Best And Worst Mothers In Film

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Happy Mothers Day!
Who do you think are the best and worst characters who were mothers in a film. This is what I think-

BEST
Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama (1948)

WORST
Shelley Winters in A Patch Of Blue (1965)

[Fedya]

The first that comes to mind for best is Beulah Bondi in Of Human Hearts.

For worst, there's Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People and Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata.

[umop apisdn]

BEST
Anne Revere in National Velvet (1944)

WORST
Gladys Cooper in Now, Voyager (1942)

[Belle]

Worst: Shelley Winters in "Lolita", 1962 Kubrick

Best: Dorothy McGuire, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", 1945 Kazan

[Swithin]

The great Beulah Bondi played numerous benevolent mothers, and at least one bad mother: as Aunt Molly Matthews in The Shepherd of the Hills (1941). On his deathbed, her son "Pete tells his mother that he remembers when she was gentle and loving but that she is now the one who curses the family. At dawn, Mollie lights a funeral pyre around her son and stays with him as the house is engulfed in flames." (Description in quotes from the TCM site.)

[jamesjazzguitar]

The great Beulah Bondi played numerous benevolent mothers, and at least one bad mother: as Aunt Molly Matthews in The Shepherd of the Hills (1941). On his deathbed, her son "Pete tells his mother that he remembers when she was gentle and loving but that she is now the one who curses the family. At dawn, Mollie lights a funeral pyre around her son and stays with him as the house is engulfed in flames." (Description in quotes from the TCM site.)

Bondi was a very bad mom in the film The Very Thought of You, with Eleanor Parker.

[Uncle Charlie]

Best Mother: Margaret Wycherley as Ma Jarrett in White Heat
Worst Mother: Margaret Wycherley as Ma Jarrett in White Heat

[Belle]

Worst Mother: Jo van Fleet, "East of Eden", 1955 Elia Kazan
Best Mother: Sally Field, "Steel Magnolias" 1989 Herbert Ross

[Swithin]

Best mother: Aline MacMahon in Mary Jane's Pa
Worst mother: Dora Bryan in A Taste of Honey

[Lomm]

I guess Mommy Dearest is a bit too on the nose for this thread?

[Swithin]

I guess Mommy Dearest is a bit too on the nose for this thread?

If we want to get a bit far out, we can ask, into which category, best or worst, would Samantha Eggar in The Brood fall?