I happened to catch "Pilgrimage" this past weekend during AMC's (American Movie Classics) John Ford Marathon. This is the story of a Arkansas farm woman and her son. When the son starts to exert some autonomy and expresses his desire to marry a girl who comes from a family that the mother thinks is trash, she enrolls him in the army. Meeting his fiancée at a train station while being transported by the army, she tells him she is pregnant; he is unable to get leave to marry her. He is killed in the Battle of the Argonne Forest.
The remainder of the movie deals with the mother's reconciliation with her wrong and the love she has for her son, and the eventual reconciliation she has with her "daughter-in-law" and her grandson.
The majority of the movie takes place in France where the mother (wonderfully played by Henrietta Crosman) is taken as part of a program for mothers to visit the graves of her sons.
John Ford, who is considered an action director and a man's director, does a wonderful job directing the women on their voyage of discovery in France.
Also of note in the cast: Lucille La Verne as a Carolina hill woman who is on the France trip, and Hedda Hopper playing a stuck-up society mother. Heather Angel is in the cast in a small role
If it turns up on cable, don't miss this one. Please make allowances for the acting styles - after all, this was 1933.
The remainder of the movie deals with the mother's reconciliation with her wrong and the love she has for her son, and the eventual reconciliation she has with her "daughter-in-law" and her grandson.
The majority of the movie takes place in France where the mother (wonderfully played by Henrietta Crosman) is taken as part of a program for mothers to visit the graves of her sons.
John Ford, who is considered an action director and a man's director, does a wonderful job directing the women on their voyage of discovery in France.
Also of note in the cast: Lucille La Verne as a Carolina hill woman who is on the France trip, and Hedda Hopper playing a stuck-up society mother. Heather Angel is in the cast in a small role
If it turns up on cable, don't miss this one. Please make allowances for the acting styles - after all, this was 1933.