My Dear Miss Aldrich

My Dear Miss Aldrich is a 1937 low-budget comedy film starring Maureen O'Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, and Edna May Oliver about a young woman who inherits a New York City newspaper and decides to become a reporter rather than a publisher.

My Dear Miss Aldrich
Directed byGeorge B. Seitz
E. J. Babille (assistant)
Written byHerman J. Mankiewicz
StarringMaureen O'Sullivan
Walter Pidgeon
Edna May Oliver
Music byDavid Snell
CinematographyCharles Lawton, Jr.
Edited byWilliam S. Gray
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 17, 1937 (1937-09-17) (US)[1]
Running time
74 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$216,000[2]
Box office$358,000[2]

Plot

Martha Aldrich (O'Sullivan) is a young woman from Nebraska who inherits a New York City newspaper from a distant relative. She's accompanied to New York by her aunt, Mrs. Lou Atherton (Oliver). Editor Ken Morley (Pidgeon), whose Globe-Leader newspaper is in hot competition with the Chronicle, refuses to hire a woman as a journalist. But as owner, Aldrich demands to be hired and is. She quickly scoops the male staff on a royal birth. But when she keeps a society friend's wedding a secret, Morley fires her. Determined to win her job back, Aldrich spies on industrialist Talbot (Walter Kingsford) and trade union leader Sinclair (Paul Harvey) as they secretly negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Believing Aldrich has been kidnapped, Morley and Mrs. Atherton track her down as Mrs. Sinclair (Janet Beecher) tries to foil Aldrich's schemes in order to protect her husband. Aldrich gets her scoop, wins back her job, and marries Morley—who has fallen in love with her.

Cast

Production

The film was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was one of a number of scripts written by Mankiewicz early in his career which film historian Charles Higham called "hackwork" and "manufactured...written without enthusiasm".[3] The director was George B. Seitz, a director best known for the gentle and bland "Andy Hardy" series of family comedies which starred Mickey Rooney.[4]

Reception

According to MGM records, the movie earned $238,000 in the US and Canada and $120,000 elsewhere, making a $1,000 profit.[2]

The film later aired as a radio play on The MGM Theater of the Air on July 21, 1950, with Donna Reed in the title role.[5]

References
  1. "My Dear Miss Aldrich: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  2. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. Higham, Charles (1985). "Orson Welles, the Rise and Fall of an American Genius". New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 146. ISBN 9780312589295.
  4. Nissen, Axel; Phillips, Siân (2012). "Mothers, Mammies, and Old Maids: Twenty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood". Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 22. ISBN 9780786490455.
  5. Royce, Brenda Scott (1990). "Donna Reed: A Bio-Bibliography". New York: Greenwood Press. p. 98. ISBN 9780313268069.
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