EMMA
US 1932, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy.
Directed by Clarence Brown.
Not a film version of Jane Austen’s novel.
In 1931, Marie Dressler had won an Oscar for Best Actress for Min and Bill. She was also nominated for this film, a much more subtle performance than for her Oscar-winning role. She plays a maid who is also a nanny in a rich family, bringing up the children, devoted to the father, helping bring the youngest into the world when his mother died. She is a simple woman, a hard-working woman.
20 years later, the children are adults, one married to a French count, the younger son, Ronnie, to whom she is devoted as a mother (Richard Cromwell) is devoted to her but is a man about town. When she goes to Niagara Falls for a holiday, her first, the father proposes to her and they marry. He dies and the ungrateful children are angry at his will, leaving everything to Emma. They rely on the witness of a maid to accuse her of murdering their father.
Ronnie, always devoted to Emma and not sharing the attitude of his sisters and brother, tries to reach Emma but is killed in a plane crash. In a plea to the court, her character is presented and she is found not guilty. She gives all her money to the children and their attitude towards her softens.
Jean Hersholt is Mr Smith (an unlikely name for his character) and the young Myrna Loy is the older daughter.
1. A small film from MGM in the early 1930s, but with Oscar nominations.
2. Production values, black-and-white photography, the interiors, homes, the court? The scenes of Niagara Falls, the river? Musical score?
3. The title, Marie Dressler’s performance? Her age, character, appearance?
4. Emma’s story: in service, looking after Mr Smith, the pathos of his wife giving birth and dying, her smacking Ronnie and his surviving? Her devotion to the children? After 20 years?
5. The children growing up, becoming snobbish, marriages? Her going on her holiday, the first time to Niagara Falls? The fuss at the station, the issue of the ticket, her concern about Mr Smith and taking his medicine, things falling out of her suitcase, her deciding not to go on the holiday, his buying a ticket, their going, his proposal to her, her accepting, the wedding, the happiness of Niagara Falls, on the river, her rowing, his rowing, his collapse, the medicine, her words and later misinterpreted by the maid? Her response to his death?
6. The will, everything left to her, the anger of the children, arrogant attitudes towards their maid, Emma angry with them the witness of the maid, the accusations of murder? Going to the court, her bewilderment, in the court, the interventions, the witness, her words about the pills and seemingly giving her husband an extra pill, killing him? The pathos, her being found not guilty?
7. Ronnie, his love for Emma, the money for the plane, his going hunting, his discovery of the court case, his decision to fly, the advice, flying into the storm, his death?
8. The children relenting from their selfish attitudes, Emma and her looking for a job, going to look after the elderly, a committed woman, hard work and caring for others?
