La madre dello sposo

"The Mating Season" is a 1951 film that stars Gene Tierney, Thelma Ritter, John Lund, Jan Sterling, Miriam Hopkins and Larry Keating. Tierney and Lund play newlyweds Maggie and Val McNulty - she's a blue blood but broke, and he's up and coming in the corporate world. Val's mom Ellen (Ritter) owns a hamburger place but loses it and comes to see her son, only to find out he's getting married. Ellen makes her excuses and works until she has enough money for a new outfit. Then she calls on her new daughter-in-law - only to be mistaken as a maid hired to help with a party the couple is throwing. Ellen is a big hit, and, swearing her son to secrecy, stays on in the house. Then Maggie's arrogant, spoiled mother (Miriam Hopkins) comes to town to stay with Maggie and Val. Four becomes a crowd.

This is a very sweet, funny film with wonderful ensemble acting and great characters. Tierney has her familiar hairdo (which around this time she didn't always have) and looks gorgeous. She's totally charming as Maggie. Lund does a good job as her harried husband, who wants to make good and has just a touch - a slight touch - of being a jerk. It's a weakness that we forgive him for later on. Of course, Ritter steals the show as Ellen, doing a role very familiar to her - a mouthy servant. Hopkins is bigger than life as Maggie's totally obnoxious mother, and Larry Keating is a delight as Val's boss' father, who has better values than his son will ever have. Jan Sterling has a small part as Val's former girlfriend. As usual, she looks cheap and acts cheaper.

Lots of fun - don't miss it.

"The Mating season" is definitely, though unexpectedly, a beautiful movie. The plot relies on a simple but original idea: the mother-in-law is a positive character, in some sense the actual heroine of the movie. The misfit between the low-class Ellen McNulty (Thelma Ritter) and the upper-class folks surrounding her, with her son (John Lund) as a link, is a source of continuous fun. Thelma Ritter gives a first-class performance.

Also the rest of the cast works beautifully, especially Larry Keating. The whole movie is a pattern of good taste. What about Gene Tierney? We see her in short-pants... later she sings a French song. This would be enough to recommend the film, isn't it? Now, forget Gene Tierney's beauty for a moment (that's hard, I know): she acted in comedies, dramas, misteries, thrillers, film-noirs, westerns, adventure and historical movies, and so on. She always enters into her role with perfect ease and versatility. She is a great actress, this is the true point. Gene adds further class to "The Mating Season", a little jewel not to be missed.

The other review of this movie got the plot wrong. Thelma Ritter is the MOTHER-IN-LAW of Gene Tierney, not her MOTHER. Ms. Ritter's son in the film, played by John Lund is the pretentious one. When his mother arrives to attend his wedding to the gently brought up Ms. Tierney, who is actually a sweetheart and a lady in the best sense of the word, he hands Thelma some cash to get a makeover, noting that she should especially purchase GLOVES, to hide her hands that have worked hard at a hamburger stand to put him through a fancy college. This guy is a real stinker!! Thelma ends up not going to the ceremony, fearful she will embarrass her jerk of a son. She then gets some jobs to buy a fantastic outfit so she can drop in on the newlyweds. When Ms. Ritter gets there, Gene Tierney thinks she is the cook she wanted, and latches on to her because Ms. Tierney is having her first dinner party, and she is in a state of panic and disaster. The plot revolves around the fact that Thelma stays on to help out, and swears her son to secrecy about who she is. There are absolutely SOLID GOLD performances by Miriam Hopkins, as Gene's snooty mother, and Larry Keating, as John Lund's down-to-earth boss. The best part of this movie is when Gene discovers the masquerade and tells her insensitive husband off, defending his mother as a wonderful, honorable woman. DO NOT MISS THIS MOVIE !!

In debt to the Jersey City bank, hard-working widow Thelma Ritter (as Ellen) gives up her hamburger stand and hitchhikes by pick-up truck and school bus to visit earnest son John Lund (as Val McNulty) in Meridian, Ohio. Meanwhile, Mr. Lund has rescued beautiful socialite Gene Tierney (as Maggie Carleton) from a bad date with the boss' son. Lund and Ms. Tierney immediately get the urge to mate. When Ms. Ritter meets her new daughter-in-law, Tierney mistakes her for the cook...

Down on her luck, Ritter agrees to work incognito as maid in her son's apartment. The funny situation gets funnier when Tierney's uppity mother Miriam Hopkins (as Fran) arrives for an extended visit. Producer Charles Brackett and director Mitchell Leisen wisely keep the focus on Ritter, who turned her inappropriate fourth-billing into "Best Supporting Actress" nominations from the "Film Daily", "Golden Globes" and "Academy Awards" groups. In this one, Ritter is the star.

******** The Mating Season (1/12/51) Mitchell Leisen ~ Thelma Ritter, John Lund, Gene Tierney, Miriam Hopkins

This is a lost treasure, I saw it a few nights ago on TCM, and was surprise about the acting and the quality of the movie, script and direction, and for a change it is not set in New York or Los Angeles, but in Cleveland, Ohio. Gene Tierney was fantastic in this movie. I wondered aloud why Paramount Pictures have not release this movie on DVD. Gene Tierney is by far one of the most beautiful women ever in movie history. This is a newer version of screwball comedies, but with a twist, I won't spoil it for you. Here goes what I can tell you, two mother-in-laws, a newly wed couple, a rich spoil kid and a beautiful woman, got it? That is all I will say, this movie is a charm. Even if you don't like screwball comedies, Gene Tierney is worth the time, she is just great to look at, a very beautiful woman.