Greer Garson, Blossoms in the Dust

as EDNA GLADNEY

Let's just get this out of the way: I found Blossoms in the Dust to be a huge load of piping hot crap. It is a picture that seeks to tell a tale of human valiance and compassion (as clearly shown by the opening intertitle in which we're told we are about to watch "the story of a great woman, and of the great work she is doing for humanity") and yet behind the thick veil of self-importance you'll find a film that's just a hasty reimagining of a rather ordinary story. At the center is Greer Garson, who, in spite of her endless well of graceful charm, can only go so far against a sea of sentimental contrivances and a poorly written script.

Putting my general distaste for children aside, I think it's safe to say that the story of a woman who fights for the rights of orphans is pretty unexciting. And apparently those in charge of Blossoms in the Dust thought so as well, given that they felt the need to stuff the narrative with as much contrived (and false) drama as possible. I admit that Garson does regal grace and hoity-toity sophisticate just perfectly (though that almost doesn't seem to matter given that I couldn't even find proof that Edna Gladney came from wealth). She's provided with unfortunate event after unfortunate event to which we are supposed to FEEL! for her, and when she's not being distressed over her fictional illegitimate foster sister's suicide (in real life Gladney was an illegitimate child herself, though the film wants us to believe she was legitimate even though she's here to break that taboo), distressed over her fictional son's death (in real life Gladney had had a near-deadly tubal pregnancy but had never actually given birth to anyone, much less a child who'd then go on to die), distressed over her husband's death (in real life Gladney's husband passed when she was 50), or distressed over someone wanting to adopt her favorite orphan, she's reciting speeches of motivational fluff about the rights of children. I say "recite" because at times it literally sounds as though she's standing there and reading off these horridly written lines from memory....I never felt as though Garson actually felt or believed all these things she was saying. In fact, I thought the performance as a whole was inconsistent--she'll look incredulous while blabbering out some dramatic monologue at one point, she'll provide some laughably bad acting at another point (her reaction to the death of her fake son comes to mind), and then she ends the film with some a rather lengthy scene with immaculate subtle acting. I'll say that Garson does pain very well, even if the acting is often supplemented with stupid dialogue ("humiliated...cheated...useless!"), and she has that delicate poise about her that keeps things at least bearable, but ultimately I was left feeling cold by it all.