Christmas Story, Baby Boom Top Moms Film List
Top Unforgettable Moms in Hollywood History
Mother's Day simply defined is a day when moms are honored for fulfilling the daunting tasks of motherhood and are lavished with flowers and gifts (maybe) from their adoring (maybe, again) families. Mothers themselves, however, are hardly simple and this fact hasn't escaped the creative eye of filmmakers throughout the years. From the doting to the psychotic, Hollywood has amplified the diverse personalities of motherhood to sometimes outlandish proportions. Eleven of the Most Memorable Movie Moms may make you appreciate your own mother even more this Mother's Day.
11. The Changed Mother: Ma Bailey–It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Beulah Bondi may not have been so memorable as George Bailey's (Jimmy Stewart) mother in It's a Wonderful Life if not for a dark shift in her personality mid-film. She was once a doting mother, playfully scolding Harry Bailey for trying to make a getaway with her dishes to the school dance. During George's journey through a life where he was never born, however, Ma Bailey transforms into a dark shadow of her former self. Desperate George appears on her doorstep as Ma emerges from the shadows, her brow heavy with suspicion and dismisses him as a liar and a stranger. Bondi's transformation is a key example of the wretched life that could have been if George had not been born.
10. The Mother of Multiples: Helen North –Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
Helen North (Lucille Ball) is devastated at losing her husband, also father to her eight children, but is hopeful in finding love again with widower Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) – until she discovers that Frank has a brood of ten.
“Why, eight and ten is...”
“Ridiculous!” Frank replies. But even a pack of 18 kids can't keep the two apart for long. The always-hilarious Lucille Ball softens her comedic edges with moments of tender sadness that makes her chemistry with Fonda all the more touching.
9. The Hungry Mother: Mrs. Parker – A Christmas Story (1983)
“My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years,” so we learn from the adult narrator Ralphie in A Christmas Story. Melinda Dillon plays the nameless, frazzle-haired mother who refuses to consider buying Ralphie his prized Red-Ryder BB gun for fear he will famously “shoot his eye out.” Poor Mrs. Parker is run ragged by her family of boys throughout the film, from fights to foul words to “electric sex glowing in the window.” Even her Christmas turkey is devoured by a pack of neighborhood dogs. This tired mom has become a fixture in the annual classic that is a tradition for many fans each holiday season.
8. The Mob Mother: Ma Jarrett – White Heat (1949)
“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!,” James Cagney screams in Raoul Walsh's classic film-noir White Heat. Cagney's rough-talking gangster Cody Jarrett is a terror to his gang of criminals but has a soft spot for his old Ma. Margaret Wycherly is perhaps best known as the mob Ma who kept a shrewd eye on the twisting alliances of her son's untrustworthy pals.
7. The Reluctant Mother: J.C. Wyatt – Baby Boom (1987)
Diane Keaton is J.C. Wyatt, a.k.a The Tiger Lady, a no-nonsense successful businesswoman whose career moves are as shrewd as her tailored suits. Wyatt's ordered existence in the corporate world is turned upside down when fate drops a distant cousin's orphaned baby girl into her lap. Representing a real challenge for women of the '80s, Keaton's balancing act between working woman and mother is a hilarious turn of events, but also an important testament to a woman's ability to be able to balance both a career and motherhood.
6. The Desperate Mother: Donna Trenton – Cujo (1983)
As if life weren't already complicated for Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace) with her marriage falling apart after admitting an affair, her car had to conk out on her, too. Stranded in the dusty lot and sweltering heat outside of her mechanic's empty house, Donna and her son Tad (Danny Pintauro) are trapped in the stalled car under crazed eyes of the rabid St. Bernard Cujo. Wallace's frantic performance as the desperate-turned-enraged mother makes her a memorable mother of the '80s.
See Memorable Movie Moms, Part Two.
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