The Member of the Wedding (film)

The Member of the Wedding is a 1952 drama directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Ethel Waters and Julie Harris. The story is set in a small Southern town. Frankie Addams is an awkward, moody twelve-year-old girl whose only friends are her young cousin John Henry and her black housekeeper Berenice. Co-starring as a drunken soldier who tries to take advantage of the vulnerable Frankie is former child actor Dick Moore, making his last film appearance.

Later versions of McCuller's play were done for television, with Claudia McNeil playing Berenice in 1958, then Pearl Bailey performing the part in 1982. Julie Harris was nominated for an Academy Award® for her performance, but lost to Shirley Booth, who won for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952).^[1]

Plot summary

Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie (Julie Harris) runs away from her middle-class southern home. She endures several other adolescent traumas, not least of which is the sudden death of her bespectacled young cousin John Henry (Brandon De Wilde). With the help of warmhearted housekeeper Berenice Sadie Brown (Ethel Waters), Frankie eventually makes an awkward transition to young womanhood.^[2]

Cast

• Ethel Waters as Berenice Sadie Brown
• Julie Harris as Frankie Addams
• Brandon De Wilde as John Henry
• Arthur Franz as Jarvis Addams
• Nancy Gates as Janice
• William Hansen as Mr. Addams
• James Edwards as Honey Camden Brown
• Harry Bolden as T.T. Williams
• Dickie Moore as Soldier

References

External links

• The Member of the Wedding at the Internet Movie Database
• The Member of the Wedding at AllMovie
• The Member of the Wedding at the TCM Movie Database
• The Member of the Wedding at the American Film Institute Catalog