Catalog Search Results
Series
Criterion collection volume 860
Language
English
Description
"Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford's career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a...
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
As Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn becomes a venomous serpent's tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations.
Series
Criterion collection volume 1012
Language
Español
Appears on list
Description
In an instant, nurse Manuela loses the teenage son she raised on her own. Grief-stricken, she sets out to search for the boy's long-lost father in Barcelona, where she reawakens into a new maternal role, at the head of a surrogate family that includes a pregnant, HIV-positive nun; an illustrious star of the stage; and a transgender sex worker.
4) Claudine
Series
Language
English
Description
"While struggling to support herself and her six children in Harlem by working as a maid for a wealthy family, Claudine (Carroll) meets a charming garbage man, Roop (James Earl Jones). But although Roop is smitten with the lovely single mother, his own life trials make him slow to respond to her invitation to a lifetime of love"--Container.
Series
Language
English
Description
It explores the friendship between two struggling single mothers: one a working-class white woman who ascends to the top of the business world, and the other her Black housekeeper, whose life is shattered by the rejection of her rebellious, white-passing daughter. It is this latter relationship attuned to America's bitter racial realities and heartbreakingly enacted by trailblazing Black performers Beavers and Washington that lends the film its transcendent...
6) Claudine
Series
Criterion collection volume 1052
Language
English
Description
Claudine is a strong-willed single mother, raising six kids in Harlem, whose budding relationship with a gregarious garbage collector is stressed by the difficulty of getting by in an oppressive system. This romantic comedy with a social conscience deftly balances warm humor with a serious look at the myriad issues, from cycles of poverty to the indignities of the welfare system, that shape its characters' realities. The result is a bittersweet, bighearted...