Julie Harris wants to be “The Member of the Wedding”

The Member of the Wedding (1952) is an American film drama directed by Fred Zinneman and starring Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, and Brandon De Wilde. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Carson McCullers (1946). The cinematography was by two-time Oscar winner Hal Mohr. The music was by Alex North.

The plot surrounds Frankie Addams (Harris), an awkward and unhappy 12-year-old tomboy growing up in the Southern United States. She has no friends—although she’s desperate to have some—except her young cousin John Henry (De Wilde). Frankie’s father works long hours and doesn’t have much time for his daughter. The housekeeper Bernice Sadie Brown (Waters) acts as a surrogate mother for Frankie. 

When Frankie’s older brother announces his wedding, Frankie decides she’s going to run off with him and her new bride.

 

Brandon deWilde, Ethel Waters, and Julie Harris

Fred Zinnemann (1907 -1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films. He was an early advocate for filming on location for authenticity. Zinnemann introduced many stars to film, including Brando, Julie Harris, Montgomery Clift, Shirley Jones, and Meryl Streep. He also directed 19 actors to Oscar nominations, including Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Jason Robards, Gary Cooper, and Maximilian Schell. Some of his films were From Her to Eternity (1953), Oklahoma! (1955), and The Nun’s Story (1959).

Ethel Waters (1896 – 1977) was an American singer and actress. She was a popular blues singer and had hits with “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Stormy Weather,” and “Cabin in the Sky.” Waters was a pioneer in the entertainment industry. Waters was the first black woman to star in her own television show and the first black woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She was also the second black person to be nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in Pinky (1949). Waters originated the role of Bernice Sadie Brown on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding and recreated the role for the film version. Later in her life, Waters toured with Billy Graham and sang His Eye is on the Sparrow along with giving her testimony of faith.

Julie Harris (1925 – 2013) was an American actress famous for her roles on the Broadway stage, making her debut in 1945. Harris won five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play. Some of her famous stage roles were in The Member of the Wedding (1950), I Am a Camera (1951), The Lark (1956) The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). Some of her major films include East of Eden (1955), The Haunting (1963), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962),  Harper (1966), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), and The Hiding Place (1975).

Brandon deWilde (1942 – 1972) was an American actor who at the age of seven became a Broadway star—completing 492 performances—in The Member of the Wedding. But it’s his role as Joey Starrett in the Western classic Shane (1953). For his performance in that film, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. DeWilde was in another Broadway play in 1953, Mrs. McThing For his role in that play he was featured on the cover of Life magazine. He also had a television series, Jamie, which aired in1953 and 1954. At the age of 17, deWilde starred in Blue Denim (1959) costarring Carol Lynley. Other films include All Fall Down (1962) with Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty, Hud (1963) with Paul Newman, Patrician Neal, and Melvyn Douglass, and In Harm’s Way (1965) playing John Wayne’s son. DeWilde was in a stage production of Butterflies Are Free and was killed in a traffic accident on the way to the theater. He was 30 years old.

 

The Member of the Wedding trivia

• Julie Harris was 27 when she played Frankie Adams on the screen.
• Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, and Brandon deWilde all reprised their Broadway roles.
• This film marked the film debuts of both Brandon deWilde and Julie Harris.
• This was Julie Harris’s only Oscar-nominated performance.
• Ethel Waters sings “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” in the film. This would become her theme song later in life.
• This was Fred Zinnemann’s favorite film.

 

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link here.

 

To join the discussion on August 28, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation with a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

 

Discussion questions

1. What was your overall impression of the movie?
2. Did you think Julie Harris was convincing as a 12-year-old girl?
3. What did you make of the relationship between Bernice, Frankie, and John Henry?
4. Ethel Waters’s performance was lauded on stage and in film. Do you think her performance holds up?
5. The film is mostly confined to the Addams family kitchen. Were you okay with that? Did it hurt the film in your opinion?  
6. Did anything about the film surprise you?

 

Classic Films in Context: “Pinky” 1949

In 1947, producer Darryl F. Zanuck tackled the subject of anti-semitism with Gentlemen’s Agreement. The movie, directed by Elia Kazan, won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year. In 1949, Zanuck produced the first Hollywood film to address racial prejudice. The movie was Pinky. When viewed today, it seems dated and filled with stereotypes, but for its time, it was groundbreaking cinema.

Made when Jim Crow laws ruled the South, Pinky tells the tale of a young, light-skinned black women who passes for white. Patricia “Pinky” Johnson (Jeanne Crain) leaves her home in Mississippi to be educated as a nurse up North. On the train ride to college, the ticket-taker assumes she is white and she doesn’t correct him. So begins her deception. While in nursing school, she meets a young doctor (William Lundigan) who falls in love with her. Fearing her secret will be discovered, she returns home to the grandmother who raised her. Up North she was treated with dignity and respect. Down South, she’s treated with cruelty and suspicion. Dicey Johnson (Ethel Waters), Pinky’s illiterate grandmother, worked as a laundress to send Pinky to nursing school. She hoped her granddaughter would return home and help her own people. But Pinky wants no part of this. She’s had a taste of a better life.

Jeanne Crain and Ethel Waters

Reportedly Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge campaigned for the lead. It’s hard to know if Zanuck seriously considered either of these actresses (Linda Darnell also wanted the role). One can only imagine how the audience would have reacted to seeing a black actress holding hands with a white man, let alone kissing him. There is a telling scene towards the end of the film. Pinky is in the midst of a court battle. She’s trying to hold onto property willed to her by Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), an elderly white woman who became fond of Pinky, while in her care. In the packed courtroom, Pinky’s white boyfriend touches her. As he does this, she stops in her tracks, a look of terror on her face. Viewers today might not understand that in the deep South of the 1940s, that slight physical contact was enough to get the two of them lynched.

Zanuck was criticized for casting Crain, a white actress as Pinky, but he was convinced that audiences would identify with Crain. Zanuck hypothesized that they would experience racial prejudice through Crain’s characterization. Apparently, Zanuck was correct. In Bosley Crowther’s September 30, 1949 review of the film in The New York Times, the sometimes-acerbic critic said, “By giving a winning personality to the much-abused girl Jeanne Crain successfully channels resentment against these bitter experiences to you.”

A pivotal scene between Crain and Ethel Barrymore

Besides the film’s focus on the evils of racism, it has a universal appeal. There is an underlying theme that you need to be true to yourself, something that Pinky’s character struggles with throughout the film. She could have had an easier life if she married her doctor boyfriend, moved up North, and never revealed her background (which was his plan for the two of them). When she finally embraces the fact that she is black, she is truly free. She establishes “Miss Em’s Clinic and Nursery School,” on the property the old woman left her, thus fulfilling the dreams of her grandmother.

Pinky was a huge box office success, one of the biggest of the year in fact. All three actresses received Academy Award nominations. Crain was nominated in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category, while Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters competed against each other in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category. All three were shutout. Crain lost to Olivia de Haviland (The Heiress), Ethels Barrymore and Waters lost to Mercedes McCambridge (All The King’s Men).

Pinky, not that well remembered, even by classic movie fans, proved that a movie tackling a subject like racism could be a commercial success. The 1950s would produce a flood of “message” pictures like No Way Out (1950) and The Defiant Ones (1958), but if it weren’t for Pinky, those films might never have been made.