Across the United States, the new school year is starting up. Throughout the country, teachers are returning to their classrooms, preparing for another year acting as policemen, correctional officers, and, when possible, instructors. Despite the sad state of the public school curriculum, many American teachers are sincerely passionate about helping the next generation learn and grow.
Today’s moment of movie wisdom is from “A Letter to Three Wives” from 1949. The scene in question takes place 40 minutes into this 107-minute film. George Phipps (Kirk Douglas) is a teacher in a Midwestern city, whose wife, Rita (Ann Sothern), writes radio programs. They have twin children. As a teacher, George naturally doesn’t make much money, so Rita wants to get him a job as a radio editor. After a disastrous dinner party with Rita’s employers, Mr. and Mrs. Manleigh (Hobart Cavanaugh and Florence Bates), George explains to his wife that he can’t imagine doing anything besides teaching, even if it would earn more money.
This film has one central story and three subplots. It’s a story about three wives from an unnamed American city whose husbands share a mutual admiration of a local divorcee, Addie Ross. The three wives’ lives are upended one afternoon when they receive a letter from Addie, saying that she has run off with one of their husbands. We never see Addie, but she narrates throughout the film with the uncredited voice of Celeste Holm. The first wife is Deborah (Jeanne Crain), a simple farm girl who met and married Brad Bishop (Jeffrey Lynn) in the Navy. She has earned the respect and friendship of Brad’s friends, but she can’t help wondering if Brad unfavorably compares her to his childhood sweetheart, Addie.
George and Rita were best friends in school, so they always knew they would end up together. They also were childhood friends with Brad, so they happily accepted Deborah into their circle after she married Brad and came to town. They are the least affluent of the three main couples and the only couple with children. Rita wonders whether George finds Addie more his intellectual equal. The third wife is Lora Mae (Linda Darnell), a beautiful young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who married rich storeowner Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas). She cleverly contrived to get Porter to marry her, but their marriage is filled with strife. Porter thinks Lora Mae just married him for his money, and Lora Mae thinks Porter wishes he could have married Addie instead of her. Which husband will be missing that night?
The Scene
Rita goes to great lengths to make her dinner party with the Manleighs just right. George doesn’t understand why she is hosting this event, but he suspects that she’s up to something. He tries to be patient throughout the evening, despite the guests’ insistence that the whole dinner be spent listening to their radio programs. As they are leaving, Mrs. Manleigh makes the mistake of pressuring George for an opinion on the programs. No longer able to contain himself, he tells her exactly what he thinks of those programs, the advertisements, and commercial radio in general. Naturally, this is the end of his being considered for any job.
After the Manleighs have left, Rita confesses that she planned the whole evening so George could meet Mrs. Manleigh and hopefully get a lucrative radio job. He is naturally horrified by the prospect of working for that obnoxious woman or anyone, for that matter, in commercial radio. However, he tries to make Rita understand why he would never be interested in such a job. He points out that he’s “a slightly comic figure: an educated man.” She argues that he could make a positive difference in radio, “maybe raise the standards.” He sarcastically responds, “Of commercial radio? What’s the phrase, ‘Wait for your laugh?’”
George reminds Rita, “I’m a schoolteacher. That’s even worse than being an intellectual. Schoolteachers are not only comic they’re often cold and hungry in this richest land on earth.” She argues that, for that very reason, thousands of teachers quit each year for better-paying jobs. George responds that, besides the fact that he can’t imagine himself doing anything else, that’s just why he won’t quit. “What would happen, do you think, if we all quit? Who‘d teach the kids? Who’d open their minds and hearts to the real glories of the human spirit, past and present? Who'd help them along to the future? Radio sponsors? Comic strips?”
Its Significance
This scene is an important turning point in the Phipps’ relationship. As a homemaker, Rita is understandably concerned about keeping the family finances solvent. She is so desperate for the money she earns from her radio writing that she is practically a slave to Mrs. Manleigh. However, as a result, she doesn’t have much time or attention left to devote to her husband and children. George appreciates his wife’s help, but he hates to see what the stress from her job is doing to her.Good Teachers Needed
This scene is a poignant reminder of the importance of good teachers. If thousands were quitting in the 1940s, imagine how many have quit since then, especially since the pandemic! Unfortunately, we are now at a point where many school systems and teachers are more interested in pushing an agenda than truthfully educating children. This sad state of affairs is largely true because, unlike George, many of the noble teachers have quit the profession or never joined in the first place.We need more teachers, whether they are formal educators, private instructors, coaches, bandleaders, or parents, to concern themselves with imparting wisdom and knowledge to the youth of our country. Commercial radio and comic strips, plus the more recent additions of television, bad movies, and social media, are a very poor substitute.
