The Actress

Based on Ruth Gordon's play Years Ago about her childhood, The Actress is a good and uplifting tale about a young girl following her dream. Young Ruth Gordon Jones living in a Boston suburb dreams about going on stage. She doesn't get too much encouragement from her parents, Spencer Tracy and Teresa Wright.

That does not stop our Ruth. She's determined to make it in the theater, but there is a matter of cash.

Spencer Tracy is a former seaman who now works at a lowly factory job and needs every dime to support wife, daughter, and a cat that's not particularly fond of him. This is not one of Tracy's better known roles and that's a pity because it's one of his best performances.

He downplays his daughter's ambitions almost until the very end of the film. I won't reveal any more, but there is an interesting dinner scene which is the key to the film. Very similar to the breakfast scene with Adolphe Menjou and Kate Hepburn in State of the Union where he tells them of his ideas for when and if he becomes president. Only here he tells the family the reasons for why believes as he does.

Although Jean Simmons was well beyond being a senior in high school she's a good enough actress to make it believable. It was certainly a more innocent time.

The Actress is a fine production from MGM and director George Cukor, pity it isn't out on VHS or DVD.

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.

Thought I had seen all of Spencer Tracy films and this is one I thought he gave an outstanding performance as a man who was a seaman and has settled down with his wife and daughter. Clinton Jones, (Spencer Tracy) settled for a very low income working at a food company in the local town and is always complaining about the cost of things and at the same time has to deal with a family cat which keeps eating the families Boston Ivy. Annie Jones, (Teresa Wright) plays the role as the wife of Clinton and she does a great job as trying to please her husband and at the same time wants to help her daughter, Ruth Gordon Jones, (Jean Simmons) to become an actress which she desperately wants to do in her life no matter what happens. Anthony Perkins, (Fred Whitmarsh) gave a great supporting role in one of his very first films in his long career of stardom. Ruth Gordon, wrote the story and screen play and she also is known for a great role she had in "Rosemary's Baby" '68. There is lots of great comedy and Spencer Tracy was outstanding.

"The Actress" released in 1953 by MGM, is a story apparently based on the life of actress Ruth Gordon. Here, a young Jean Simmons plays Ruth, "the actress." Simmons performance runs the gamut of happiness, sadness, and hopefulness -- in other words, just like many young people are. Simmons is obsessed with being an actress and will do anything for her dream. The story makes us ask ourselves: how many of us would sacrifice the life we know to pursue a dream? Anyway, the story is set in early 20th century New England, with Spencer Tracy playing Simmons father and Teresa Wright playing her mother. Tracy plays a stubborn and somewhat cantankerous role, a man hardened by life, and it just may be one of Tracy's finest performances. Wright plays the supportive mother to Simmons, although in reality Wright was only in her 30's here -- a good actress pushed prematurely into matronly roles. Both Ruth and her mother are afraid to tell Tracy about her acting ambitions, thinking he will hit the roof. Surprisingly, he does not, but he thinks she is not ready to be an actress and wants her to finish her education. One gets the impression that he had his own dreams, cut prematurely by reality -- marriage, children, and a working-class existence. The script is somewhat mundane and drags a bit at times, but the three principle actors are the real reason to watch this film. They do not disappoint. Also look for a young Anthony Perkins playing Simmons awkward boyfriend. This is not a big film, and it has some flaws, but still very much worthwhile.

This movie is so much more than a sentimental reminiscence. I'm not much at all for those "I remember..." mom or dad or whatever memory movies. Also, there are so many, many plays and movies about a family's career aspirations for a son, aspirations that get challenged because of what the son wants to do instead. Here we have a story set after the turn of the 20th century, about a working class father's career aspirations for his DAUGHTER - a career that will provide her with financial stability but isn't at all what she wants to do. Spencer Tracy plays a curmudgeon, working-class, not-at-all refined father in a role I've never seen him in before - and he's AMAZING. The dialogue has some one linters that are, at times, hysterical - any person who has every been embarrassed by their parents, or every had a parent say something like, "Why did you ever have to be so different?" will warm to this movie immediately. And the Mary Wickes moment is why she makes every movie better even if she's in it for less than 20 seconds.