A Gay/campy chronicling of daily life in NYC,with individual kernels of human truth. copyright 2011 by The Raving Queen
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Happy Mother's Day, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Mother's Day to all those out there, and to those, like mine, who are at rest and peace.
Oh, there are all kinds of mothers, darlings! There is Joan Crawford sacrificing herself for her vicious daughter, in "Mildred Pierce," Barbara Stanwyck doing the same for her sweet daughter in 1937's Stella Dallas, and Joan, as a former mental patient, again stepping in for a wretched daughter, at the climax of 1964's "Strait-Jacket." Lucy Harbin! We LOVE that crazy bitch!
And how about Betsy Palmer, as Mrs. Voorhees, in 1980's "Friday The 13th?"
Who could forget those teeth, and her delightful mantra, "Kill her, Mommy, kill her!"?
But, I am telling you, the mother of them all to salute today is Margaret Wycherly, in her chilling performance as Ma Jarrett, in 1949's "White Heat." Oedipal complex and all, she is the one, not Cagney, who has the balls in this household, especially when he goes nuts, upon hearing of her death, in the prison cafeteria. But she did help him reach "the top of the world," as Cagney proves in the famous climax.
No doubt, she was based on the real Kate "Ma Barker," who had a whole crop or criminal kids! And ran them, as a gang!
One thing I gotta say for Ma Jarrett. She was not a child killer.
Not like the worst of all, Susan Smith! Pure White Trash, who thought she could move up, but couldn't. She had a cute husband, then, two cute boys who would have inherited their father's looks, and she was not bad looking, herself, then. But she went and murdered those babies in 1994. so she is the Worst Mother Of All. Now she is a fat piece of garbage in prison.
So, Happy Mother's Day to all the REAL mothers out there!
Domesticity just would not be the same!
Even with gay men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Ma Barker’s Killer Brood” - 1960
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteVictoria,
I took a look at the trailer, and
it is a hoot!
I can't believe how good Lurene Tuttle
is. She usually played sweet, sympathetic
types, and did that same year, 1960, as the
sheriff's wife in Hitchcock's "Psycho."
And Shelley Winters, later on the "Batman"
TV series in the Sixties, did a spoof of her
called "Ma Perker!"