I do think the fault for much of the acting excesses lies with the director, Mervyn LeRoy, who seems to have simply had the actors repeat what they did onstage. Heckart is magnificent (I wonder if being pitted against Patty McCormick worked against her at Oscar time, though Dorothy Malone's Mary Lee in "Written on the Wind" is deliriously wicked and wonderful) and, even in the staginess of the film, find the deep core of maternal loss that breaks my heart, even when she gets fixated on all of Rhoda's "Social obligations" (surely a class marker for poor Hortense). I know Luke Yankee has written with deep love about his wonderful mother--I wonder what his reaction to watching her performance is--and whether he saw it as a child. Nancy Kelly's levels are uneven (sometimes playing it with great naturalism, sometimes to the third balcony--though I find her pounding on the table as Leroy burns and screams heart-rending and psychologically powerful)
A nominee for the most outre production of the play must be one I saw long ago in Chicago, in which Christine was played by a man in drag (I'm remembering Harry Althaus, but can that be right?) and Rhoda by a middle-aged professional actress with achondroplastic dwarfism. (Lorell Wyatt?) Guilty pleasures. Any Chicagoans remember it? It was presented at Victory Gardens by Cloud 42. |
