I Remember Mama (1948) [VHS]

I Remember Mama (1948) [VHS]
by George Stevens

I Remember Mama (1948) [VHS]
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Barbara Bel Geddes, Cedric Hardwicke, Irene Dunne, Oskar Homolka, Philip Dorn
Director: George Stevens
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; Norwegian (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 135 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Turner Home Ent
Studio: Turner Home Ent

VHS Movie Reviews of I Remember Mama (1948) [VHS]

Movie Review: heartwarming family classic!
Summary: 5 Stars

"For long as I could remember, the house on the Larkin Street Hill had been home. Papa and Mama had both born in Norway but they came to San Francisco because Mama's sisters were here, all of us were born here. Nels, the oldest and the only boy, my sister Christine and the littlest sister Dagmar; but first and foremost, I remember Mama".

So begins the heartwarming family drama of I REMEMBER MAMA (1948), based on John Van Druten's successful Broadway play, and the semi-autobiographical novel "Mama's Bank Account" by Kathryn Forbes. Director George Stevens chose this as his first film project after returning from his duties in the Army Signal Corps in WW2, and it struck a nostalgic chord for the emotionally-matured director. Part of his assignment was to film the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp and the landings at Normandy. Those experiences stayed with the filmmaker and gave his later titles (chiefly "Shane", "A Place in the Sun" and "The Diary of Anne Frank") a darker edge that hadn't really been apparent in his earlier, pre-war movies. I REMEMBER MAMA clearly struck a few chords for Stevens, and it's turn-of-the-century San Francisco setting and homespun values also resonated with audiences, who recognized those as things we were fighting for during the war.

I REMEMBER MAMA is really a collection of memories as opposed to a complete through-storyline, related to us by the eldest daughter Katrin (played by a young, fresh-faced Barbara Bel Geddes). Mama (Irene Dunne) is the hard-working, loving yet stoic glue who holds the Hanson family together. When Aunt Trina (Ellen Corby) wants to get married, first she appeals to Mama in gently breaking the news to their busybody sisters Jenny and Sigrid. Then there's the time where Mama had to masquerade as a washer-woman in order to see little Dagmar (June Hedin) in the hospital; and all the trouble with Dagmar's cat Uncle Elizabeth on the day she was to return home.

Katrin herself wants to be a writer, but every time she puts pen to paper and invents her own fairytale characters it always turns into a disaster. It's only after Mama "arranges" a meeting with famous author Florence Dana Moorhead (Florence Bates) that she finally discovers the key: to write about things and people you already know. "Write about Papa", Mama instructs Katrin. Little does Mama know how much she herself will figure in Katrin's stories...and in our hearts.

All the performances are sublime. I REMEMBER MAMA boasted no less than four Academy Award-nominated performances (Irene Dunne as Mama, Barbara Bel Geddes as Katrin, Oscar Homolka as Uncle Chris, and Ellen Corby as Aunt Trina). It's a movie filled with humour, hope and yes, heartbreak as well. I guarantee you'll want to revisit Mama and the house on Larkin Street again and again!

The only downside to the current DVD from Warners is the badly-damaged print it contains. Full of scratches, nicks and reel-cues, it clearly wasn't digitally prepared before being mastered for DVD. That's a real shame but it doesn't entirely lessen the thrill of having this landmark title in my classic movie collection. Extras are confined to the trailer, plus a brief introduction from George Stevens Jr. Recommended.
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Summary of I Remember Mama (1948) [VHS]

This high point in the 1940s vogue for movies about family life at the turn of the century was directed by George Stevens (Shane), and stars Irene Dunne as the matriarch of a Norwegian family that faces hard knocks with grace in 1910 (or so) San Francisco. Based on John Van Druten's hit play (derived from Kathryn Forbes's autobiographical memoir), the film is gorgeously rendered and quite moving as an act of memory. The sterling cast of character actors--Edgar Bergen, Rudy Vallee, Oscar Homolka, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Cedric Hardwicke--add great texture and a depth of experience that make the film feel quite lived-in. Hardwicke's turn as a penniless boarder who "pays" his rent by reciting from classic literature is a special highlight. --Tom Keogh

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