IMDb user comments for
Emma (1932)

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10 comments in total

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrific, 18 February 2004
Author: ivan-22 from Los Angeles

So few movies have a woman as the main protagonist, much less an older woman. Marie Dressler is wonderful, as usual, but the script helps a great deal, and the good, unpretentious direction. Old movies really have something special, a sense of compassion and humanity. Richard Cromwell makes a very good impression. It is sad that he lived only 50 years and was forgotten. One wishes Angela would reminisce about him. He had a very pleasant speaking voice. A voice is an instrument, and speech is music.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Dressler's finest film performance, 11 June 2001

Author: Arne Andersen (aandersen@landmarkcollege.org) from Putney, VT

This is the one that should have netted Marie Dressler the best actress Oscar, not the year prior's MIN AND BILL. EMMA is a far more complex character and she is able to show a full range of emotion in this teary tale of a devoted housekeeper who marries her employer, only to have three of his spoiled brat children turn against her when he dies. She should have drowned this bunch. She is quite superb throughout. Odd though in that if she raised them, how did they turn out to be such b*****ds???? Dressler earned a most deserved Best Actress nom. The excellent cinematography should also have been recognized by the Academy. This one is a must-see.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful little "Gem" great Dressler!, 10 February 2004
Author: olddiscs from Fords,NJ

Saw this early am today 2/10/04 on TCM want to see again..sentimental, weepy yes but so well done, and a beautiful Oscar Nominated performance by Marie Dressler... have not seen this before was impressed good cast, Jean Hersholt (who has an award named after him I believe ?). a very young Myrna Loy, and Richard Cromwell as Ronnie... couldnt place hin, seen before, thanks to Imdb I was reminded that he played Julie (Jezebel) other boyfriend(Ted Dilliard) in the classic Bette Davis film Jezebel... Emma is a little gem, and Dressler more than deserved her Oscar nomination ..She was so funny in the airport scenes & the train station scene where she losses (amongst other things)her corset...and so moving in the final scenes...Watch again,, thanks TCM & Imdb for the info....

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Superb 30s melodrama, 26 December 2002
Author: nickandrew from PA

This is one of the rare melodramas from 1930's MGM that is really not outdated as others. It is a funny, but genuinely touching story of a devoted housekeeper (Dressler) who marries her wealthy employer, which does not settle well with his grown children. Dressler is just perfect and the ending is so perfect and bittersweet.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Another Sterling Performance From Marie Dressler, 1 February 2001

Author: Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA

Watching after her rich employer's motherless brood, elderly housekeeper EMMA finds love in a very unexpected place. But an accusation of murder is only one of the burdens she'll have to bear on her weary old shoulders before she finds a way to be useful again.

At the time she made this film, Marie Dressler was Hollywood's greatest star. An unlikely celebrity sensation, with her homely face & shapeless body, Dressler was nonetheless adored by the American public who could sense her basic decency & goodness. For a few brief years she became the nation's grandma, someone with whom the public could feel completely comfortable. Dressler seemed to typify the virtues of hard work & plainspoken honesty - attributes which counted for much in the Great Depression's darkest days.

This in no way is meant to denigrate Dressler's talents as an actress; she earned her accolades. She had complete command of her craft, mobilizing her pliable face & large body into capturing & holding first the audience's attention & then their admiration, followed quickly by their deep affection. Marie Dressler was a unique cinematic phenomenon; she stands alone, never replicated, duplicated or effaced - except by the vagaries of fickle time. Today in this new millennium, when her special earthy benevolence is needed more than ever, she is virtually unknown to any but the oldest or most nostalgic of movie mavens.

As sole star, and with a script penned by her dear friend Frances Marion, Dressler is given free rein to beguile in EMMA. Whether dealing with tragic death, or engaged in comedic high jinks (Dressler in an airplane simulator run amuck or chasing her lingerie-disgorging suitcase across a crowded train station is nothing less than hilarious) she is as completely unforgettable as she was to prove utterly irreplaceable.

Firm support is given by gentle Jean Hersholt as Dressler's kindly employer. As his son, Richard Cromwell gives an energetic performance. Lovely Myrna Loy, not-quite-yet a star, is strangely awkward as Hersholt's spiteful daughter. John Miljan is effective in the role of a relentless District Attorney.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
a wonderful little film, 2 March 2006

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This is just one of several films that make me wish Marie Dressler had lived to make more movies after the advent of sound movies. Her career was on the quick upswing when she died and every movie I saw her in was greatly improved by her performance.

