The strange mother

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Movie
German title The strange mother
Original title Min and Bill
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1930
length 66 minutes
Rod
Director George W. Hill
script Frances Marion and Marion Jackson
production George W. Hill for MGM
camera Harold Wenstrom
occupation

The Stranger Mother (OT: Min and Bill ) is an American drama from 1930 starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery and directed by George W. Hill . The film became the biggest financial success of the year and brought Marie Dressler the Oscar for best actress at the 1931 Academy Awards .

action

Min is the older operator of a shabby hotel at the harbor. She lives more or less openly with the fisherman Bill, and together they raise Nancy Smith, who was abandoned by her birth mother as a baby on Min's doorstep. Min and Bill argue incessantly, but in the end the two get along again and again. The authorities have been trying for some time to get Nancy out of this environment and put her in boarding school. In the end, Min has to realize that a good education is necessary for Nancy's future. Just as the young girl is ready to leave, Bella Pringle, a depraved prostitute and Nancy's biological mother, stands at the door. Min manages to avoid the scandal and chases Bella away. Time goes by and Nancy falls in love with the wealthy heir Dick at boarding school. Both want to get married. Bella learns of these plans and wants to blackmail Min with the threat of otherwise revealing the whole truth to Dick. A fist fight develops and Min is forced to shoot Bella in self-defense. Nancy and Dick marry without knowing what happened. After they're on their honeymoon, the police come and take Min away.

background

Marie Dressler already had a successful career in the theater when she was blacklisted in 1917 because of her partisanship for striking stagehands and was unemployed for years. Her good friend, the screenwriter Frances Marion , supported her during these difficult years and worried Dressler, who was about to take a job as a cleaning lady, finally in the late 1920s roles in film. After a series of successful comedies, Marie Dressler finally had her breakthrough in the dramatic role of Marty at the side of Greta Garbo in Anna Christie .

Frances Marion was then commissioned to write a solo project for Dressler. Contrary to the credits, the screenplay is expressly not based on the novel “Dark Star” by Lorna Moon, which deals with a young woman's search for meaning in the Midwest.

As a partner for Dressler, who is over 60, Marion chose the twenty years younger actor Wallace Beery , who, like Dressler, had only recently experienced a comeback. The film was a tremendous financial and artistic success and ended up grossing more money than any other production of the year. Marie Dressler was voted the country's top-selling star four times in a row from 1930 and was considered the personal favorite actress of studio boss Louis B. Mayer . Dressler and Beery made the film Tugboat Annie together in 1933 . Although they both took part in dinner at eight that same year , they had no mutual dialogues.

The film generated a profit of $ 731,000 for the studio.

Awards

The film won the 1931 Academy Awards in the category

criticism

Mordaunt Hall , critic of the New York Times , was not impressed by "The Stranger Mother":

"It is regrettable that Miss Dressler and Mr. Beery were used for their first film together in this anything but pleasant undertaking."

Web links

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ It is regrettable that Miss Dressler and Mr. Beery should have been cast for the first time together in this far from pleasant film.