October 21, 2007

Smackdown 1940: Marjorie Rambeau, Primrose Path

This is by far the most obscure of this month's movies; were it not for this lone Oscar nomination, it would most likely be entirely forgotten. So, a quick summary:

Ginger Rogers stars as Ellie May Adams, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with an embarassing family. Granny's a mean-tempered, abusive shrew; Dad's an alcoholic; and Mom supports the family with "presents" from her gentleman friends. When Ellie May meets Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea), she leaps at the opportunity to escape to a better life. (Not that much better, mind you; Ed slings burgers at a hamburger shack.) She flirts and bullies Ed into marrying her, abandoning her family in the process; when he finally meets them, he is horrified, and dumps her. But by this time, Ellie May is genuinely in love with Ed, and spends the rest of the movie fighting to win him back.

Our Supporting Actress nominee is Marjorie Rambeau as Mamie Adams, the golden-hearted whore. The movie never uses the word "prostitute," of course, this being 1940, but there's no doubt about how Mamie manages to support her family. The movie is quite daring for its day in its treatment of not only prostitution, but alcoholism and attempted suicide as well.

Mamie is a juicy role, and Rambeau does nicely with it; her two big showcase scenes are among the movie's best. In the first, Ellie May is headed out for a night on the town (hoping to "accidentally" run into Ed again), and Mamie does her best to prepare her daughter. You can see how delighted she is to finally be able to pass along some wisdom to Ellie May, who has until now been something of a tomboy, and how embarassed she is at the same time by how she's learned so much about men and romance.

There's a charming bit of physical comedy as Mamie demonstrates to Ellie May how to walk, and how not to walk, to catch a man's attention. And she's desperate for Ellie May to catch this man. Mamie knows exactly how she and her family are perceived, and is enormously relieved when Ellie May never comes home from that evening out. At least Ellie May has escaped.

Rambeau's other showcase is a deathbed scene; Mamie has been shot while trying to stop her husband from killing himself. By today's standards, Rambeau's performance here is a touch hammy and overdone -- lots of melodramatic whispering and gasping and such -- but in context, it's quite moving. Again, Mamie tries to pass on what small wisdom she's gained from life, and she begs Ellie May to care for the family, because none of the others are capable of doing so. Mamie knows full well that the only way Ellie May can support the family is by following in her footsteps, and it's painful to watch her demanding that of her daughter.

Primrose Path is a decidedly minor movie, and its obscurity is well deserved. But it's not without its small pleasures, and Marjorie Rambeau's performance is chief among them. Mamie seems at first to be just another cheerful good-time girl, but by the end of the movie, Rambeau's made it abundantly clear how much pain hides behind Mamie's broad smiles and jolly laughter.

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