Corliss - Mom in the movies : the iconic screen mothers you love (and a few you love to hate)

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This book is for Mary Corliss, its inspirer and first reader, who helped choose the films and photographs and poured her loving critical acuity into the entire process; and for Priscilla Painton, Shannon Clute and Sydney Tanigawathe three glorious godparents of Mom in the Movies.

Richard Corliss

Simon & Schuster

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New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

TCM is the trademark of Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.

Foreword copyright 2014 by Debbie Reynolds

Foreword copyright 2014 by Carrie Fisher

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition April 2014

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Marc Cohen

Jacket photographs: Front (left to right), Changeling, Erin Brockovich, The King and I courtesy of Photofest; A Raisin in the Sun courtesy of Everett Collection. Back (left to right), Aliens courtesy of Photofest; Mildred Pierce courtesy of Turner Theatrical Library; Forrest Gump, Lorenzos Oil courtesy of Everett Collection.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Corliss, Richard.

Mom in the movies : the iconic screen mothers you love (and a few you love to hate) / by Richard Corliss ; foreword by Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher; [with editorial assistance from Turner Classic Movies].First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

pages cm

1. Mothers in motion pictures. I. Turner Classic Movies (Firm) II. Title.

PN1995.9.M63C68 2014

791.43'65252dc23 2013044850

ISBN 978-1-4767-3826-0

ISBN 978-1-4767-3828-4 (ebook)

M ovie mothers are a topic near and dear to me for many reasons. Ive been a movie admirer since I was a little girl and I have always loved my mother. I had the immense honor of working with marvelous actresses who played my mother from age seventeen, until I portrayed a mother myself in the movie Mother . And of course, I am a mother of two wonderful children, one of whom is likewise an actress and a mother.

I raised my children on the great old movies that always had delightful actorsgreat character actors, and especially great mothers. These movie mothers made my children happy, as they have so many children. If you had a difficult childhood, movie mothers depicted understanding, aided you through those hard years and gave you hope. How many of us wanted our real mothers to be more like our reel mothers, the ones we grew up with in the movies? I will guess all of us!

Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver and Maureen OHara in How Green Was My Valley , Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath and Margaret Wycherly in Sergeant York to name just a few. We loved them all because of their wisdom and understanding, which always saved the day (and, more importantly, the children).

I was lucky when it came to both kinds of mothers, the real and the reel. My own mother instilled in me the desire to accomplish every project that I started and follow it through to its completion. Both of my parents were in agreement on that point. Also, always to follow The Golden Rule and be kind to everyonethat was her major influence on shaping me as a person, which I, in turn, have imparted to my own children. Her ideas and teachings have followed me throughout my life. I am very grateful to both of my parents for their love and guidance, which have served me well in both my career and life. But its also fun for anyone to imagine being hugged and completely understood by a movie mother, who happens to be a marvelous actress and so loved by millionsand I had plenty of those experiences as well.

When I moved to MGM Studios, I got to work with Bette Davis as my mother in The Catered Affair . She was fabulouspowerful, yet helpful. Scary too, because she was always helping to teach you how to properly act, and she made every point a strong one. How I grew to adore her. She was a wonderful second mother. MGM had all the beautiful actresses under contract, including the supporting actresses who never played the glamorous mothers, but the more supportive, loving, funny mothers.

My next movie mother was a lady by the name of Una Merkel. She was the sweetest and most loving of all. We remained great friends for many years afterward. Later, Lilli Palmer played my mother in the movie The Pleasure of His Company , with Fred Astaire and Tab Hunter. See? Just like that I had three new mothers!

Of course, I enjoyed watching movie mothers as much as I did working with them. My favorite was Spring Byingtonso cute and cuddly, always understanding when others were critical. In Presenting Lily Mars she, or rather, her role, let you believe you could realize your dreams. And remember Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama? Among my other favorites were Myrna Loy, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy McGuire, Sophia Loren, Jane Wyatt, Donna Reed and Norma Shearer.

The movie studios, of course, made a point of distinguishing between reel mothers and real mothers. The Breen Office and the Production Code forced married couples into separate beds on the set (how did they think these women became mothers?), and films could rarely depict motherhood in any way that was nearly so messy as it is in real life. Movie mothers were neat, organized, energetic, and seemed always ready to be a perfect spouse and parent. They made most of us forget the areas in our life we werent so happy with, for a movie moment.

Debbie Reynolds

T he first awareness I had of what a family was came from the television show Father Knows Best . Robert Young played the role of the father, Mr. Andersonthe man who presumably knew best. Jane Wyatt portrayed the iconic 1960s television mother, always in the kitchen wearing her apron and making dinner, beaming proudly over her beloved brood. Somehow my memories of these characters are far more vivid than a lot of my recollections of my own relatives. The TV father would come home each evening dressed in a suit and tie, and pull his daughter onto his lap, giving her a hug and a kiss. He lovingly referred to his daughter as Princess, a title that would become synonymous with me, but more on that another time. Their Princess, their kitten, their baby girl would grow up to be just like her mother but do more charity work and play tennis. She would never be too big to be Mommy and Daddys favorite little girl.