The Member of the Wedding

Twelve-year-old Frankie Addams lives in a small town in the American South without feeling she belongs anywhere. She is neither a child nor a young woman; she has no friends and no mother. As her brother's wedding approaches she gets an idea into her head: she will go with the couple, she will be part of them. Berenice, who looks after her in the kitchen, and her small cousin John Henry are her whole world. Fred Zinnemann's film comes from the Broadway play Carson McCullers adapted from her own novel, and much of the stage cast is in the film too. Almost all of it takes place in the kitchen and moves through talk. Julie Harris plays Frankie and Ethel Waters plays Berenice. Harris was nominated for an Oscar for the part. The telling gives the loneliness of adolescence without dressing it up.