Member of the Wedding The 1952

The Member of the Wedding is a 1952 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Ethel Waters and Julie Harris. The story is set in a small town in the Southern United States. Frankie Addams is an awkward, moody 12-year-old tomboy whose only friends are her young cousin John Henry and her black housekeeper Berenice. Co-starring as a drunken soldier who tries to take advantage of the vulnerable Frankie is former child actor Dick Moore, making his last film appearance. Julie Harris was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, but lost to Shirley Booth, who won for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). Later versions of McCuller's play were done for television, with Claudia McNeil playing Berenice in 1958, then Pearl Bailey performing the part in 1982. Plot Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie (Julie Harris) runs away from her middle-class Southern home. She endures several other adolescent traumas, not lea