Southern writer Carson McCullers's stories of loneliness and alienation are difficult to translate to theater and film because they are about character and emotion rather than plot or action. The Member of the Wedding (1952), based on McCullers's third novel of the same name, was the first to make a successful transition into other mediums. McCullers herself adapted her 1946 novel for a 1950 Broadway production, and a film based on the play was made two years later.

The story is set in a small Southern town. Frankie Addams is an awkward, moody twelve year old girl whose only friends are her young cousin John Henry and her black housekeeper Berenice. When her older brother Jarvis arrives for his wedding, Frankie decides that the answer to her loneliness is to become a "member of the wedding," and decides to leave town to live with the newlyweds. In spite of Berenice's gentle efforts to dissuade her, Frankie is devastated when her plans are thwarted. The play ran for more than 500 performances and earned the Drama Critics Circle award for best play.

Producer Stanley Kramer won a bidding war by offering McCullers $75,000 plus ten percent of the profits for the screen rights to The Member of the Wedding. Kramer had been an independent producer since the late 1940s, making provocative, well-respected films about social issues such as racism in the armed forces (Home of the Brave, 1949) and disabled veterans (The Men, 1950), and critically acclaimed but financially unsuccessful film versions of plays such as Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) and Death of a Salesman (1951). In 1951, Kramer accepted an offer from Columbia chief Harry Cohn to make his own films at Columbia without studio interference, as long as he did not exceed a budget of $980,000 per film. Kramer, whose last independent film before moving to Columbia was the enormously successful High Noon (1952), made six films for Columbia in 1952, including The Member of the Wedding.

The leading actors from the stage production recreated their roles for the film version. Top-billed Ethel Waters, who played Berenice, was a Broadway musical legend, and had also appeared in several films. For 26-year old Julie Harris, who played the 12-year old Frankie, it would be her first major film role. Ten-year-old Brandon De Wilde, who played John Henry, had made his acting debut in the play. Because the actors had been together so long, and knew their characters so well, director Fred Zinnemann recalled in his autobiography that "Working with the actors was pure joy and not too much of a creative effort...my job was, in a sense, to transfer to the screen a work that was already powerfully alive." His major task was getting the actors to tone down their large stage performances for the camera. Harris and De Wilde adapted easily, but Waters "was so wedded to her mechanics that she needed enormous persuasion to make a change...Sometimes when I insisted, she would look heavenward and say, 'God is my director.'" Screenwriter Edward Anhalt later recalled that Waters and Zinnemann clashed often. She said the director "stood too straight," and when they disagreed she refused to come out of her dressing room, ignoring Zinnemann's pleas. Zinnemann had nothing but praise for Harris's performance, but in an interview the actress remembered that it was difficult for her to tone down her stage performance, and she was frustrated by the pace of filmmaking, finding it difficult to stay focused while performing "in bits and pieces."

Critics applauded the effort, but found some problems with the film version of The Member of the Wedding. Most had praise for the performances, especially Waters's. Time called it "richly compassionate," and Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said that Waters "glows with a warmth of personality and understanding." He also liked De Wilde, calling him "delightfully mettlesome and humorous." But some felt the camera's relentless eye did Harris no favors. "Her passionate and volatile portrayal...is technically as graphic as anyone could ask, and even, under present circumstances, it gives off a lot of fervid heat. It is just that the camera unmasks it as a skillful professional exercise," Crowther wrote. Time agreed: "But for all her lightning range, the ruthless close-up camera reveals the fact that this is a 26-year old actress play-acting at being a twelve-year old girl."

Another problem the film revealed was the staginess of the single set, in spite of Zinnemann's best efforts. "All that Director Fred Zinnemann has been able to contrive in the way of camera angles, lighting and cutting has not been sufficient to disguise the paucity of dramatic action and the weight of repetition in the film," according to Crowther. The insertion of a scene from the book that had not been in the play, when Frankie goes roaming through a sketchy section of town, was praised as the most cinematic. In spite of the problems, most critics found much to like in The Member of the Wedding. Time's final verdict: "The total effect is nonetheless a film poem. In Fred Zinnemann's direction, it often reaches successfully for that most elusive of movie qualities--the catch in the throat."

Julie Harris was nominated for an Academy Award® for her performance, but lost to Shirley Booth, who won for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). But the film did not do well at the box office, and there were no profits for McCullers to collect her ten-percent. In his autobiography, Kramer ruefully noted that "The Member of the Wedding was the fourth Broadway play in a row that I had converted into a flop." But he added, "I still believe that pictures like The Member of the Wedding...had importance." For Zinnemann, "It has always been my favorite picture...perhaps because of the quality of pure love that seems to radiate from it so strongly."

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Screenplay: Edna Anhalt, Edward Anhalt; based on the novel by Carson McCullers
Cinematography: Hal Mohr
Editor: William A. Lyon
Production Design: Rudolph Sternad
Art Direction: Cary Odell
Music: Alex North
Principal Cast: Ethel Waters (Berenice Sadie Brown), Julie Harris (Frances "Frankie" Addams), Brandon De Wilde (John Henry), Arthur Franz (Jarvis Addams), Nancy Gates (Janice), William Hansen (Mr. Addams), James Edwards (Honey Camden Brown), Harry Bolden (T.T. Williams), Dick Moore (Soldier).
BW- 93m.

by Margarita Landazuri