It's ironic that Beulah Bondi was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for performances in films from 1936 and 1938, when her shining hour could be found in a 1937 film that was completely ignored. Of Human Hearts is a movie with a very large target audience: mothers. Beulah Bondi plays James Stewart's mother, and her long suffering, sacrificing role will tug at the heartstrings of every mother in the audience.
The beginning of the film shows Beulah and young Jimmy, played by a wonderful Gene Reynolds, being brought to a poor, small town because the patriarch of the family has a new position as the minister. Take a guess as to who plays the pious, stern father, and if you guess Walter Huston, give yourself three points. No one plays a pious, stern father like Walter Huston, and even though you'll want to cringe when he takes Gene out to the barn for a whipping, he makes himself sympathetic. He puts the leather strop down and instead uses his hand, both because it will be gentler on his son, and because he'll feel pain as well. Director Clarence Brown pans the camera away so the audience doesn't see the violence, and the horse's reaction is very effective in the scene.
Once Gene grows up and becomes James Stewart, the movie goes downhill fast. Jimmy plays such an ungrateful scoundrel, it's impossible to like him. And while you really want to like Beulah, she doesn't put enough into her performance to make you cry. Charles Coburn, in a supporting role, gives the audience the only lump in their throats in a scene when Beulah sells her wedding ring to merchant Guy Kibbee. The rest of the movie just isn't good enough to make it another Stella Dallas, even though most mothers will enjoy watching it.
The beginning of the film shows Beulah and young Jimmy, played by a wonderful Gene Reynolds, being brought to a poor, small town because the patriarch of the family has a new position as the minister. Take a guess as to who plays the pious, stern father, and if you guess Walter Huston, give yourself three points. No one plays a pious, stern father like Walter Huston, and even though you'll want to cringe when he takes Gene out to the barn for a whipping, he makes himself sympathetic. He puts the leather strop down and instead uses his hand, both because it will be gentler on his son, and because he'll feel pain as well. Director Clarence Brown pans the camera away so the audience doesn't see the violence, and the horse's reaction is very effective in the scene.
Once Gene grows up and becomes James Stewart, the movie goes downhill fast. Jimmy plays such an ungrateful scoundrel, it's impossible to like him. And while you really want to like Beulah, she doesn't put enough into her performance to make you cry. Charles Coburn, in a supporting role, gives the audience the only lump in their throats in a scene when Beulah sells her wedding ring to merchant Guy Kibbee. The rest of the movie just isn't good enough to make it another Stella Dallas, even though most mothers will enjoy watching it.