The Dollmaker (1984 TV Movie) User Reviews

Jane Fonda's best performance

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 8 October 2017]

Jane Fonda plays a Kentucky hillbilly with five children who knows no reality besides the constant obedience to her husband in The Dollmaker. Take a moment to absorb that sentence. If you're shaking your head thinking she could never pull a role like that off, rent the TV-movie that won her an Emmy. She's practically unrecognizable in her transformation. Gone is the beautiful, strong woman who helped millions of women exercise, and in her place is a frumpy, useful homemaker who works herself to the bone every day to keep her family afloat.

The Dollmaker takes place during WWII, and when Jane's husband Levon Helm gets drafted, Jane thinks her life will begin again. She's been secretly saving money for years from whittling dolls out of scrap pieces of wood, hoping to buy a farm while her husband's fighting in the war. When he comes home, he'll see how the family's thrived on the farm and he won't question her decision. However, Levon doesn't get accepted by the army. Instead he gets a factory job in Detroit and demands his family join him. Jane's mother, Geraldine Page, pressures her to obey her husband, so Jane packs up her five children and her nest egg and moves to Detroit.

In her new life, Jane lives through unspeakable horrors. She gives such a heartfelt, harrowing performance, at times you'll forget she's Jane Fonda. This is a once-in-a-lifetime performance, and it truly takes you back in time to an era when women blindly obeyed their husbands. Modern feminists will probably feel betrayed that Jane took on such a role, but they might feel better if they look at The Dollmaker as a cautionary tale, which it absolutely is. It's an extremely heavy drama, and it might not be for everyone. But if you like terribly depressing stories by Tom Hardy or John Steinbeck, you'll be in a better place to appreciate this tragedy. Get out your Kleenexes and get ready for the best performance of Jane Fonda's career.

Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to some upsetting scenes involving children, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

I haven't been able to find this movie available on DVD anywhere, so if you'd like to watch it, click here to watch it on YouTube. And thanks "astrosbaseball2012" for posting!

Jane Fonda perfect in a part that Katharine Hepburn would have killed for in her younger years.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 4 November 2021]

This was the first film that Jane Fonda had appeared in since receiving her Oscar nomination for supporting actress co-starring opposite her father Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the 1981 smash hit "On Golden Pond". In the 1930's, Hepburn appeared in several films similar to this, although playing younger women. "Spitfire" and "The Little Minister" may not be considered classics, but they are very similar to the role that Fonda plays here, wife to Levon Holm (Sissy Spacek's father in "Coal Miners Daughter") and the mother of a brood of children that keeps her going morning, noon and night.

In the opening scene, she's spotted rushing with a child who is choking, basically forcing her way into a car full of soldiers to get her child to the hospital. There is no rest for this woman, and for her husband, drafted into service during World War II, this makes her the head of the household, let the struggle and make ends meet with what little she has. He doesn't end up in active service so she must follow him to Detroit and it's through the strength of her ability to keep the family together that everybody is able to come through it even though there are tragedies along the way.

This is a Jane Fonda that you have rately never seen before, wearing no makeup and yet still strong and vulnerable and loving and tough, yet fragile when the times become too hard for her to handle. But she is a rock, strong when most people would be weak and able to take even the toughest blows without blinking. Had Fonda done less glamorous parts during her time as a glamour girl along the lines of this and "They Shoot Horses Don't They", she might have had a different impact as an actress.

She is surrounded by a terrific featured cast of the familiar faces, most notably Geraldine Page as her long-suffering mother, Amanda Plummer as her neighbor in Detroit and rising Broadway diva Christine Ebersole as a friendly school teacher. Dan Heydara is hardly recognizable as another one of the teachers, offering friendly advice to Fonda in a memorable scene while she is shopping for food. Slice of life isn't always happy, and this has its moments of sadness as well as triumph. A very good script and tight direction makes this a majorly above average TV movie that could have equally done as well on the big screen in a year filled with similarly strong women played by the best of Hollywood's leading ladies of the 1980's, Oscar winner Sally Field and nominees Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in memorable parts. A true triumph for Fonda in a part she can be really proud of.

Very enjoyable, good balanced acting from all.

