On M List of Movie Reviews

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The Member of the Wedding (1952)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 1/24

MemWed
1/24: I can't stand Julie Harris.

The actress often played stupid, mentally unstable characters. The Haunting, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and now this: The Member of the Wedding. This time, she's a full-blown kook who's destined to be a killer in the mold of Aileen Wuornos.

It's easy to be impressed with Julie Harris' acting, but that's because she performed the role 501 times on Broadway; in other words, practice does make perfect. The movie poster is misleading. Julie Harris was U-G-L-Y in the film. Plus, the tagline doesn't accurately describe what the story is about. Then, there's the picture of a white guy playing the trumpet when in fact he's black.

How the characters talk is horrible. It's dialogue for the sake of dialogue just like how it's acting for the sake of acting and melodrama for the sake of melodrama. Everybody is going round and round and round, and at one point, they break out singing a pointless song. Honey Camden is in trouble? Who cares? Johny Henry died? What the hell did he do...drink castor motor oil for fun?

That's why plays often have no place in movies. I don't want to see people in one room, recalling the past which is something they must have done so many times already. It's stupid, unrealistic, and boring. Worse is Julie Harris, who's in her late twenties, playing a 12-year-old kid. If she was actually eighteen, it'll be more believable. Remember Ethel Waters had a black patch at the beginning and mentioned sporting a glass eye. Then, uh...why is it still functioning perfectly?

All in all, The Member of the Wedding is a claptrap of the highest order.