The Member of the Wedding | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Fred Zinnemann |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers |
Produced by | Stanley Kramer |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Hal Mohr |
Edited by | William A. Lyon |
Music by | Alex North |
Production company | Stanley Kramer Productions |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes (TCM print) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Member of the Wedding is a 1952 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, and Brandon De Wilde. The story, based on Carson McCullers' 1946 novel of the same name, is set in a small town in the Southern United States. Frankie Addams is an awkward, moody 12-year-old tomboy whose only friends are her young cousin John Henry and her black housekeeper Berenice. Co-starring as a drunken soldier who tries to take advantage of the vulnerable Frankie is former child actor Dick Moore, making his last film appearance.
Julie Harris was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. [1] Later versions of McCuller's play were done for television, with Claudia McNeil playing Berenice in 1958, then Pearl Bailey performing the part in 1982.
Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie (Julie Harris) runs away from her middle-class Southern home. She endures several other adolescent traumas, not least of which is the sudden death of her bespectacled young cousin John Henry (Brandon De Wilde). With the help of warm-hearted housekeeper Berenice Sadie Brown (Ethel Waters), Frankie eventually makes an awkward transition to young womanhood. [2]
The Sundowners is a 1960 Technicolor comedy drama film that tells the story of a 1920s Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place. The Sundowners was produced and directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Cleary's 1952 novel of the same name, and starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Peter Ustinov, with a supporting cast including Glynis Johns, Mervyn Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson Jr. and Chips Rafferty.
Alfred Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He made 25 feature films during his 50-year career.
Ethel Waters was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Julia Ann Harris was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary stage work, she received five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play.
The Member of the Wedding is a 1946 novel by Southern writer Carson McCullers. It took McCullers five years to complete, although she interrupted the work for a few months to write the novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.
Andre Brandon deWilde was an American theater, film, and television actor. Born into a theatrical family in Brooklyn, he debuted on Broadway at the age of seven and became a national phenomenon by the time he completed his 492 performances for The Member of the Wedding. He won a Donaldson Award for his performance, becoming the youngest actor to win one, and starred in the subsequent film adaptation for which he won a Golden Globe Award.
Juanita Moore was an American film, television, and stage actress.
Beulah is an American situation-comedy series that ran on CBS Radio from 1945 to 1954, and on ABC Television from 1950 to 1953. The show is notable for being the first sitcom to star an African American actress, for being ABC TV's first hit situation comedy, and the first hit TV sitcom without a laugh track. The show was controversial for its caricatures of African Americans.
Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald, also known as Blossom Rock, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage, film and television. During her career she was also billed as Marie Blake or Blossom MacDonald. Her younger sister was screen actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald. Rock is probably best known for her role as "Grandmama" on the 1960s macabre/black comedy sitcom The Addams Family.
Edward Anhalt was an American screenwriter, producer, and documentary filmmaker. After working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for Pathé and CBS-TV, he teamed with his wife Edna Anhalt, one of his five wives, during World War II to write pulp fiction.
License to Wed is a 2007 American romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis. Starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski, Christine Taylor, Eric Christian Olsen, and Josh Flitter, the film tells the story of a reverend who puts an engaged couple through a grueling marriage preparation course to see if they are meant to be married in his church. The film was released in theaters in the United States on July 3, 2007 by Warner Bros. Pictures, and was a box office hit, grossing $70.2 million against a $35 million budget, but received negative reviews from critics.
Good-bye, My Lady is a 1956 American drama film adaptation of the novel Good-bye, My Lady (1954) by James H. Street. The book had been inspired by Street's original 1941 story which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. Street was going to be the principal advisor on the film when he suddenly died of a heart attack. A boy learns what it means to be a man by befriending and training a stray Basenji dog and then is forced to surrender her to its rightful owner. Both readers of the story and film-goers found the boy's eventual loss of the dog unexpected.
An Impudent Girl is a 1985 French film directed by Claude Miller. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, who won the César Award for Most Promising Actress, and Bernadette Lafont, who won the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. It is a free adaptation of the novel Frankie Addams.
Screen Directors Playhouse is an American radio and television anthology series which brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949. The radio program broadcast adaptations of films, with original directors of the films sometimes involved in the productions, although their participation was usually limited to introducing the radio adaptations and taking a brief "curtain call" with the cast and host at the end of the program. During the 1955–56 season, the series was seen on television, focusing on original teleplays and several adaptations of famous short stories.
Hit and Run is a 1957 American drama film noir directed by Hugo Haas starring Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, and Vince Edwards.
All Fall Down, The Brandon deWilde Story is a 2012 biography written by Patrisha McLean and published by Faces, Incorporated. The book was released on June 19, 2012. It is McLean's first written, but second published, work. It is the only published biography of Brandon deWilde since his death in 1972.
Flora Spencer-Longhurst is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the CBBC series Leonardo (2011), and the FX series The Bastard Executioner (2015).
Black Spurs is a 1965 American Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and written by Steve Fisher. The film stars Rory Calhoun, Linda Darnell, Terry Moore, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Jr., Richard Arlen and Bruce Cabot. The film was released on June 25, 1965, by Paramount Pictures.
Wild in the Sky is a 1972 American action comedy film directed by William T. Naud and starring Georg Stanford Brown, Brandon De Wilde, Keenan Wynn, Tim O'Connor, and Dick Gautier. The film was released as Black Jack in New York in December 1973. The film was released by American International Pictures in March 1972.
Shattered Idols is a 1922 American drama film directed by Edward Sloman and written by William V. Mong. It is based on the 1912 novel The Daughter of Brahma by I. A. R. Wylie. The film stars Marguerite De La Motte, William V. Mong, James W. Morrison, Frankie Lee, Ethel Grey Terry, and Alfred Allen. The film was released on February 6, 1922, by Associated First National Pictures.