Monday, December 5, 2011

Judy Holliday in Full of Life (1956)

In this, Judy Holliday's second to last film, she plays Emily Rocco, wife of Nick, a struggling, first generation Italian American author. Nick has had his first bit of success and has bought a small home in Southern California and now that they're settled Emily has gotten pregnant. When the kitchen floor collapses on them, they find themselves in a bind. Unable to pay for the repairs, they must travel to Sacramento to enlist the help of Nick's immigrant father Salvatore, a stone mason. The stormy relationship between father and son is difficult for Emily to understand and she tries to help them come to terms as they bring Salvatore back with them to help with the floor. Along the way Nick and Emily begin to understand how a bit of the old ways of family and community can make life more meaningful.
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This charming, if sentimental film allows Holliday to exhibit a much more naturalistic style of acting than is usually seen in her performances. It's extremely hard to find. There hasn't been a DVD release of it to date, though a VHS was released in 1998 and can still be found on Amazon - though the price can be dear. There is no online video of it anywhere that I can find. I first saw it on Antenna TV. It's been in rotation there for a few weeks and may air again.

Obscurity factor: 10 (very hard to find, not on DVD or YouTube, on VHS)

1 comment:

  1. It shows up on TCM every once in a while.

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