A mother's heart

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Movie
German title A mother's heart
Original title The Blue Veil
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1951
length 111 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Curtis Bernhardt
script Norman Corwin
production Jerry Wald ,
Norman Krasna
music Franz Waxman
camera Franz Planner
cut George Amy
occupation

The Heart of a Mother is an American drama by director Curtis Bernhardt from 1951 based on the French play Le Voile bleu by Francois Campaux and his French film adaptation of The Blue Veil from 1942. The film was shown in Germany and Austria in May 1952 on. The long, episodic drama is about a war widow from the First World War who devotes her life to the children of other people after the death of her own baby. The film generated revenues of $ 3.55 million, making it one of the most successful RKO Pictures films of the year.

action

Shortly after the war widow Louise Mason's only child died in 1918, in the first episode she took on a two-week job as a wet nurse for the son of the manufacturer Begley, whose mother also died in childbed. She stays longer and becomes part of the family. But when she refuses, when Begley asks for her hand, he marries his secretary, who ensures Mason's early release. In the second episode, she is caring for the Palfrey family's baby when the elder son's head of house, Jerry Kean, asks her to marry him and go to Beirut with him . Mason stays with the Palfreys, however. The third episode is about the time when Mason pays attention to the twelve-year-old daughter Stephanie of the aging musical actress Annie Rawlins, but gives up the position when she believes that her too close relationship with Stephanie alienates her from her mother. In the fourth episode, she takes care of little Tony Williams, whose mother follows her husband to England at the beginning of the Second World War and leaves the child behind. Mason raises Tony as his own child, after the war the mother returns and demands Tony back. After Mason's escape with him to Florida, the child is taken away by a court.

In the final episode, Mason is finally too old to fully care for children. She takes a job in the janitorial of a primary school to be at least close to children. By chance she meets the grown son from episode two, who invites her to a dinner, to which all the other children from the episodes also appear. He asks her to be a nanny for his children.

Reviews

The film is uniformly described as a very sentimental snitch, which in this genre remains openly and honestly unimpressed by reality, but it cannot be fully described as successful.

The direction is described as competent but average.

Despite Wyman's nomination for the Leading Actress Oscar, her play is criticized for being too bloodless, clichéd and calculating, but is also praised for her credible aging over 30 years.

The film is partially accused of historically uncritically reproducing the template The Blue Veil , which openly propagates the Hitler-influenced mother cult of the Révolution Nationale of the Vichy regime . On the one hand, the objection is that, firstly, The Blue Veil can also be interpreted in such a way that it shows the weakness of the family in France precisely as a reason for occupation, external control and collaboration, and secondly, The Heart of a Mother is not a real remake of The Blue Veil that the script was based on a poor English translation of the play, without the screenwriter Corwin having even seen The Blue Veil .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Penelope Houston : The Blue Veil , in: John Reid (eds.): These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards , 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-5846-2 , pp. 15-17.
  2. ^ A b Borley Crowther: The Blue Veil , in: New York Times , October 27, 1951 ( [1] ).
  3. ↑ A mother's heart. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 1, 2014 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Daniel Bubbeo: The Women of Warner Brothers: The Lives and Careers of 15 Leading Ladies , 2002, ISBN 978-0-7864-6236-0 , S. 238th
  5. ↑ So Jennifer Forrest: Remaking Le Voil Bleu: An Interview with Norman Forrest, Screenwriter for the Blue Veil , in: Jennifer Forrest, Leonard R. Koos (eds.): Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice , 2002, ISBN 978 -0-7914-5169-4 , pp. 309-336.
  6. ↑ Allan Williams, The Raven and the Nanny: The Remake als Crosscultural Encounter, in: Forrest, Koos (eds.), Dead Ringers , pp. 151–167.
  7. ↑ Corwin, in an interview with Forrest, in: Forrest, Koos (eds.), Dead Ringers , p. 311f.