Collin Wilcox

I agree with you. She was spectacularly nuanced; even in the way she said "I don't know" and shrugged her shoulders out of sync with her words. That's believed by profilers and interrogators to be a tell of questionable veracity. As perfect as she was in keeping the courtroom (and us) riveted with conflicting testimony and perjury, I think it was Tom's admission of feeling sorry for her that got him shot in the back.

Edit: Her Twilight Zone and two Alfred Hitchcock episodes are some of my favorites. She is vastly different and equally convincing in all four disparate roles.

Love talking about Wilcox I think I enjoy her testimony scene the best. It's the type of scene you would show in an acting class on how to do it. I mean she is perfect in every way. The way she jumps at the sound of the gavel when she's just realized Tom has no use of his left arm. She was worth watching even as the action is elsewhere. She gingerly puts her hand on the bible because she knows the truth will not be spoken. When she is telling her side of things she is trying so hard when all the time her partner in crime, father, is coaching her on. Mayella was pathetic, "a victim of cruel poverty and ignorance." Wonder what happened to her especially after her old man was put out of his misery.

Collin Wilcox was excellent in the part but anyone who thinks that her testimony is what got the guilty verdict knows little of the south in the 30's. Tom was guilty the minute he was arrested. Mayella could have taken the stand and stated that she lied and that Tom was completely innocent and the jury still would have come up with a guilty verdict. That is how the south was and may still be today. Ever heard of Emmett Till?

I don't know about you but it is almost impossible to steal a scene from Gregory Peck but Collin did that as Mayella in the courtroom when she announces "I've got something to say and then I ain't gonna say no more." That was her last ditch effort to save face. She winds up getting that guilty verdict for Tom.

I never had a chance to see her in To Kill A Mockingbird. I will have to look for it to be on tv or rent it.

Collin Wilcox played Swanee O'Teale in the TV Series, Christy. Swanee was the mother of Mountie O'Teale, the little girl that is mute till Christy sews new buttons on her coat.

Collin's portrayal of Swanee is breathtaking. She really nails the character, a poor, beaten down Appalachian woman trying to take of her family in desperate circumstances.

even though this is considered one of the best films ever i hadn't come across it before, funny thing about courtroom dramas, just hearing the words it sounds incredibly boring, at least it has always had that affect on me, but once you start watching it you're totally captured, of course this has much more dimensions than a courtroom drama, alot looks typical for a horror or monster movie, one scene (car window) looks exactly like night of the living dead, and being outside usa it also looks strange celebrating halloween in a story taking place in the 1930's, where i'm from that's just now becoming common. the trailer to this says "bring your children" while the cover here says "not suitable for children". i found it odd a movie from 1962 with major stars being shot in black and white, right off i recognised the actress from one of the most chilling and suspenseful twilight zone episodes "number 12 looks just like you" (and of course bill windom), as if twilight zone predicted the future to some extent with plastic surgery and other things that has become common in today's society, and who knows perhaps it will come true, narrator closing the twilight zone episode with "improbable? perhaps, but in an age of plastic surgery let us hesitate to say impossible.", it has more recently been adapted as a twilight zone radio drama (volume 24), i guess that's the one i'm referring to cause i'm more in touch with the radio version, the horrifying moment when the girl desperately tries to make her friend understand, who cheerfully replies the lines they're taught in school "life is pretty, life is fun, i am all and all is one", as the girl filled with horror as she then realises no one gets it. that episode in a way is similar to another twilight zone episode "the obsolete man". there are tons of actors in this movie from twilight zone, extraordinary really, the granny on the porch from "the incredible world of horace ford", the sheriff from "walking distance", who both play similar kind of people here, but the girl accusing tom robinson couldn't be further from this role in "number 12 looks just like you", and windom and duvall are both in the same twilight zone episode "miniature". i've read that some wanted this off the shelves because of some inappropriate words in it, that makes me just imagine all the great things i would have missed out on in my life if that had happened, and all the great art that would go to waste, i hope that day never comes, if anything this makes you think twice before using some words, so wiping out history doesn't seem to do anyone any good. beware of animal harm scenes in this towards a dog, running like crazy. also don't check out the trailer before the movie.



don't buy your b.s,
to gain popularity,
get me a better liar,
and i'll see you hired.

She also played Frankie, the role created on Broadway by Julie Harris, in a terrific TV version of "The Member of the Wedding" in 1958. It was directed by Robert Mulligan, the director of "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the Dupont Show of the Month and it rivals the great film version of "Member" which starred most of the Broadway cast (Harris, Ethel Waters, Brandon De Wilde). Unfortunately, this version has never been available commercially. I saw it at the Paley Center for Median in NYC and it's incredibly moving.

She is one of my favorite actresses from that period.