Playwright Sidney Howard was behind both signature roles of twittering character actress Laura Hope Crews. But while everyone knows her sweet, comically nervous Aunt Pittypat in GONE WITH THE WIND, few know this rather terrifying Mother-Love gone bad portrait, adapted from Howard’s play with Crews reprising her B’way success of 1926. Fifth billed on our poster, she still gets the delayed star entrance and dominates the action after a brief added prologue showing newlyweds Irene Dunne (research biologist) and Joel McCrea (architect) about to leave Germany for NYC, new jobs & new mother-in-law for Dunne. Things go bad right from the start as Mother Crews immediately begins planting wedges between the two just as she has been doing with weakling second son Eric Linden & fiancé Frances Dee. As written, Howard has some trouble keeping the boys blind to Mom’s sick, clinging devotion, yet there’s something powerful and downright creepy in her possessiveness that holds you, in spite of the situation’s obvious/simplistic psychological underpinnings. It’s a very unsophisticated sort of sophistication, sometimes dated & laughable, but hard to shake off . . . or forget. The men are more or less trounced by the ladies in this one, with Dunne, Dee & Crews all taking honors. And quite nicely trimmed & tricked out by director John Cromwell, moving things briskly around without tearing up the play’s structure.
CONTEST: In addition to Crews & Howard, there’s a third GWTW connection in here. Name it to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choosing.
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