I Remember Mama stars Irene Dunne as the matriarch of a Norwegian immigrant family in San Francisco circa 1910. Dunne is perfectly cast as Marta "Mama" Hanson, playing a woman who is as close to a real-life saint as you can get. Dunne matched her saintly demeanor after retiring from acting and giving back to the community with her numerous humanitarian proclivities.
When we're first introduced to the Hanson brood, Mama runs a tight ship in regards to the family finances, watching every penny, ensuring that enough money is saved to send son Nels (Steve Brown) to high school. Meanwhile the co-star of the film, daughter Katrin (a very young Barbara Bel Gedes of much later "Dallas" fame) aspires to be a novelist. The film is actually a flashback as she reads the novel (recounting one of Mama's ubiquitous expressions of love) which eventually brings her a measure of recognition.
Also in the mix are daughters Christine (Peggy McIntyre) and Dagmar (June Hedin) along with their dad Lars "Papa" Hanson (Philip Dorn). The father is basically depicted as an all-knowing good guy who provides the emotional support for the rest of the family.
Mama's tolerance for the underdog and decided contempt for any kind of intolerance is on display when she castigates her two sisters Sigrid (Edith Evanson) and Jenny (Hope Landin) who mock their other sister Trina (Ellen Corby) who announces that she plans to marry the timid funeral director Peter Thorkelson (Edgar Bergen).
Mama's kindness shows up further in her dealings with Mr. Hyde (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), the elderly boarder who likes to read classic novels to the children. He skips out without paying the last four months rent and Mama hardly bats an eye (in fact, she forgives him since he treated the children so well).
A big part of the story revolves around the arrival of the curmudgeon Uncle Chris whom the children fear due to his obvious cantankerousness. Chris is an over-the-top character who does not appear that sympathetic or likable till the end of the film. The moral with Chris is that one shouldn't judge a book by his cover. In the end, Mama discovers he's been giving away a good deal of his money to help injured or handicapped kids with problems related to their legs. Indeed Chris walked with a limp ever since sustaining a leg injury as a young man back in the old country.
Mama's generous nature is on display when she's not nonplussed after Chris leaves the rest of his money to his housekeeper (whom he secretly wed years earlier) and nothing to anyone else in the family.
Mama's ethical commitments are put to test when Dagmar goes to the hospital for surgery due to Mastoiditis (ear infection) and is prevented from seeing her for at least 24 hours (this is in spite of promising her daughter that she would see her once she regains consciousness). While Mama admires the doctor, she's disappointed in both him and the hospital bureaucracy which sends her home and told to come back the next day. Instead her love for her daughter is so great that she is willing to break the hospital rules and surreptitiously visits Dagmar disguised as a cleaning woman.
In perhaps the most charming scene in the film, Mama tells her husband that she will be unable to lie to Dagmar as she is forced to put her youngest daughter's male cat (comically named "Uncle Elizabeth") to sleep using chloroform. She's about to reveal that she indeed used the chloroform on the cat but miraculously the cat survives and Mama is relieved that she won't have to break any bad news to her daughter.
Mama sometimes has to be harsh with the children to make a point. When Mama finds out that Katrin wants a dresser set for graduation, she sells a broach-a family heirloom-much to the chagrin of Christine, who jealously tells Katrin that Mama sold the brooch to buy the graduation gift. Katrin goes ahead and gives up her gift and gets the brooch back. This infuriates Mama who castigates Christine for jealously butting into her business.
There's more good stuff where Mama insists on not shielding Katrin from death and takes her to visit Uncle Chris on his deathbed. Finally it's Mama's idea to exchange a family recipe and visit a well-known female novelist, whose advice she relays to Katrin, who's about to give up her dreams of becoming a writer. The happy ending occurs when Katrin sells her "Mama and the Hospital," her real-life account of Mama's selflessness to a publishing house and is paid an amazing sum of $500 (worth approximately $14,000 in today's dollars).
