"MOTHER KNOWS BEST: CLASSIC CINEMA'S BEST (AND WORST!) MOMS" (034)

In “It’s A Wonderful Life,” BEULAH BONDI played the most loving mother to JAMES STEWART. Ma Bailey is the epitome of sweetness, kindness, and supportiveness so it’s quite shocking when we meet the Ma Bailey who would have existed had George Bailey not been born. She’s cold, bitter, and unkind. It gives Bondi the wonderful opportunity to play two versions of the same character, which she does flawlessly. So to celebrate Mother’s Day, Nan and Steve are taking a page from Bondi’s playbook as they discuss the good and bad mothers of classic cinema. 

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources:

Moms in the Movies (2014), by Richard Corliss;

Actresses of a Certain Character (2007), by Axel Nissen;

Irene Dunne: First Lady of Hollywood (2006), by Wes D. Gehring;

Shelley: Also Known as Shirley (1981), by Shelley Winters;

Gene Tierney: Self Portrait (1979), by Gene Tierney and Mickey Herkowitz;

“Mrs. Miniver: The film that Goebbels Feared,” February 9, 2015, by Fiona Macdonald, February 9, 2015, BBC.com; 

"Greer Garson, 92, Actress, Dies; Won Oscar for 'Mrs. Miniver’,” April 7, 1996, by Peter B. Flint, New York Times;

“Stella Dallas,” August 6, 1937, New York Times Film Review;

“Barbara Stanwyck, Actress, Dead at 82,” Jan. 22, 1990, by Peter B. Flint, New York Times;

“1989 Kennedy Center Honors, Claudette Colbert,” Kennedy-Center.org;

“Moving Story of War Against Japan: ‘Three Came Home’,” by Bosley Crowther, Feb. 21, 1950, New York Times Film Review;

“Queen of Diamonds: Angela Lansbury on ‘The Manchurian Candidate’,” 2004;

“Manchurian Candidate: Old Failure, Is Now A Hit,” by Aljean Harmetz, February 24, 1988, New York Times;

“Jo Van Fleet,” by Dan Callahan, May 10, 2017, Film Comment; 

“Pacific’s largely forgotten Oscar winner made impact on screen,” March 3, 2024, 

University of the Pacific;

IMDBPro.com;

Wikipedia.com

Movies Mentioned: 

The Grapes of Wrath (1940), starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, and Charley Grapewin;

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Henry Morgan, Jane Darwell, Anthony Quinn, and William Eythe;

Mrs. Miniver (1942), starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, and Richard Ney;

Leave Her To Heaven (1945), starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Mary Phillips, and Darryl Hickman;

The Manchurian Candidate (1962), starring Lawrence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury;

The Manchurian Candidate (2004), starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Live Schreiber, and Jeffrey Wight;

Gaslight (1944), starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, and Angela Lansbury;

I Remember Mama (1948), starring Irene Dunne, Philip Dorn, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Ellen Corby, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and Barbara O’Neil;

Stella Dallas (1937), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Shirley, John Boles, Barbara O’Neil, and Alan Hale;

Stella (1990), starring Bette Midler, Trini Alvarado, John Goodman, Stephen Collins, Marsha Mason, and Eileen Brennan;

White Heat (1949), starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien, Steve Cochran, Margaret Wycherly, Fred Clark, and Jo