It’s getting a bit late on Mother’s Day but it occurred to me I had never made a list of movies for Mother’s Day. Quite a few of the “women’s pictures” from the 1930s and 40s fit the bill as would anything based on a novel by Edna Ferber. I’ll just spew out a list:
I Remember Mama
Stella Dallas
Imitation of Life (the 1934 version not the 1959 one)
The Sin of Madelon Claudet
Fanny
Two Women (a bit grim but there you are)
Auntie Mame
Penny Serenade
Mrs. Miniver
Min and Bill
There’s another interesting list to be made—pictures peculiarly unsuited for Mother’s Day. Here goes.
Psycho
The Bad Seed
Mommie Dearest
Flowers in the Attic
Now here’s a question for you. Which list does Mildred Pierce belong on? I think I might put the 1945 version on the first list and the recent miniseries version on the second.
Auntie Mame is the only movie on the first list I’ve seen, and Psycho the only on the second. Not sure which list Conan the Barbarian should be on, but it’s also good for Father’s Day!
Hmmm, I’ve not seen any movie on the first list, and two on the second list (Psycho and Flowers in the Attic). I believe excerpts from “Mommie Dearest” might appear in Blue Oyster Cult’s “Joan Crawford Has Risen from the Grave.” (If they don’t the song makes less sense than I previously believed)
I was in your old stomping grounds today, Dave. We went to the St. Louis Zoo. I got a little lost crossing the new bridge and ended up driving into North St. Louis before reversing to drive by City Hall and heading west where we ate lunch on Euclid in the Central West End. Later out to Chesterfield and back through Ferguson. We saw a wide variety of housing today.
Depending on where you were in North St. Louis you might have been within blocks of my childhood home (if that gives you any idea). If you got into Ferguson through North St. Louis you almost undoubtedly did. Just a few blocks from Kingshighway near Page Blvd.
And where I attended high school is across Highway 40 from Forest Park.
(If they don’t the song makes less sense than I previously believed)
From the guys that brought us She’s as Beautiful as a Foot and Seven screaming Diz-Busters that is a distinct possibility.
PD, I’d really recommend Auntie Mame. (The original with Rosalind Russell, not the second one with Lucille Ball.) It’s a bit of a time warp but still quite good. Shocking to think that the character of the little boy would be in his 90s now.
Yeah, it’s a great movie and a great performance by Roz Russell. It’s one of the many movies I first saw at the drive-in. Around this house it’s quoted frequently.
Around this house it’s quoted frequently.
It is here too, though in fits and starts. “Are we all lit?” is a personal favorite. On of the movies I can watch over and over again, and I have.
Also, we dream of having her, what was it, Danish Contemporary decor from that later scene. It’d make cleaning the floors a lot easier.
I should also note that Auntie Mame contains many valuable life lessons, the most important of which is that if you’re rich enough you can do any damned fool thing you like!