1940 – Marjorie Rambeau
Primrose Path
I’ll start this off by saying that the character of Mamie Adams, as played by Marjorie Rambeau surprised me, and that was a good thing. At the beginning of the movie, she comes on the screen and into the plot like a bit of a whirlwind. It is clear, right from the start that she is cheating on her sloppy drunk of a husband, though it is just as clear that she loves him at the same time. But then, as the film progresses, her character deepens and shows complexity and even a bit of pathos.
I can see why Rambeau was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award. She created a real character with both good and bad characteristics. She was multi-layered. At first, I didn’t like her, but by the end I did. And when it came to her death scene, I felt for her. All that being said, there seemed to be those two sides to the character of Mamie that Rambeau nailed. The good and the bad.
The way Rambeau played the bad girl was wanton and unapologetic. She was a party girl who liked to go out and have a good time. Her first appearance on the screen had her coming home from a festival, bragging to her family about the rich man she’d fooled around with. She’d spent money on frivolous things that could have been better spent feeding and clothing her children. And when tending her drunk husband, she carelessly coddled him and gave him money to go buy more alcohol, feeding his addiction and perpetuating his inebriation. Rambeau easily made her seem flippant and unapologetic.
But on the opposite side of that coin, she actually did love her husband in a strange way, just as she loved and cared for her two daughters. Rambeau brought out a kind of strength and compassion in the woman who made no secret about her extramarital affairs. And upon learning that her eldest daughter had fallen in love, she sat with her and tried to give her a bit of advice, misguided as it might have been. And she even cried for her daughter as the girl took her first steps into womanhood and the dangerous world of men and love. Rambeau pulled it all off with confidence and even a bit of flare. She made me like Mamie Adams, despite her flaws, and that can’t be an easy thing to do.