Dear Wife is a 1949 comedy film starring Joan Caulfield and William Holden. It is the sequel to Dear Ruth, which was based on the Broadway play of the same name by Norman Krasna.J. D. Salinger, the author of Catcher in the Rye, has stated that he conjured the name of the book's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, when he saw a movie theatre marquee in his community displaying the names of the lead actors.