Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
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Blossoms in the Dust Movie Review
Blossoms in the Dust is a 1941 biographical melodrama film directed by Mervin LeRoy and starring Greer Garson. It’s an overly sappy movie.
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“There are no illegitimate children.
There are only illegitimate parents!“
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It tells the true story of Edna Gladney, who helped orphaned children find homes and began a campaign to remove the word “illegitimate” from Texas birth certificates, despite the opposition of “good” citizens. While this story is definitely very specific for its state and not that well known outside of it, it was still a solid fit for big screen treatment, and simply the fact that it deals with such an important issue was admirable as we rarely see homelessness and orphans portrayed in movies of the period.
With that being said, although the movie is inspirational in its figure and message, the overall storytelling was typical for the biopics and full of clichés, in particular of the melodramatic sort. Too many overly tragic things happen, making the movie laughably manipulative emotionally speaking. They sought so hard to make audiences cry, which perhaps they succeeded at in its time, but nowadays it felt obvious in its intentions.
Greer Garson is the heart of the film and the highlight as the lady undoubtedly elevated what could have been just a straightforward, typical role to much greater heights. She undoubtedly deserved her Oscar nomination as her performance is full of heart. She was typecast for sure, but still it was a great choice to take an actress who could excel at this type of role the most.
Others unfortunately could not compare, not just in acting, but also in characterization as we do not get a whole lot of time to get to know them better. Walter Pidgeon and Marsha Hunt make the most out of their roles, but still this remains a Greer Garson show through and through.
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As for the technicalities, Blossoms in the Dust was one of the rare Oscar-nominated movies this year that was shot in color, and it definitely looks solid, earning those technical noms in my opinion. The production design and the costumes are particularly strong. However, the pacing is bad, the movie felt longer than it should have and the story overall is just serviceable. Obviously its Best Picture nod was ludicrous.
