Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955)

Hospitalized with a serious illness, a spinster schoolteacher (Jennifer Jones) reflects on her life as a teacher and the many students whose lives she touched. Based on the best selling novel by Frances Gray Patton and directed by Henry Koster (MY COUSIN RACHEL). I'm not partial to these "teacher who inspired me and changed my life" movies like GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, TO SIR WITH LOVE, DEAD POETS SOCIETY etc. but I liked this one. Except for the very end when it goes full tilt on it, the film avoids sentimentality for the most part and Jennifer Jones's severe performance accentuates the no nonsense approach of the film's title character. For such an intimate story without much exteriors, Koster  and his cinematographer, the great Leon Shamroy (THE KING AND I) make excellent use of the CinemaScope frame. With Robert Stack, Chuck Connors, Peggy Knudsen, Marshall Thompson, Robert Douglas, Kipp Hamilton and Mary Wickes.