The Actress

This is a wonderful movie about the life of young Ruth Gordon, who would grow up to be an actress and famous writer. She was married to Garson Kanin and wrote many of the films of Tracy and Hepburn. Tracy is wonderful in one of his "dad" roles, as are the other leads in the film. Debbie Reynolds was originally to play Ruth but Simmons was cast instead and she is indeed brilliant in the movie. She is touching and very funny, very much a young girl driving her parents crazy. Tony Perkins is also very good as her boyfriend. Best of all, and not mentioned in most of the other reviews here, is Teresa Wright as the mother. She is a riot in the part and was only 11 years older than Simmons in real life. She had taken a reduction in pay for another great film, The Men, and this was one of her other really good parts in the fifties after so many great parts in the forties. The part is sort of like her last one, in The Rainmaker, as a simple kind of person. She played them wonderfully and was very funny in both.