Our Miss Brooks (1956)

Directed and co-written by Al Lewis. Stars Eve Arden. B & W. 85 minutes.

Among supporting actresses Eve Arden was tops -and unique in that category. She was distinctive in every way: looks (nice); facial expressions; body English; behavior (scene-stealing); a voice so unlike any other that you identify it blinafolded, delivery of lines, especially her patented repartees (amused, sarcastic, ironic, sardonic, wise and wisecracking, you name it)

I know her only from the movies, having not heard or seen (or perhaps I cannot remember) her radio, then TV series "Our Miss Brooks." The film that followed, about a new teacher in a school, and her romantic (?) involvement, is a disservice to the lady Eve. It is boring. Or is it dull? Both, I suppose. What a pity. It is also very dated, even by mid-1950s standards.

As for the unknown Al Lewis, it would seem that this is his only directorial credit.

I saw the movie on TV's Turner Classics. This is an admirable channel. The term "classics" is an elastic one. Often it is true, often it really means "excellent or good, "often it stretches the point by scheduling items that are just curiosities or of movie-history interest. But there are times when the films are so indifferent or uninteresting, or plain bad, that even those of us who practice cine-archaeology cannot stand it.

Perhaps one excuse for the flicks-that-sink is to make one aware that so many motion pictures were/are so poor that you just got to appreciate the good ones even more.