I Remember Mama

This month Turner Classic Movies is featuring different celebrities who get to select the programming for an evening. Jerry Stiller was Robert Osborne's celebrity guest on Friday, and Jerry's top selection was "I Remember Mama," a George Stevens film from 1948. I hadn't seem this movie, and I was intrigued since it's about Norwegian immigrants (my mom is 100% Norwegian). The movie stars Irene Dunne as the mother. Dunne won the Oscar for her performance. Barbara Bel Geddes, better known to most of my readers as Miss Ellie on "Dallas," plays the daughter telling the story. Yes, the film is incredibly sentimental, syrupy, and dated. But it's also touching and earnest. True, most families probably have more in common with "Long Day's Journey Into Night" than with "I Remember Mama," but it was nice to watch this good story about my Norwegian forebears. The characters are all the kind of people you wish you knew. While it's been said that nostalgia is the rust of our memory, this movie makes me glad that my memory is a bit rusty. 4 stars.