BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

JohnHowardReid Producer: Clarence Brown. Copyright 18 January 1932 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Distributing Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 5 February 1932. U.S. release: January 1932. 8 reels. 73 minutes. (Available on an excellent Warner DVD).SYNOPSIS: Emma, who in 1911 is the nanny of a famous inventor's large family by 1931 has married the inventor (Jean Hersholt), to his snobbish children's consternation. The only child who truly loves and understands her, Richard Cromwell, whom she had slapped into life after his existence was despaired of at birth twenty years before, is killed in an airplane accident. Loy is on hand as the meany daughter who tries to rob Dressler of inherited fortune and reputation by claiming in court that she dispatched her father under suspicious circumstances. But of course, Dressler triumphs in the end.NOTES: Another box-office triumph for Marie Dressler, this one was third at American ticket windows to The Kids from Spain and Grand Hotel in 1932. Miss Dressler was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for Best Actress, losing to Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet.Number 7 in the Film Daily's annual "Best Movies of the Year" poll of U.S. critics.COMMENT: This weepie was obviously designed solely as a star vehicle for Marie Dressler. If you like Miss Dressler, fine. Otherwise you're left with a rather sudsy story, against which the director's flowing camera-work can make little headway. However, it's unusual to find Myrna Loy as the heavy, even though she was playing such roles at this stage in her career. She plays a murderess who menaces heroine, Irene Dunne, in "Thirteen Women" (1932) for instance. No, I'm not spoiling that excellent movie for you. We know she's a killer in this thriller right from the start!

wes-connors Hefty housekeeper Marie Dressler (as Emma) becomes the surrogate mother to a wealthy Long Island family, after their mother dies, giving birth to Richard Cromwell (as Ronnie). While helping her prepare for a well-deserved Niagara Falls vacation, family father Jean Hersholt (as Smith) startles Ms. Dressler by proposing marriage; and, the trip becomes a honeymoon. Back home, only Mr. Cromwell, Dressler's favorite "son", celebrates the marriage. The three other Smith children (George Meeker, Myrna Loy, and Barbara Kent) are furious; they feel the ailing Mr. Hersholt married a mere "servant", who will steal the family fortune.This is Marie Dressler at her sentimental best; assisted by an apt MGM team, including Clarence Brown (director), Oliver Marsh (photographer), and Frances Marion (writer). Dressler won a "Best Actress" Academy Award" for a previous effort, "Min and Bill" (1930); however, her "Emma" is a stronger characterization. This more deserved "Best Actress" nomination became the Academy Awards' #2 choice for the 1931/32 eligibility period; in the voting, Dressler was just behind winner Helen Hayes (in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet"). Dressler should have won for "Emma", rather than "Min and Bill".Richard Cromwell and Jean Hersholt might have been nominated as "Best Supporting Actors"; but, the category was not introduced until 1936 (Dressler would have likely won the 1929/30 award, in this category, for "Anna Christie"). Parts of "Emma" have not aged well, especially some of the early, yet important, scenes. But, its strengths make up for these weaknesses. Watch for the scene in which Dressler throws her ungrateful step-children out of the house. This is followed by a scene with Dressler being "haunted" by the "ghosts" of the little Smith children; it's an extraordinarily touching "special effect". And, it all works so well due to Dressler.Dressler is unfairly called a "scene stealer"; most of the time, she was just very good. If you were good, you kept up with her. With material to work with, Dressler's co-stars are just as memorable. Note, how, in lesser roles, Cromwell and Hersholt compliment Dressler's "Emma" perfectly. Both Hersholt and Dressler play his "death scene" beautifully. And, Cromwell's one-word description of "Emma" is the film's most lingering. You won't forget it.********* Emma (1/2/32) Clarence Brown ~ Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy

Robert J. Maxwell I must have missed something here because the movie seems to have found so many receptive viewers, but it's necessary to call them as I see them. And this one is a ball, wide and outside.The tale puts Marie Dressler in the role of Mammy in "Gone With the Wind," except that Mammy, or Emma, in this case being Caucasian, she gets to marry the rich doctor after his wife dies in childbirth.Of the four children, only one, Ronnie, is gay and loving towards her. The girls are snobs. When the dead doc leaves everything to Emma, Emma of course wants to give it to the children, but the girls gang up on her and Emma is accused of murdering the doc, while Ronnie, flying to her rescue, dies in a crash. Emma is found not guilty but, realizing that she has no place in the home any longer, after 32 years, she bids the girls adieu and heads for the unemployment office or rather -- what is it called now? The Employment Assistance Ministry? Anyway, in 1931, it was the unemployment office, and it still is, though they transpose the name into Esperanto. Not to fear. Emma finds another loving family exactly like the dead doc's and everything ends happily.Marie Dressler is unimposing in every way except for her physical bulk. Her performance is of the period, as is the sob story. The comic element is limited to Emma's fake solo in a flight trainer. I can't find the slightest thing original about it, nothing that would separate it from dozens of other movies made during the early thirties.It isn't a BAD flick. And Marie Dressler may have been a fine and loving person. It's the movie and just about everything in it that never rises above the precisely routine.

nickandrew This is one of the rare melodramas from 1930's MGM that is really not outdated as others. It is a funny, but genuinely touching story of a devoted housekeeper (Dressler) who marries her wealthy employer, which does not settle well with his grown children. Dressler is just perfect and the ending is so perfect and bittersweet.