Blossoms in the Dust (1941)

25% of critics liked it
(8 reviews)
81% of users liked it
(323 ratings)

Greer Garson is dignity and integrity personified in the role of the real-life Edna Gladney. After several life experiences which rival daytime drama for unrelenting misery and melodrama, Edna marries flour-mill owner Sam Gladney (Walter Pidgeon). They have a baby, who dies shortly after Edna… More Greer Garson is dignity and integrity personified in the role of the real-life Edna Gladney. After several life experiences which rival daytime drama for unrelenting misery and melodrama, Edna marries flour-mill owner Sam Gladney (Walter Pidgeon). They have a baby, who dies shortly after Edna discovers that she can never have any other children. To give her life some meaning, Edna sets up the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society, which specializes in caring for illegitimate children and offering them for adoption. After her husband's death, Edna becomes a powerful political figure, succeeding in removing the stigma of illegitimacy by having that word stricken from all future Texas birth certificates; in this way, she honors the memory of her own half sister, who had killed herself upon discovering she was born out of wedlock. MGM thought enough of Blossoms in the Dust to film the production in Technicolor, a luxury usually reserved in 1941 for musicals or Westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.
Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy
Written By: Anita Loos
Genres: Drama, Classics

In Theaters: Jul 25, 1941 Wide

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
Result is a sentimentally sugary flavor which also extends over the romantic portions of the film. There is no comedy relief.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
With lovely Greer Garson playing the leading role, the spirit of the story is maintained on a level generally above its frequent insipid spots.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
It was a noble deed and a noble effort to make a biography about a woman who was virtually unknown outside Texas, but the picture was long, overly teary, and didn't excite too many people at the box office, although it did make money.
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com
Littered with stilted melodrama, wooden dialogue, and over-the-top courtroom showdowns.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
One of the weakest films to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, this biopic of Edna Gladney is uncharacteristically poorly scripted by Anita Loos and poorly helmed by Mervyn LeRoy.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
So intent on packing as many events as possible into a relatively slim 100 minutes that it can't devote enough time to developing any of them.
Tom Milne, Time Out
Pretty Technicolor, but the tearjerking is shameless.
, Film4
This successful weepy revealed Garson's red hair in Technicolor for the first time, but was more significant for being the first of eight films she made with Pidgeon.