Tinseltown-speak) tried to "reboot the franchise" by depicting Miss Brooks during her first days at Madison High. If you can overlook that slightly bizarre development, there's plenty here to enjoy in addition to The Lady Eve, including series regular Gale Gordon as Principal Conklin, Jane Morgan as landlady Mrs. Davis, and Richard Crenna and Nick Adams as students.

Excellent way to wind up the show which had been such a successful television series. This movie also gave Bob Rockwell to show added dimension to his character of Mr. Boynton. Unfortunately, Richard Crenna's Walter Denton was given little to do here. Don Porter was added to the movie to play a wealthy father of a rebellious teenager who has been neglected by the former. Naturally, you know that despite the contentious note that he wrote to Miss Brooks, she shall eventually become a love interest and have Boynton actually have to fight for his girl. The confusion where Miss Brookls thinks that she will become a June bride is cleverly hatched. The ending is so poignant as you know where the relationship is going and you'd probably wish the film would never end.