Dear Ruth (film)

Dear Ruth
Movie poster
Directed by	William D. Russell
Written by	Arthur Sheekman
Based on	Dear Ruth 1944 play by Norman Krasna
Produced by	Paul Jones
Starring	Joan Caulfield William Holden Mona Freeman Edward Arnold Billy De Wolfe
Cinematography	Ernest Laszlo
Edited by	Archie Marshek
Music by	Robert Emmett Dolan
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	June 10, 1947 (1947-06-10)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$3.8 million (US rentals)[1]

Dear Ruth is a 1947 American romantic comedy film starring Joan Caulfield, William Holden, Mona Freeman, Billy De Wolfe and Edward Arnold. It was based on the 1944 Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna.

The film's plot concerns a teenage girl who uses her older sister's identity to communicate with a soldier pen pal.

Two sequels to Dear Ruth were later produced: Dear Wife (1949), with all of the principal actors reprising their roles, and Dear Brat (1951), featuring Freeman, Arnold and De Wolfe.

Despite the popular belief that J. D. Salinger based the name of his character Holden Caulfield, who appears in The Catcher in the Rye and other works, on a marquee for the film showing the last names of the film's two leads, the first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy", was published in December 1945, a year and a half before the film's release.