The Member of the Wedding

Released Dec 30, 1952

1 hr. 31 min.

Drama

List

86%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

55%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Bookish tomboy Frankie Addams (Julie Harris) doesn't get along with the rest of the girls in her tiny southern town. Depressed, socially isolated and perched on the verge of adolescence, Frankie takes refuge with the family maid, Berenice (Ethel Waters), and pals around with her young cousin, John Henry (Brandon de Wilde), while secretly fantasizing about going away with her brother, Jarvis (Arthur Franz), and his new bride, Janice (Nancy Gates), on their honeymoon to Alaska.

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steve d

It has not aged well.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

kevin w

Very well done drama, heavily laced with feel good social morality and loaded with "nobody understands what it is to be me!" speeches, ably supported by Ethel Waters, unfortunately comes burdened with the delivery vehicle in the form of a screaming 12 year old (Julie Harris). A half hour in and I was pulling my hair and wishing that somebody would shut the mouthy kid up. But nobody does, not in the length of the piece, which made the message unbelievable insofar as I was concerned. The entire work then needs to be taken out to the woodshed for some "adult talking".

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

serious and obvious flaw in miscasting a mature Harris as the edge-of-puberty protagonist, which over-eggs the stereotype of how young girls can be fond of melodramatics. perhaps the producer and director (big names kramer and zinnemann) didn't care to push two child actors in the same production, though dewilde's work is remarkable for his very first film (granted, his initiation in the role had come in the stage production). his work redeems the film, with of course the remarkable ms. waters. zinnemann redeems the film with irony, and making ms.waters the focus of the ending, a subversive touch. 'john henry' starts the hymn 'his eye is on the sparrow', waters makes it magical, yet henry's prolonged, painful, and fatal illness (off camera in the manner of classic tragedy) makes him the sparrow no one watched. the ending's focus on bernice exposes how the love and care she devoted to john henry and frankie made her no less marginalized to the families she worked for.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The actors make the most of a rather plodding story. It is surprising that this film received all the honours that it did. It was behind its time.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Some good acting by Ethel Waters in this slice of life and coming of age drama. The usually superior Julie Harris is shrill and annoying trying to be convincing as a 12 year old.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

harris' shreaking hysterics give me a headache

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

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Fred Zinnemann

Director

Ethel Waters

Bernice Sadie Brown

Julie Harris

Frankie Addams

Brandon De Wilde

John Henry

Arthur Franz

Jarvis

Nancy Gates

Janice

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Bosley Crowther

New York Times

The story is pleasantly enacted and the scenery and skiing are superb.

Rated: 3.5/5

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Dull and droopy -- a stage transplant that didn't take.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Manny Farber

The Nation

Though the Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers's prize-winning play about the last days of childhood, betrays its stage origin on the screen, it has been made into a somewhat amusing, and moving, sometimes improbable picture.

Nov 24, 2020

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Zinnemann manages to retain McCullers' narrative poetry in this sterling adaptation, and remains one of those aching, forlorn vintage classics worthy of greater renown.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 30, 2020

Full Review

Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

The camera's cruel literalness makes it all too obvious that talented Julie Harris is a mature actress, rather than the agonized southern adolescent she portrays. Despite the film's evident sincerity, it is too thin dramatically.

Dec 3, 2019

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

The film often betrays its stage roots, with its single setting and long stretches of dialogue, but Zinnemann wisely steps back and allows the actors to carry it.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 4, 2019

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Synopsis

Bookish tomboy Frankie Addams (Julie Harris) doesn't get along with the rest of the girls in her tiny southern town. Depressed, socially isolated and perched on the verge of adolescence, Frankie takes refuge with the family maid, Berenice (Ethel Waters), and pals around with her young cousin, John Henry (Brandon de Wilde), while secretly fantasizing about going away with her brother, Jarvis (Arthur Franz), and his new bride, Janice (Nancy Gates), on their honeymoon to Alaska.

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Screenwriter: Carson McCullers, Edna Anhalt, Edward Anhalt
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Stanley Kramer Company
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 30, 1952, Original
Sound Mix: Mono, Stereo