Academy Awards, USA 1953
| Nominee Oscar | Best Actress in a Leading Role Julie Harris |
Columbia Pictures
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Twilight Time)
Twelve-year-old Frankie (Julie Harris) is in anguish about her world. Her brother is getting married and the neighborhood girls won't let them into their club. She wails against it all to her empathetic nanny and housekeeper Ethel Waters in their run-down kitchen. She ends up running away from home but finds only creeps in pool halls and beer joints in her southern town. Back home, she reluctantly prepares for her brothers wedding. Julie Harris' performance leave no room for compromise, you either love it or hate it. Unfortunately I fell into the latter camp. It is impossible to believe that this nearly 30-year old actress is 12. Her performance resembles more of 3 year old with an incredible vocabulary on an extended temper tantrum. Ethel Waters, on the other hand, gives a sublime, loving performance in almost direct opposition to the style of Harris. Perhaps that was the intention, to play off the opposites. It also suffers from the usual stage-to-screen inadequacies, and often feels cramped and claustrophobic.
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