Mommie Dearest, Psycho - Top Movies About Moms
Top Unforgettable Mothers 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.
5. The Adopted Mother: Joanna Staten/Annie Proffitt – Overboard (1987)
Joanna Staten (Goldie Hawn) is a self-absorbed rich snob who shuffles around her yacht nit-picking her equally-atrocious husband. Through sheer boredom, she hires carpenter Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell) to build her a new closet. When the finished product isn't up to her standards, she refuses to pay Proffitt and knocks him and his tools overboard. When Staten herself falls overboard, it's the perfect setup for revenge. Proffitt convinces the amnesiac Staten that she is his wife and the mother of his three boisterious boys. Proffitt begins to feel guilty as his feelings for "Annie" grow and she becomes a true mother to the kids. No doubt, Hawn and Russell's real-life love affair add to their undeniable chemistry onscreen, making a cute movie and Hawn a memorable movie mom.
4. The Dearest Mother: Joan Crawford – Mommie Dearest (1981)
Christina Crawford's scathing account of life with her allegedly psychotic adoptive mother – silver screen icon Joan Crawford – inspired the cult classic Mommie Dearest, and transformed Faye Dunaway into a caricature of the heavy-browed legend, changing the reputations of Dunaway's career, Crawford's life, and wire hangers forever.
3. The Smitten Mother: Lorraine Baines McFly – Back to the Future (1985)
One could argue that Lea Thompson played several memorable mothers in Back to the Future. From the boozing, chain-smoking Lorraine McFly who reminisces over the “Fish Under the Sea” dance, to the popular beauty Lorraine Baines of the '50s who (unwittingly) thinks her own son (Michael J. Fox) is a dreamboat, to the altered Lorraine McFly, the tennis-playing, forward-thinking, modern mom. And that's just in part one!
2. The Overbearing Mother: Aurora Greenway – Terms of Endearment (1983)
Shirley MacLaine's Aurora Greenway is an overprotective, stubborn woman who gives birth to the equally stubborn Emma (Debra Winger). Over the course of 30 years, Aurora struggles with her daughter's defiant behavior while resisting the persistent flirtations of her drunken neighbor (Jack Nicholson). MacLaine's performance amidst the volatile, unpredictable relationship with Winger's Emma solidify her status as a memorable movie mom.
1. The Psychotic Mother: Mother Bates – Psycho (1960)
“A boy's best friend is his mother,” the quiet Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) insists – an easy choice when mother keeps killing off any other potential friends of the female variety. Mother Bates taunts and jeers her son throughout the film when he makes nice with patrons of their eerie, desolate motel. Director Alfred Hitchcock's tell-tale twist reveals just how much of an effect the psychotic mother had over her timid son, making the film, otherwise known as the black sheep of Hitchcock's collection, an enduring classic.
See Memorable Movie Moms, Part One
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