Casting Moms in a Favorable Light

Hollywood rarely pays adequate tribute to mothers. The movie version of “mother” is usually either a wicked witch like Faye Dunaway was in “Mommie Dearest” or a raven hussy like Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate.” But there are those rare exceptions:

“Garbo Talks” (1984), directed by Sidney Lumet. 103 minutes. PG

“Garbo Talks” is an inspiring comedy about an unassertive accountant with a crazy mother. Estelle Rolfe (Anne Bancroft) is the kind of woman who, when construction workers scream vulgarities from the top of a skyscraper, will ride all the way up to confront the offenders. Her son Gilbert (Ron Silver) has been trailing her since he was 6. When she is given a diagnosis of inoperable cancer, he is forced to confront his own fears in order to fulfill her wish to meet her idol, Greta Garbo.

Bancroft is passionate and intense, and Silver is brilliant as the meek son who transforms himself in the face of adversity. The superb cast also includes Carrie Fisher as Gilbert’s wife and Catherine Hicks as an eccentric co-worker.

“Men Don’t Leave” (1990), directed by Paul Brickman. 120 minutes. PG-13

In this comedy-drama, Jessica Lange plays a housewife whose comfortable, happy life is devastated when her husband is killed in a construction accident, leaving her to raise two sons with no money and no insurance. Forced to sell their house, they move to Baltimore, where Lange finds herself confronting challenges she never thought she’d have to face. Her older boy (Chris O’Donnell, recently seen as Al Pacino’s young companion in “Scent of a Woman”) moves in with an X-ray technician several years his senior; the younger son steals VCRs with an 8-year-old streetwise friend.

Directed by Brickman (“Risky Business”) from a script he co-wrote with Barbara Benedek, this is a funny, moving, honest account of pain and healing.

“Bachelor Mother” (1939), directed by Garson Kanin. B&W.; 82 minutes.

In an appearance without Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers shows off her own considerable talents in the title role of this acclaimed screwball comedy about a bouncy shop girl mistaken for the mother of an abandoned child. She eventually discovers her motherly skills with the help of wealthy playboy/confirmed bachelor David Niven. When Niven’s upstanding father sees Niven with the baby and Rogers, he assumes the worst but is delighted by his new grandson and demands that Niven marry Rogers.

True to the screwball genre, a clever and hilarious chain of circumstantial events ensues. And in the end, the baby gets a mother, the mother gets a husband, and the father gets a grandson.

“Mildred Pierce” (1945), directed by Michael Curtiz. B&W.; 109 minutes.

Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her role as Mildred Pierce, a loving mother completely committed to the fulfillment of her two daughters’ wishes. Her husband leaves her to raise the girls on her own. Mildred has never worked outside the home; still, she is driven to find ways to give her daughters new dresses and expensive lessons. As her older daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth), becomes more and more demanding, Mildred becomes more and more ambitious. Starting as a waitress, she becomes the owner and manager of a chain of restaurants and gives Veda the best of everything. But that isn’t enough for Veda, who scorns her mother because her money smells of “grease and kitchens.”

Adapted from the novel by James M. Cain and directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood”) this exquisitely shot film noir about blind devotion and heartless betrayal is a timeless classic and the ultimate mother martyr movie.

“Imitation of Life” (1959), directed by Douglas Sirk. 124 minutes.

Based on the novel by Fannie Hurst, “Imitation of Life” is the emotionally charged story of two widows and their troubled daughters trying to find love and happiness amid their own shame and selfishness.

Lana Turner plays Lora, an actress whose ambitions cause her to neglect her daughter (Sandra Dee); Juanita Moore plays Lora’s black housekeeper, Annie, whose daughter is ashamed of her mother and denounces her heritage by trying to pass for white.

“Imitation of Life,” a big hit when it was released, boasts of an impressive cast and lavish production with vivid color photography and elegant sets and costumes. It’s a classic Hollywood tear-jerker.