''Our Miss Brooks'' is a 1956 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

based on the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and TV

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

hit on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

of the same name. Directed by Al Lewis, who was the chief writer for the radio and TV editions, and written by both him and Joseph Quillan, the movie disregarded the past four years of television and started with a new storyline.

Plot

Unmarried, sarcastic English literature and

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

teacher Connie Brooks (Eve Arden) arrives in a small

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

town to teach at the local

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

. She meets handsome, athletic

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

teacher Phillip Boynton (Robert Rockwell), and they begin

dating Dating is a stage of romantic relationships in which two individuals engage in an activity together, most often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the categor ...

. Boynton, however, is unwilling to commit to the relationship, and several years of platonic dating pass (to Miss Brooks' consternation). When student Gary Nolan (Nick Adams) does poorly in her class, his father—wealthy local newspaper publisher Lawrence Nolan (Don Porter)—accuses Miss Brooks of being incompetent. Brooks convinces Mr. Nolan that he's working too hard and neglecting his son. Mr. Nolan hires Miss Brooks to tutor his son in English, and agrees to spend more time with Gary. As Gary becomes a better-adjusted youth, Mr. Nolan begins to romance Miss Brooks. Meanwhile, high school principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon) is criticized by

Superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank *Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator *Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...

Stone (Joseph Kearns) for being a

martinet The martinet ( OED ''s.v.'' ''martinet'', ''n.''2, "'' N.E.D.'' (1905) gives the pronunciation as (mā·ɹtinėt) /ˈmɑːtɪnɪt/ .") is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, de ...

. Conklin decides to seek election to Stone's job, and convinces Miss Brooks to manage his campaign. Miss Brooks convinces Nolan to support Conklin in his newspaper. This gives Nolan more time to romance Miss Brooks, causing Boynton to become jealous. Boyton's jealousy convinces Miss Brooks that he does love her after all, and she breaks off her budding romance with Mr. Nolan. Conklin seems on the verge of defeating Stone in the next election, but withdraws from the race after learning how little the job pays. Miss Brooks overhears one half of a telephone conversation in which Boynton buys a home and tells the real estate broker that he will be sharing it with "Mrs. Boynton." Miss Brooks assumes that Boynton will soon ask her to marry him, and that he is buying the property as a home for them. But it turns out that Boynton is buying it for himself and his mother, whose loneliness is causing her to have

psychosomatic illnesses Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebear of the modern field of ...

. But everything turns out all right once Mrs. Boynton realizes how this is going to impact her son's relationship with Miss Brooks. She moves in with Miss Brooks' eccentric landlady, Mrs. Margaret Davis (Jane Morgan), instead. As the film ends, Boynton finally proposes to Miss Brooks and gives her an engagement ring (which is promptly stolen by a chimpanzee at the zoo).

Cast

Eve Arden Eve Arden (born Eunice Mary Quedens, April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an American film, radio, stage and television actress. She performed in leading and supporting roles for nearly six decades. Beginning her film career in 1929 ...

as Connie Brooks *

Gale Gordon Gale Gordon (born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfiste ...

as Osgood Conklin *

Don Porter Donald Cecil Porter (September 24, 1912 – February 11, 1997) was an American stage, film and television actor. On television, he played Peter Sands, the boss of Ann Sothern's character on ''Private Secretary'', and Russell Lawrence, the wi ...

as Lawrence Nolan * Robert Rockwell as Phillip Boynton *

Jane Morgan Jane Morgan (born Florence Catherine Currier; May 3, 1924) is an American former singer of traditional pop. Morgan initially found success in France and the UK before achieving recognition in the US, receiving six Music recording certification, ...

as Margaret Davis *

Richard Crenna Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor. Crenna starred in such motion pictures as ''The Sand Pebbles'', ''Wait Until Dark'', ''Un Flic'', ''Body Heat'', the first three ' ...

as Walter Denton * Nick Adams as Gary Nolan * Leonard Smith as Stretch Snodgrass * Gloria McMillan as Harriet Conklin *

Joseph Kearns Joseph Sherrard Kearns
TV Guide. July 15–21, 1961, Savetheorgan.org; retrieved September 28, 2011.

as Superintendent Stone * William Newell as Dr. Henley *

Philip Van Zandt Philip Van Zandt (October 4, 1904 – February 15, 1958), sometimes billed as Phil Van Zandt, was a Dutch-American actor of stage, film, and television. He made nearly 250 film and television appearances between 1939 and 1958. Life and career ...

as Mr. Webster *

Marjorie Bennett Marjorie Bennett (15 January 1896 – 14 June 1982) was an Australian actress who worked mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States. She began her acting career during the silent film era. Career Bennett was born in York in Western ...

as Mrs. J. Boynton * Joseph Forte as Nolan's butler *

June Blair Margaret June Blair (October 20, 1932 – December 4, 2022) was an American model and actress. She was best known for being ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its January 1957 issue and for being part of the TV series ''The Adventu ...

as Miss Lonelyhearts

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Our Miss Brooks 1956 films 1956 comedy films American comedy films American high school films American black-and-white films Films scored by Roy Webb Films about educators Films based on radio series Films based on television series Warner Bros. films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links