Our Miss Brooks

Director: Al Lewis Al Lewis

Overview

Our Miss Brooks had been a radio and TV sitcom hit thanks to the considerable input of star Eve Arden. The film version of Our Miss Brooks was not quite as successful (why pay for something that you can get at home every week for free?), but it admirably captures the spirit of the original audio and video versions. As ever, high school teacher Connie Brooks (Arden) carries a torch for handsome but clueless biology professor Phillip Boynton (Robert Rockwell, taking over a role created for radio by Jeff Chandler). Connie is finally able to arouse Boynton's attention when she is courted by the father (Don Porter) of a student (Nick Adams) she is tutoring. A subplot involving petty crime can easily be ignored, but there's no avoiding the hilarious fingernails-on-the-blackboard rendition of "It's Magic" sung by the adenoidal Walter Denton (Richard Crenna). And of course, there's principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), blowing his top at the slightest provocation. Our Miss Brooks was directed by Al Lewis, who was the chief writer for the radio and TV editions of the property.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/06/2009
UPC:	0883316212769
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:25:00
Sales rank:	7,185

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Eve Arden	Miss Constance Brooks
Gale Gordon	Osgood Conklin
Don Porter	Lawrence Nolan
Robert Rockwell	Phillip Boynton
Jane Morgan	Margaret Davis
Richard Crenna	Walter Denton
Nick Adams	Gary Nolan
Leonard Smith	`Stretch' Snodgrass
Gloria MacMillan	Harriet Conklin
Joseph Kearns	Mr. Stone
William 'Billy' Newell	Dr. Henley
Philip Van Zandt	Mr. Webster
Marjorie Bennett	Mrs. Boynton
June Blair	Miss Lonelyhearts
Joe Forte	Butler
Leo Curley	Realty Man
David Alpert	Realty Man
Herb Vigran	Reporter
Frank Mitchell	Reporter

Technical Credits

Al Lewis

Al Lewis	Director,Screenwriter
David Weisbart	Producer

Editorial Reviews

The film version of Our Miss Brooks is likely to be best appreciated by those who have been exposed to the TV series (or possibly the radio series) from which it is drawn, although devotees may be thrown a bit by the movie's rewriting history a little bit by having Miss Brooks a brand new teacher at good old Madison High. Those who aren't already familiar with the property from an earlier incarnation may find it a bit tame, for the goings-on are overly familiar from decades of television sitcoms. However, Brooks the film has the same marvelous weapon that Brooks the TV and radio series had, namely the incomparable tongue of Eve Arden. Oh, there's more to the actress than her tongue, of course. There's her eyebrows for a start, which can make sum up an assessment of another character with one quick arch. There's the mouth, which can convey sunshiny warmth one second and steely determination the next. And there's the hands, that can turn a flutter of warning into a gesture of fatalism in no time flat. But it's the tongue, and the way it makes a seemingly innocent sentence riotously funny that counts for the most. No one could handle a laugh line like Arden, especially a sardonic one, and few people could take a "you call that a laugh line?" line and wring chuckles from it like Arden either. Her material here is standard issue, pleasant but little else, but she makes it work, ably supported by the very likeable Richard Crenna, the ready-to-burn Gale Gordon and the handsome but clueless Robert Rockwell.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler