Das Mädchen Frankie

I wish I could give this film a higher score because of the lovely portrayals given by Ethel Waters & Brandon de Wilde. However, Julie Harris ruined this film for me. I've seen this movie before, a long time ago, and thought is was really good. However, I watched it again last night and had forgotten how truly over the top Harris' performance was. I've been 12 years old and I can't imagine that any 12 year old would get away with behaving like that in any circumstance. She was just a little too smart and a little too angry for my taste. Like someone else stated, it was the intensity that got to me (I don't really like Brando either--thank you Michael Bo.) The thing that saves the movie for me is Waters performance--probably the best she ever had in the movies. Too bad it was overshadowed by Harris' histrionics. I just don't think that most 12 year old girls would be that outwardly angry. Plus, it was a little creepy to me the obsession she had with her brother & sister in law. Was she in love with both of them or just in love with love, even though she commented, continuously, about not believing in love. Gah!!! It just bugged me to no end. However, I do give credit to the makers of the film for capturing a little bit of what the South was like in the 1950's.

Harry Cohn loathed this film -what greater recommendation could there be? In fact Columbia had no idea what to do with this masterpiece -just read the publicity department's tag-line (A Girl Becomes a Woman in the Middle of a Kiss !)and see their original poster with a mature woman with a Louise Brooks hair style fending off the drunken soldier who in the movie attempts to kiss 12 year old Frankie when she runs away. Stanley Kramer makes up for every lousy movie he directed (i.e. his complete oeuvre) by PRODUCING this masterpiece. It is director Fred Zinneman's favorites of all his films -and no wonder! It doesn't put a foot wrong. It has two of the most remarkable female performances put on celluloid; Julie Harris (in her late twenties as a twelve year old trying to understand and come to terms with her feelings of alienation "(she) was a member of nothing in the World.....and she was afraid") and Ethel Waters as Berenice, only too aware of the reasons for her sense of aloneness, settling her need to love on two white children and a black youth,all three of whom she loses. There are three main characters in this Kitchen Piece. It would be wrong to ignore the contribution of a child actor of genius: Brandon de Wilde as Frankie's grave little cousin John Henry West.It is impossible to imagine a more perfect cast to bring this most difficult of novels and play to the screen. It looks as if this movie is at last available on video( in the States at least ) I already have a copy taped from the Box. For me it is the ONE essential film to own -when a DVD is available I shall be first in the queue to buy it- surely a CD of Alex North's beautiful score cannot be far behind!

This film is the litmus by which I judge the taste of all new acquaintances -if they haven't watched it with a shock of recognition and don't connect with Carson McCuller's genius and profound humanity, then I don't want to be a member of any club they might belong to!!

Now, don't get me wrong: I like the theater, and I like movies. I just think of them as separate entities, not as interchangeable ones.

Which is why I get bored with a movie like 'The Member of the Wedding'. I am not saying it didn't make great theater or wonderful literature, but as a film it sinks, mercilessly. Film is simply not its medium, whatever qualities it has on other levels. A line like "I always maintained I didn't believe in love" as recited by a pre-teen could perceivably make some kind of sense on the stage and in a book, but on film it is ludicrous.

12-year old tomboy Frankie is triggered by the pending marriage of her older brother to start daydreaming about what is to become of her. She feels to old for her body, and is obviously too young for her aspirations. Her anchors in life are the maid Bernice and the little boy next door, John Henry.

As it was perceived here, the whole foundation of 'The Member of the Wedding' is the acting. Ethel Waters is great as the maid, although you can hardly say that she transcends racial boundaries, and 26-year old Julie Harris is nothing if not loud-mouthed as Frankie, playing the part to the full, screaming and shouting and squirming, and simply trying too hard. If you think Brando was intense, just wait till you experience Miss Harris!

Carson McCullers was one of the best writers the South has ever produced. The clarity and sensitivity of her prose is captured beautifully in this all-but-a-play film.

Ethel Waters, Brandon deWilde and Julie Harris repeat their triumphal Broadway performances.

As a Southern native, it is my informed opinion that Ms McCullers captures the complex and often misunderstood relationships of poor white folks and their even poorer black neighbors in the small town South before the advent of the American civil rights movement. United in poverty, religion and ignorance; they are divided by the institutions of racism and class.

The loneliness of childhood, the love that Bernice has for her young white charges together are explore in the backdrop of the rural South that Faulkner described as half myth and half mysticism.

Ethel Waters reveals her impressive dramatic skills near the end of a long career , Julie Harris displays a mastery of her craft at the beginning of her distinguished career, and Brandon deWilde steals every scene in which he appears.

Highly recommended.

I will admit that viewing a 1952 film from a 2007 perspective might be clouding my opinion. Julie Harris' "Frankie" is overplayed and ruins the entire piece. I attempted to look past the fact that she is supposed to be only 12. C'mon, even in 1951/52 Julie could never pass for a 12-year-old, maybe 18. Directors often ask the audience to suspend their beliefs and imaginations - but this is too much to ask regarding Ms. Harris. Yes, the dialog is effective. It is interesting considering certain episodes within the film. For instance, 10-year-old John Henry's proclivities toward cross-dressing. Daring I must say for the time? Ms. Walter's presentation (considering she had to buffer the over-dramatic Harris) is excellent. Little Brandon also holds his own. Maybe as a stage presentation it worked - but as "one of the great films" in cinema history - forget it.