Cheers for Miss Bishop

Cheers for Miss Bishop

scene from film
Directed by Tay Garnett
Produced by Richard A. Rowland
Written by Bess Streeter Aldrich (novel)
Screenplay by Stephen Vincent Benet
Sheridan Gibney
Adelaide Heilbron
Based on Miss Bishop (novel)
Starring Martha Scott
William Gargan
Edmund Gwenn
Marsha Hunt
Rosemary DeCamp
Music by Edward Ward
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Edited by William F. Claxton
Production
company
Richard A. Rowland Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Release dates
  • February 21, 1941 (1941-02-21) (United States)
Running time
 82 minutes
95 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Cheers for Miss Bishop is a 1941 drama film based on the novel Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It was directed by Tay Garnett and stars Martha Scott in the title role. The other cast members include William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Dorothy Peterson, Marsha Hunt, Don Douglas, and Sidney Blackmer. This film marked the debut of Rosemary DeCamp.

Plot

Miss Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) is a teacher at Midwestern University. The story is told in flashback and takes place over many years, from the 1880s to the 1930s, showing her from her freshman year to her retirement as an old woman. At the beginning, she lives with her mother and her vixenish cousin Amy (Mary Anderson); she remembers when her father had a farm near the town. Ella is an inhibited girl whose frustration grows as she approaches womanhood. She dreams of becoming a teacher. When she graduates from Midwestern University, she is thrilled when its president, Professor Corcoran (Edmund Gwenn), offers her a position on the faculty.

Ella becomes engaged to lawyer Delbert Thompson (Don Douglas), but Delbert is led astray by Amy and eventually has to marry her, despite loving Ella. The couple move away. After Amy becomes pregnant, Delbert abandons her. Amy dies in childbirth, leaving Ella to care for Amy's daughter Hope (Marsha Hunt). Hope grows up and marries Richard (John Archer), and they move away and have a daughter named Gretchen (Lois Ranson). Ella also has a fling with another teacher, the unhappily married John Stevens (Sidney Blackmer), but John's wife cannot give him a divorce for religious reasons, forcing Ella to break off the relationship. Later, she is distressed to learn that John has been killed.

Through all the years, Ella is supported by her friend Sam Peters (William Gargan), a local grocer who loves her. Another source of support is Professor Corcoran, who persuades her to stay when she considers leaving. His death is a blow to Ella.

As Ella reaches old age, she reflects back and realizes she allowed the years to go by without achieving what she believes to be true fulfillment. When the new president pressures her to finally retire, she agrees. However, the years have not been without glory; and her moment of triumph arrives when her numerous, now-famous students from over the years return to a testimonial dinner at the school to honor their beloved Miss Bishop.

Cast

Adaptations

Cheers for Miss Bishop was adapted as a radio play on the March 17, 1941 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Martha Scott and William Gargan reprising their film roles and on the November 6, 1946 broadcast of Academy Award Theater starring Olivia de Havilland.[1]

Awards

Cheers for Miss Bishop earned Edward Ward an Academy Award nomination for Best Scoring of a Dramatic Film. He was also nominated for scoring two other 1941 films, Tanks a Million and All-American Co-Ed. Ward earned seven Oscar nominations between 1939 and 1944, including one for the score of Phantom of the Opera (1943).[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Academy Star". Harrisburg Telegraph. November 2, 1946. p. 19. Retrieved September 29, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70745/Cheers-for-Miss-Bishop/articles.html

External links

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