Leopoldine Konstantin gave a deeply disturbing performance that gave me the creeps anyway and she was in reality only three years older than Claude Rains her 'son' in the film.
shareAccording to Robert Osbourne, the role of Madame Sebastian was initially offered to Ethel Barrymore, who declined, making Leopoldine Konstantin possibly the most fortuitous "second choice" since Judy Garland got to play Dorothy because Fox would not loan out Shirley Temple to MGM.
Mme Konstantine plays this woman as a black widow spider; when we first see her, it is in a long shot, coming down the stairs of her home to greet Alicia (Ingrid Bergman); as she says "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting," her pleasant words are given the lie by the utter deadness of her eyes; it's as if she is looking through Alicia and seeing nothing.
She's about as maternal as Mrs Iselin in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE; one could read in a touch of incest to the relationship between Alex and his mother, though not nearly as obvious as in the Frankenheimer film. And when her son finally confesses to her "I am married to an American agent," she is almost ecstatic; her eyes shine for once, and she gloats, "I saw it coming. I knew. I knew."
It's a chilling performance that makes me sorry she did not make more films in Hollywood.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><
I was also thinking of Mrs. Iselin as the creepiest mom title.
If we can save humanity, we become the caretakers of the world
You can also throw in Margaret White (Piper Laurie) in Brian De Palma's CARRIE and although she is a figment of her son's imagination, Norma Bates from PSYCHO fits the bill too. And if you've never seen it, check out ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO, in which Barbara O'Neil plays the Duchesse de Praslin, a mother who is not so much evil as demented and hysterical; O'Neil is edgy and wild, in contrast to the film's star, Bette Davis, who delivers one of her most subdued performances here. To see these two women square off is something.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><
I agree, and I have seen All This And Heaven Too. The mother in that story reminds me of the mother of Tina in Now Voyager. What people do for total control.
If we can save humanity, we become the caretakers of the world
Whaaaaat? Only three years older!? That's insane!
Thanks for that bit of insight, I won't be able to help constantly thinking about the next time I watch the film.
It's not over, everybody betrayed me! I'm fed up with this world!
Another example of a very small age difference between mother and son is Jessie Royce Landis and Cary Grant in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. There were only a few years difference in their ages, yet JRL played CG's mother in that film.
shareAnother example of an age difference like that is Angela Lansbury and Lawrence Harvey in the original, and stunning Manchurian Candidate. Angela was in no way old enough to play Harvey's mother, but it worked!
And in a totally non-creepy situation, just to throw in the other side of the coin, Sean Connery was only ten or eleven years older than Harrison Ford when they starred in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I guess that's why it is called acting!
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.
"Sean Connery was only ten or eleven years older than Harrison Ford when they starred in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
In "The Vikings", Ernest Borgnine played Kirk Douglas's father, but was actually younger than Douglas.
A mother who is deeply involved with her sons work is hard to deal with. I know, my MIL was much like this. Very frustrating.
shareI'd agree with "creepy" and add outright "Evil"! My observations about Mrs Iselin and Norman Bates have already been mentioned, but does Joan Crawford (as played by Faye Dunaway) in "Mommie Dearest" count as "creepy", or rather psycho and abusive? I suppose you have to skulk around a lot to be creepy, which Joan certainly doesn't do!
Oddly enough, another creepy mother seems modeled on Konstantin's character. I refer to very anti-Nazi, "Inga" (Hanna Shuygulla) in the psychological thriller "Dead Again". She is the devoted servant to immigrant composer Roman Strauss (Kenneth Branagh), who supposedly saved him as he and his wife were escaping Nazi Germany. She also loves him obsessively and is not at all happy when he marries a beautiful pianist, Margaret (Emma Thompson).
Don't get me wrong...
It might be unbelievable,
But let's not say so long
The only mother creepier than her has been dead for 10 years.
shareI totally agree with you. She was amazing in this film and the fact that she was skipped over for an Oscar nomination for this part is a crying shame. She definitely earned it here.
I have often thought that this film planted the seed for Hitchcock's later Psycho. The twisted relationship of Mother and her son. He is very much like Norman, doing Mother's gruesome bidding. They are very similar!
Random Thoughts: http://goo.gl/eXk3O