Dear Wife (1949)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Dear Wife (1950) was Paramount's second entry in the three-picture "Dear…" series that began in 1947 with Dear Ruth and finished up in 1951 with Dear Brat. It's a pleasing comedy for those who enjoy this sort of farce/romance with a political tinge – and obviously, judging from the film's popularity, there are far more people in this category than you'd expect. The playing is certainly most enthusiastic, with Bill Holden, Joan Caulfield, Mona Freeman and Edward Arnold in there pitching; but it's Billy de Wolfe who provides most of the movie's really funny moments. There is also an uproarious breakfast broadcast scene – complete with head-splitting commercial. Despite IMDb's demur, director Richard Haydn is a credited member of the cast – but under the delightful pseudonym, "Stanley Stayle"!

One of the very last of William Holden's 'Smiling Jim' roles was in this sequel to his popular Dear Ruth. The following year Holden was cast in Sunset Boulevard and that role forever changed his image and career direction.'Smiling Jim' was a term Holden used himself to describe most of the parts he played from the beginning to Sunset Boulevard. He was always Mr. Nice Guy, everyone's All American hero who got the girl and settled down to the America dream. When Paramount bought the rights to Norman Krasna's play Dear Ruth it seemed that the part was tailor made for Holden.Several players continued with their parts from Dear Ruth including Holden. Now Holden is married to Joan Caulfield, but they're living with her parents Edward Arnold and Mary Phillips and her ever helpful little Miss Fixit sister Mona Freeman. In fact she's the one who fixed up Holden and Caulfield in the first place.But now the tension is there, the young couple wants to get out on their own, but can't afford it. A quarrel over the construction of a local airport in their town pits Arnold and Holden on opposite sides as Holden opposes Arnold for the State Senate. Billy DeWolfe, her snippy suitor is back trying to break them up and he's getting some unexpected help from Arleen Whelan who is Holden's assigned campaign manager. If the course of things doesn't change, Holden will lose his Dear Wife.There would yet be a third film with some of these characters as Holden and Caulfield move on entitled Dear Brat which focuses on Mona Freeman and the trials she gives her parents. After that the series seemed to run its course.Dear Wife is a pleasant, amiable, and easy to take film. But if Holden had kept doing these roles, his career would have sputtered to an end very soon.

I never heard about this movie until I came across it playing on AMC (when it was worth watching. ( hate all the changes they have made!)while channel surfing. No spoilers here, just a typical love story that actually have some funny characters who devleope throughout the story. This is the sequel to "Dear Ruth". Dear Ruth was a story of how a little sister writing love letters to a member of the Armed Forces and pretended to be her older sister. Well you know it would work out so now we have Dear Wife which tells the story of how their relationship progresses with all of the housing shortages after WWII. There is another movie in this trilogy, I think it is called Dear Brat. The center of attention is focused on the younger sister. If you like just plain old funny movies you should enjoy Dear Wife and Dear Ruth.