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Mothers Day is as good a time as any to take a look at how classic Hollywood treated the subject of motherhood. Turns out it's a mixed bag. For every I Remember Mama, there's a Mommie Dearest; for every Stella Dallas, there's a Mrs. Bates.
Here's a quick glance at some of the best classic movie moms I know about, both positive and negative, in order of release date. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome (in fact, some of these films were suggested by Classic Movies Forum members), but before you write to ask me how come Serial Mom isn't on this list, keep in mind that this site doesn't really pay much attention to films produced in the past 20 years or so. Among other things, "classic" means "old." Kind of like dear old Mom herself.
Most films are linked to their pages on the Internet Movie Database. Newly updated "Buy this movie!" links will help you purchase the film from one of several sources, if available, on DVD or sometimes used VHS if that's the only alternative.
Applause (1929) - Innovative early talkie stars Helen Morgan as a former burlesque queen trying to save her innnocent, convent-raised daughter from following in her footsteps. Not a great story, but interesting from a technical standpoint.
Buy this movie!
Tugboat Annie (1933) - Marie Dressler is the mom valiantly trying to keep her family together inspite of her drunken husband (Wallace Beery), her dopey son (Robert Young), and his snooty girlfiend (Maureen O'Sullivan). Great cast, but not much of a story. Resulted in a sequel and a TV show.
Imitation of Life (1934) - Louise Beavers is the mother whose daughter forsakes her race, with Claudette Colbert as her friend and business partner, in this first movie version of the Fannie Hurst novel. Some prefer this one; others the 1959 version with Juanita Moore and Lana Turner. Both are tear-jerkers.
Buy this movie! (1934 and 1959)
You Can't Take it With You (1938) - Spring Byington is the unflappable matriarch of the madhouse in this wonderful Capra film. She was so good at it that she went on to make a career out of playing wives and mothers, and is probably best remembered for her matronly role in the TV show "December Bride."
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The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Jane Darwell (who also played the mother of Frank and Jesse James) plays Ma Joad in a way that set the standard for every salt-of-the-earth mom thereafter.
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Penny Serenade (1941) - Irene Dunne and Cary Grant suffer through the death of two children, one natural and the other adopted. Every mother's nightmare.
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Mildred Pierce (1945) - Mildred should have eaten her daughter Veda at birth, as Eve Arden's character suggests, but instead she sacrifices herself, of course. With a book by James M. Cain, direction by Michael Curtiz, and an Oscar-winning performance by Joan Crawford, this noir/melodrama is a keeper.
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I Remember Mama (1948) - Irene Dunne was nominated for an Oscar, and the film inspired a TV series. Everybody's favorite memoir.
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White Heat (1949) - Cody Jarrett loves his ma, played with enthusiasm by Margaret Wycherly, who was also Sgt. York's much nicer (but also tough) mom. One of Jimmy Cagney's greatest performances. Top of the world, Ma! Buy this movie!
Cinderella (1950) - Disney created the prototypical wicked cartoon stepmother, a portrait which has been giving loving stepmothers a bad name for 50 years.
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Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) - Myrna Loy as Mrs. Gilbreth deserved some kind of award for putting up with that bunch. Myrna herself started her career as a vamp, but after 129 films had turned in quite a few other motherly performances.
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Psycho (1960) - SPOILER ALERT: The award for the most frightening mom has to go to Anthony Perkins, playing his own mother as a murderer, until she's revealed at the end in her true, less frightening form, as a fully-dressed skeleton.
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Lolita (1962) - Shelley Winters as Lolita's mom is the only one who really doesn't seem to get it. The prototype for parental self-delusion.
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Gypsy (1962) - Forum regular Diva says Rosalind Russell plays "the best stage mother ever." Of course, "best" is a relative term, and one person's doting mother is another's smothering gargoyle, as gorgeous Natalie Wood found out.
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The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - I've never liked "Murder, She Wrote" because of this performance by Angela Lansbury as the scheming neo-Nazi mother from hell.
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I Could Go On Singing (1963) - This ironically named film was Judy Garland's last. She plays a singer who whose son grew up with his father; once she finally sees him, she realizes that he is better off with his father, and makes the supreme sacrifice for his welfare by leaving. (Suggested by Diva)
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A Patch of Blue (1965) - Once again Shelley Winters shows us how not to be a mother, as an abusive, racist prostitute, who was responsible for her daughter's accidental blindness and now wants to destroy her only happiness. Starring Sidney Poitier.
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Madame X (1966) - Lana Turner stars in one of many versions of this story of a woman defended on a murder charge by her lawyer son whom she was forced by her mother-in-law to abondon as a child. Lots of good role models in this one.
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Bloody Mama (1970) - Shelley Winters one more time, as the ultimate gang mother, Ma Barker, who will do anything for her sons, even if it means robbing banks and killing people. A film by Roger Corman, not to be confused with "Big Bad Mama," another Corman film, but an embarrassing one.
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Mommie Dearest (1981) - This one deserves mention because of its supposed portrayal of Joan Crawford as a mom. Not a pleasant portrait, and one that is in some dispute.
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Throw Momma From the Train (1987) - Okay, it's a little recent to be a classic, but this black comedy based on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train has such funny performances from Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, and Anne Ramsay as the most unpleasant mom short of Cinderella's wicked stepmother that we can't resist.
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Finally, a special mention for Dorothy McGuire, who played some of the most memorable mother roles in film, including in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1946), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Old Yeller (1957), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). The polar opposite of Shelley Winters, you might say.
Dorothy McGuire Films
Love 'em or hate 'em, our moms are our moms, and Mothers Day is the time to say "thanks" for being there. And to spend a couple of hours watching one of these films, of course.
