I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie Review

They don't make 'em like they used to.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 13, 2024

George Stevens' I Remember Mama was released near the end of the most prolific period of his career; it's one of 35 feature films he directed between 1930 and 1948, with future classics like A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant, and The Diary of Anne Frank just around the corner in the next decade. This durable drama is all heart, well-made and engaging with great performances from top to bottom including four Academy Award nominations for actors Irene Dunne, Oscar Homolka, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Ellen Corby. Needless to say, it's held up well during the last 76 years.

Irene Dunne, already writing her acceptance speech.

The plot isn't exactly secondary to I Remember Mama's flow and overall atmosphere, but this sturdy and emotionally-driven period piece is told though a series of flashbacks best hinted at rather than fully explained. It unfolds from the adult perspective of Katrin Hansen (Bel Geddes), who's finally finishing up a novel inspired by her life, and it almost entirely concerns her formative family years beginning in San Francisco circa 1910. The daughter of hardy Norwegian immigrants Marta (Dunne) and Lars (Philip Dorn), Katrin also has three younger siblings in teenage Nels (Steve Brown), Christine (Peggy McIntyre), and little Dagmar (June Hedin). That's just the tip of the family iceberg but we're shown immediately that the Hansens struggle to make ends meet, going over their budget line by line (above) and literally making every penny, nickel, and dime count. When Nels shows a desire to continue his education through high school, his siblings volunteer to get jobs to help pay for expenses. This sets the tone for what's ultimately a close-knit and moving family drama, one with no shortage of highs, lows, celebrations, and tragedies along the way.

Some detours are more interesting than others; the first concerns Marta's sister Trina (Ellen Corby), who's pledged to marry timid undertaker Peter Thorkelson (Edgar Bergen), much to the disapproval of older sisters Jenny (Hope Landin) and Sigrid (Edith Evanson). The Hansons' likeable but penniless boarder Jonathan Hyde (Cedric Hardwicke) makes a big impression by reading from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and the later arrival of gruff but loveable uncle Chris Halvorsen (Oscar Homolka) and his common-law wife Jessie (Barbara O'Neil) adds another layer of flavor to the story. Yet few events change this film's early direction more than the sudden but necessary hospitalization of little Dagmar, who is suffering from a rare infection but longs to return home and see her beloved cat, Uncle Elizabeth.

Eventually the past and present converge, with later brief portions of I Remember Mama concerning now-current developments in the family's life and Katrin's struggle to get her book published. Not surprisingly, this combination of past and present perspectives gives its narrative a mixture of mature reflection and presumed nostalgic bias, but to its credit I Remember Mama remains remarkably measured for a melodrama released during this period in film history. It's lightly sugar-coated but still feels authentic and genuine, and I've no doubt that the film's source material -- a same-named 1944 play by John Van Druten, which was itself based on Kathryn Forbes' novel Mama's Bank Account, written a year earlier -- expresses similar sentiments in a like-minded manner. The ends result is a sturdy and well-crafted drama that's easy to get caught up in, due in part to both Stevens' workmanlike direction and the committed performances of all involved. Not surprisingly, I Remember Mama plays extremely well on Blu-ray thanks to Warner Archive, who were finally able to advance upon their parent company's 2004 DVD with another top-tier A/V restoration.

I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Don't let the opening moments fool you: I Remember Mama leads off with an extremely foggy view of San Francisco (natch) and a series of cleverly-staged shots that depict older Katrin through a dirty mirror. Once we actually see these nitrate preservation elements for what they really are, the bulk of Warner Archive's new 1080p transfer is as impressive as you'd expect for the boutique label. Image detail is striking in almost all respects, from the period specific production design to the family's clothes, and daytime exteriors are predictably crisp and vibrant which really helps to establish a strong backdrop. Black levels and contrast are well-appointed and only waver during the occasionally "dupey" looking shot, but the wide majority of this recent 4K-scanned transfer was clearly taken from the nitrate negative and carefully handled. No inexcusable damage remains but film grain appears to be authentic to its source, and the boutique label's typically solid disc encoding ensures that it plays with no apparent signs of posterization, macro blocking, banding, or other such compression artifacts. All told, it's a great-looking disc that fans are sure to appreciate.

I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio likewise represents its source material very well; only trace levels of hiss remain, likely untouched so as not to compromise the film's dynamic range. Not surprisingly, this is a very dialogue-heavy film and even with varying levels of respectable Norwegian accents (Irene Dunne's is particularly good), everything's largely easy to understand and follow. (The optional English SDH subtitles might help a little, though.) All other facets of this split mono presentation are also up to snuff, from background effects to RKO mainstay Roy Webb's original score, rounding out I Remember Mama's audio presentation about as well as possible under the circumstances.

I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with original poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts of any kind. Extras are predictably minimal and limited to the original RKO theatrical trailer, which are extremely rare to get.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:46) - Also seen here, this rare trailer may have been sourced from a kinescope.

I Remember Mama Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

George Stevens' I Remember Mama takes its cues from a popular novel and play both released earlier in the 1940s, which were later adapted to both a long-running CBS TV series (Mama starring Peggy Wood) and a 1979 stage musical featuring songs by Richard Rodgers, Martin Charnin, and Raymond Jessel. Although I can't speak to the quality of those later productions, this 1948 film is a big-hearted favorite that plays well more than 75 years later and, quite simply, the world needs more positive family dramas right now. That's a roundabout way of saying 2024 is as good a time as any to get acquainted with I Remember Mama, thanks of course to Warner Archive's new Blu-ray and its accompanying restoration. Those who already love it, of course, should consider this a long-overdue family reunion.