Normally I don't make reference to other people's comments about movies, but for this movie I must make an exception. I don't know what movie other commentators may have watched, but it wasn't the same movie I watched. This movie stunk. With the sole exception of Irene Dunne, who was the sole redeeming feature of an otherwise overrated, tepid, maudlin, poorly acted, stagy and dated antique, this movie was profoundly mediocre. The most remarkable feature of this barely watchable movie was the incredibly irritating performance of Oscar Homolka in what has to be one of the most obnoxious supporting roles ever concocted by a Hollywood screenwriter. After watching this movie, I learned that drinking coffee can make you into a "black" Norwegian, i.e., into a Uncle Chris. Indeed, this movie proves that timing is everything because if this film was made twenty-five years later, Uncle Chris becomes Archie Bunker, and this movie becomes a sitcom, which brings me to the fundamental flaw of this ponderous production, that it brings together in one movie of some of the most insipid, forgettable and uninspiring characters ever to appear together on a Hollywood sound stage. That, and the cheap special effects and Uncle Chris's crummy Model T Ford contribute to making "I Remember Mama" a movie that gives new meaning to the term "mediocrity." Also, Philip Dorn's performance as Mr. Hanson reminded me of the Ward Cleaver character in "Leave to Beaver." Finally, any similarity between the actual experience of immigrants in the United States and the portrayal of that experience in this movie, which purports to be about an immigrant family, is purely coincidental.
Review of I Remember Mama
