Cheers for Miss Bishop

7/20/2025

In some ways, this reminded me of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1939) in that it quite touchingly illustrates the dedication of a schoolteacher to a profession that frequently saw their own lives being sacrificed. It also features a character who isn’t always appreciated by her students or even by some of her professional colleagues as time marches on. “Ella Bishop” (Martha Scott) has always been keen on education and takes great pride in being a woman of letters. She shines at school and is picked by its principal (Edmund Gwenn) to teach the younger kids English - a task that turns out to be quite a bit harder than you might have thought. At this stage in her life, romance is still a distinct possibility but rather cruelly her cousin “Amy” and another man’s wife got in the way - and so the remain