This is a heart-wrenching movie about a lonely bachelor who marries the nanny who helped raise his kids. He incorrectly assumed that since she was like a member of the family that the kids would readily accept her. However, he soon dies after the wedding and the kids instead treat her horribly--especially when they find out the fortune was left to her. Watch it and be prepared to watch excellent acting and writing--there's just too little of it in most movies.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Marie Dressler tops another winning performance!!!!, 25 March 2005

Author: lwsroute66 from NE Missouri

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was an outstanding movie and Marie Dressler was at her best, as usual!!!! This was slightly different from other Dressler roles because this was more of a dramatic role, rather than her usual brand of comedy, although she does have comedic scenes within the movie.

She has so much depth to her role as Emma, the housekeeper (and nanny), and one can actually feel the joys and happiness when she's working with the family, as well as the pain, suffering, and sorrow she feels when her husband (played by Jean Hersholt) passes away. The scene that really got me the most, though, was right after inheriting her husband's money, his grown children turned on her. (These are the same children whom she looked after from their childhoods.) After demanding they leave the house, Emma begins to feel saddened by seeing visions of these young children she helped to raise from infancy. That scene really got to me. I felt her pain, wondering "How could these children grow up and turn on her like that?" And when her beloved step-son, Ronnie, died, that was really the clincher! I basically predicted THAT would happen but, nonetheless, I could still feel her pain.

When watching this movie, grab your popcorn AND a box of Kleenex, because you will need them!!!!

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Weepy melodrama good, not great, Dressler, 9 August 2000

Author: bmacv from Western New York

Too bad Marie Dressler became a star only in the last few years of her life (she died in 1934, shortly after making her best-known films like Anna Christie, Min and Bill, Tugboat Annie and Dinner at Eight). From the evidence, her range was incredible -- she could play just about anything but a femme fatale, and that's only because age and girth got to her. In the early 1930s, she appeared in some utterly delightful comedies (Politics; Prosperity; Reducing). Emma is a conventional tearjerker. As the housekeeper/surrogate mom for a brood of kids who go from genteel poverty to riches, Emma, on her way to Niagara Falls for a long-overdue vacation, ends up marrying the widower head of the household. He up and dies, leaving all to Emma. All the kids she loves -- save one, her favorite -- gang up on her (and she ends up losing that favorite anyway, in a "twist of fate"). What's interesting is that a script today would give her an unqualified triumph and the kids their comeuppance. But in keeping with the late-Victorian sensibility of the times (big on self-sacrifice, down on blowing your own horn), the ending, while not tragic or pathetic, is much more low-key.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
One of my top five favorite movies EVER, 30 October 2005

Author: (Sinatrafan103)

I don't think that I could ever fully explain how wonderful this movie is, since it is just SOOO good. I caught it on Turner Classic Movies last year, and I've been dying to see it since then, but it isn't on DVD or VHS so I''m out of luck. (If anyone runs into a copy PLEASE post on IMDb!) The last post really covered the basic plot. Marie Dressler as Emma is the sweetest, most darling character to ever appear on the screen. She cares for these kids from when they are born to when they are in their twenties and thirties, loving them as if they were her own. Btw, you can catch Myrna Loy in an early non-exotic film role as one of the kids! Equally amazing is Jean Hersholt's performance as the dad. This is the only performance of his that I have ever seen, and anyone who wonders what the Hollywood humanitarian's acting talents looked like should definitely see this movie. It's very interesting that they give out an Academy award in his honor, but they don't have any of his films widely available.

If I could pick just five movies in the universe to recommend, this would undoubtedly be one of them. (Primrose Path w/ Ginger Rogers, The Man with the Golden arm w/Frank Sinatra, Easy Rider, and Stage Fright w/Jane Wyman would be the other four== and they were VERY hard to pick just five!!)

So next time it's on TV, make sure you watch it!

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1 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Looking For A Copy Of This Movie, 27 December 2006

Author: muffinheuer2003 from United States

Hello,

I'm looking for a VHS or DVD copy of this movie. If anyone has one or knows where I could get one, please email me at heuerjessie@yahoo.com I'm looking for it because Mickey Rooney has a bit part in it.;)

I appreciate it so much! Also visit my fan club for Mickey Rooney at www.mickeyrooneyfanclub.com I'd appreciate it! There are also a few

more RARE movies I'm looking for. Fast Companions, Love Birds, I Like It That Way and Half A Sinner. All from the 30's.

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