More Great Movie Mothers
Posted on May 10, 2009 at 12:37 pm
My friend Tim Gordon salutes five of of the all-time great movie mothers on his blog, FilmGordon. I was especially glad to see that he mentioned “Claudine,” a neglected gem that is very dear to my heart. I love that bath scene! The glorious Diana Sands was supposed to have the title role but she died tragically and was replaced by Diahann Carroll, who was thought to be too glamorous for the role of a woman from the projects. But her performance was superb, winning her an Oscar nomination.
And Cinematical’s list of the “most awesomest” movie moms reminds us that some mother mothers are pretty good in a fight, some with weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Linda Hamilton in “Terminator 2” and Holy Hunter as Elastigirl in “The Incredibles” are two more of my favorites and I was glad to see them on this list.
) appears with Katharine Hepburn in the 1933 version, Mary Astor (also one of cinema’s best movie mothers in 
) appears with June Allyson in the 1949 version, and Susan Sarandon is Marmee to Winona Ryder’s Jo in the 1994 version. (Don’t forget to read the book, too!)
Cecily Tyson plays a mother who keeps her sharecropper family going after her husband is sent to jail in this beautifully filmed and tender story.
Another tribute to a real-life mother and an Oscar-winning role for Sally Field as a Depression-era widow whose indomitable and inspiring spirit instills resolve in her family and friends.
Some of the best mothers come to us after the women who gave us birth are gone. Glenn Close is perfectly cast in this made-for-television adaptation of the beloved book about a woman who answers an ad from an 18th century homesteader who needs a new wife to care for his children. Followed by two sequels.
One of America’s most remarkable real-life mothers is brought to life by Myrna Loy as Lillian Gilbreath, a pioneering engineer in the early 20th century who raised a dozen children. Be sure to see the sequel and read the books, too. (Not to be confused with the silly remakes that have nothing to do with the real story or the original movie versions.)
There is no more devoted mother than Mrs. Jumbo, whose love for her big-eared elephant baby demonstrates that parental love is not just for humans.
is the story of four different families at Thanksgiving in this film from “Bend it Like Beckham’s” Gurinder Chadha. There are several great mothers in the movie but the one on this list is the fabulous Mercedes Ruehl as Lizzy Avila who knows that part of caring for your family is respecting and caring for yourself.
The mother I want to point out in this film is not the impossible (but irresistible) Aurora, played by Shirley Maclaine, but her daughter Emma, played by Debra Winger. Emma makes mistakes. She has a tendency to be headstrong (inherited from Aurora) and careless. But she is utterly devoted to her children. She says goodbye to her sons, with hastily applied make-up so that they will not see how sick she really is, and she gets right to the essentials, understanding what they most need to hear and what they will most need to remember.
Real-life lawyer — and real-life American hero — Joseph Welch plays the judge in this spell-binding story of a murder trial, based on a real-life case in a novel written by Robert Traver (pen name of John Donaldson Voelker, a Michigan Supreme Court justice). You can see Welch’s stand against Joseph McCarthy in 
A superb documentary about our government’s smallest and least transparent branch.
Ronald Coleman plays a law professor whose appointment to the Supreme Court is jeopardized when his landlady hides an anarchist (Cary Grant) from the authorities in the farmhouse where he is staying. The two men engage in a spirited debate about the law and a competition for the heart of the lovely landlady.
Sidney Poitier plays Thurgood Marshall in the story of Brown v. the Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that may have had the most significant impact on the lives of all Americans. It is as gripping as any thriller, especially for those who find it hard to imagine a time when segregation in schools was legal. The way this case was assembled and presented is at time shocking, all the more reason that it is a must-see. Marshall, who argued the case, later became the first black Supreme Court justice. 
is his story.
Frank Morgan, who played the title character in 
, 
, and 
. An alert commenter added the indispensible 
, one of those movies that comes along every decade or so that manages to include just about every actor who is about to be huge. It is fun to see the early work of some of today’s stars. “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” stars this week’s cover girl on People’s Most Beautiful issue, Christina Applegate — and features a very young pre-“X-Files” David Duchovney. And “The Craft” was directed by Andrew Fleming of “Hamlet 2” and stars Robin Tunney of “The Mentalist.” And it is great to see these definitional films, dismissed as lightweight on release, discussed in terms of their influence as well as their awesomeness. “I’m right on top of that, Rose!”