The characters here don't really indulge in any significant high-stakes activity and some of them are a trifle sentimental. Nonetheless, Dunne's magisterial performance as the saintly bedrock of the Hanson family is an impressive achievement. Unfortunately Dunne never won the Academy Award for Best Actress but as Dunne pointed out years later, neither did Greta Garbo.
When we're first introduced to the Hanson brood, Mama runs a tight ship in regards to the family finances, watching every penny, ensuring that enough money is saved to send son Nels (Steve Brown) to high school. Meanwhile the co-star of the film, daughter Katrin (a very young Barbara Bel Gedes of much later "Dallas" fame) aspires to be a novelist. The film is actually a flashback as she reads the novel (recounting one of Mama's ubiquitous expressions of love) which eventually brings her a measure of recognition.
Also in the mix are daughters Christine (Peggy McIntyre) and Dagmar (June Hedin) along with their dad Lars "Papa" Hanson (Philip Dorn). The father is basically depicted as an all-knowing good guy who provides the emotional support for the rest of the family.
Mama's tolerance for the underdog and decided contempt for any kind of intolerance is on display when she castigates her two sisters Sigrid (Edith Evanson) and Jenny (Hope Landin) who mock their other sister Trina (Ellen Corby) who announces that she plans to marry the timid funeral director Peter Thorkelson (Edgar Bergen).
Mama's kindness shows up further in her dealings with Mr. Hyde (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), the elderly boarder who likes to read classic novels to the children. He skips out without paying the last four months rent and Mama hardly bats an eye (in fact, she forgives him since he treated the children so well).
A big part of the story revolves around the arrival of the curmudgeon Uncle Chris whom the children fear due to his obvious cantankerousness. Chris is an over-the-top character who does not appear that sympathetic or likable till the end of the film. The moral with Chris is that one shouldn't judge a book by his cover. In the end, Mama discovers he's been giving away a good deal of his money to help injured or handicapped kids with problems related to their legs. Indeed Chris walked with a limp ever since sustaining a leg injury as a young man back in the old country.
Mama's generous nature is on display when she's not nonplussed after Chris leaves the rest of his money to his housekeeper (whom he secretly wed years earlier) and nothing to anyone else in the family.
Mama's ethical commitments are put to test when Dagmar goes to the hospital for surgery due to Mastoiditis (ear infection) and is prevented from seeing her for at least 24 hours (this is in spite of promising her daughter that she would see her once she regains consciousness). While Mama admires the doctor, she's disappointed in both him and the hospital bureaucracy which sends her home and told to come back the next day. Instead her love for her daughter is so great that she is willing to break the hospital rules and surreptitiously visits Dagmar disguised as a cleaning woman.
In perhaps the most charming scene in the film, Mama tells her husband that she will be unable to lie to Dagmar as she is forced to put her youngest daughter's male cat (comically named "Uncle Elizabeth") to sleep using chloroform. She's about to reveal that she indeed used the chloroform on the cat but miraculously the cat survives and Mama is relieved that she won't have to break any bad news to her daughter.
Mama sometimes has to be harsh with the children to make a point. When Mama finds out that Katrin wants a dresser set for graduation, she sells a broach-a family heirloom-much to the chagrin of Christine, who jealously tells Katrin that Mama sold the brooch to buy the graduation gift. Katrin goes ahead and gives up her gift and gets the brooch back. This infuriates Mama who castigates Christine for jealously butting into her business.
There's more good stuff where Mama insists on not shielding Katrin from death and takes her to visit Uncle Chris on his deathbed. Finally it's Mama's idea to exchange a family recipe and visit a well-known female novelist, whose advice she relays to Katrin, who's about to give up her dreams of becoming a writer. The happy ending occurs when Katrin sells her "Mama and the Hospital," her real-life account of Mama's selflessness to a publishing house and is paid an amazing sum of $500 (worth approximately $14,000 in today's dollars).
The characters here don't really indulge in any significant high-stakes activity and some of them are a trifle sentimental. Nonetheless, Dunne's magisterial performance as the saintly bedrock of the Hanson family is an impressive achievement. Unfortunately Dunne never won the Academy Award for Best Actress but as Dunne pointed out years later, neither did Greta Garbo.