I can remember the beginning very well, from the first time I saw it. It was the "television" scene, establishing the safe, comfortable world of the Macauley family. Father (Donald Cook) trying to come to terms with modern technology ("I paid for it so I guess I can tinker with it"), pesky kid sister Penny (Natalie Wood), older sister Gail (Ann Blyth) trying to be grown up, middle sister Joan (Joan Evans) trying to keep up and Mom (Jane Wyatt in a dress rehearsal for "Father Knows Best") just being a rock. Joan has a huge crush on Gail's boyfriend, Chuck (a very dishy Farley Granger) who, unknowingly, encourages her - Gail is not amused.
When Joan needs her birth certificate for a summer job she stumbles across the family secret - Gail's adoption papers and during their next fight (which comes soon enough) it all comes out. Of course Gail wants to find her real mother, who is living not too far away (across the other side of the railway tracks). She is a very working class housewife, Gert, (Ann Dvorak) who has never told her husband about her youthful indiscretion. The visit is a disaster - Gert's husband is unexpectedly home with a house full of rowdy cronies. There is only time for a few hurried words but Gail's lifelong smugness and complacency are shattered.
Being Ann Dvorak, she brings all her usual emotional intensity to what is a small role but she makes Gert unforgettable. Whether pathetically trying to please ("I made you iced tea, would you like sugar and ice") to the desperate tears as she sees Gail drive away. Wanting so much to have sat down and talked but knowing Gail must look down on her, Dvorak makes you really believe. Ann Blyth is very good but what made her excellent in "Mildred Pierce" and "Another Part of the Forest" was her icy haughtiness, which is apparent here but just not needed - she comes across as a bit of a snob. So she is just not convincing in the scenes where she feels that now Gert is her mother and it is up to Chuck to tell her a few home truths. Just before graduation, when she realises her best friend Zaza's (Phyliss Kirk) father will not be there for her graduation and is not even remotely interested in it, does she start to count her blessings.
This is an excellent, tastefully made film on what was then probably a very touchy subject.
Highly Recommended.
When Joan needs her birth certificate for a summer job she stumbles across the family secret - Gail's adoption papers and during their next fight (which comes soon enough) it all comes out. Of course Gail wants to find her real mother, who is living not too far away (across the other side of the railway tracks). She is a very working class housewife, Gert, (Ann Dvorak) who has never told her husband about her youthful indiscretion. The visit is a disaster - Gert's husband is unexpectedly home with a house full of rowdy cronies. There is only time for a few hurried words but Gail's lifelong smugness and complacency are shattered.
Being Ann Dvorak, she brings all her usual emotional intensity to what is a small role but she makes Gert unforgettable. Whether pathetically trying to please ("I made you iced tea, would you like sugar and ice") to the desperate tears as she sees Gail drive away. Wanting so much to have sat down and talked but knowing Gail must look down on her, Dvorak makes you really believe. Ann Blyth is very good but what made her excellent in "Mildred Pierce" and "Another Part of the Forest" was her icy haughtiness, which is apparent here but just not needed - she comes across as a bit of a snob. So she is just not convincing in the scenes where she feels that now Gert is her mother and it is up to Chuck to tell her a few home truths. Just before graduation, when she realises her best friend Zaza's (Phyliss Kirk) father will not be there for her graduation and is not even remotely interested in it, does she start to count her blessings.
This is an excellent, tastefully made film on what was then probably a very touchy subject.
Highly Recommended.