[Luv2Laff · 7/10 · 27 November 1999]

It's almost the end of 1999 and I've just seen this film for the first time - had never heard of it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not a 'sappy, tear jerker'. Also pleasantly surprised at Jane Fonda I think she did a wonderful job in this film. It's a simple story. WWII sharecropper's wife reluctantly follows hubby to Detroit where he is going to 'make his fortune'. Needless to say, there are some major and minor misfortunes. See it to find out if all ends well.

Pure genius in all aspects of film making!

[mrscjr31 · 10/10 · 25 September 2006]

"The Doll Maker" starring Jane Fonda, was probably the most memorable movie I have ever seen. I have seen it only one time. I do not need to see it again. I would love to, but my husband was so emotionally moved by the scene with the child, that I promised him that I would never bring it around him. This story is so very real. The scenery, the acting, the emotions, all become a true part of your soul, if only for a couple of hours. I loved "The Doll Maker"! This movie is a sociological work of art. I am trying to think of a movie, which could possibly come close emotionally to this story. I almost want to say "Old Yeller". The difficulty presented to both families, may be comparable. When I think of the coloration of the scenery in "The Doll Maker", I am somewhat reminded of the movie, "The Grapes of Wrath". "The Grapes of Wrath" was an epic film, the movie "Old Yeller" was a family oriented film. "The Doll Maker" is a "must see"!

Excellent Film.

[cohuttablue-imdb · 10/10 · 4 December 2007]

"The Dollmaker" deserves to be considered a classic. The story itself would be memorable and moving with or without Fonda, but her portrayal of Gertie Nevels, the mother, is very true to the type. There is no hint of the bumpkin in Fonda's interpretation of the uneducated, backwoods mother of five, who moves from the Kentucky hills to Detroit, where she and her family endure great hardships. Fonda plays the part of a strong Appalachian woman with dignity. Although "The Dollmaker" has not been picked up and replayed as one of the "modern classics," it truly deserves a place alongside other classics, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Coal Miner's Daughter." It has been quite a few years since I saw the film--probably at the time of its original release in 1984--but it touched me deeply enough that I have never forgotten it.

Amazing Story

[tcthompson · 10/10 · 5 June 2005]

This movie is an undiscovered gem: a simple, beautiful story of a woman struggling with poverty and other obstacles in her life. Jane Fonda creates a picture of an Appalachian woman who is complex, brave, and at times resigned to the limitations of her life. This movie is unique in its straightforward presentation of a story about poverty that never swerves into sentimentality or condescension: ultimately it celebrates the strength, faith, and ingenuity of Gertie. Had this movie been released as a feature film it probably would have gotten more attention and be praised along side movies like "The Grapes of Wrath," which coincidentally was one of Jane Fonda's father's most memorable roles.

An accurate portrayal of Kentucky country folk in a harrowing drama

[robert-temple-1 · 10/10 · 27 December 2012]

This extremely powerful film features one of the strongest and best performances by Jane Fonda, as a Kentucky share-cropper's wife struggling during the years 1944-5 both to liberate herself as a person and save her family from devastating and terrible hardship, which means no money and nothing to eat (a problem compounded by having five children to feed). The film is thoroughly authentic and is a rare example of the shallow trendies of Hollywood getting to grips with real life and genuinely provincial people. Jane Fonda portrays a heroic young woman with irrepressible fire and vigour, a kind of "Kentucky Mother Courage', and as the film progresses and she improves her speech patterns, her Kentucky accent gets closer and closer to the real thing. That in itself is a remarkable achievement, considering how few actors can ever manage it. Fonda's husband is played by Levon Helm, a genuine hick born in Arkansas, whose first acting role was in THE COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980), which was also set in Kentucky. Helm needed no coaching to 'talk country', as he was born to it. All he had to do was fine-tune his Arkansas accent and shift it slightly into Kentucky mode. This film is based upon a novel by Harriette Simpson Arnow (1908-1986), who was born in Kentucky and intimately knew what she was writing about (she had also lived in Detroit, which is portrayed in the latter part of the film). I wondered why the Kentucky scenes did not really look like Kentucky, but the end credits explained that those scenes were shot in Tennessee. The setting is meant to be the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains of Appalachia in Kentucky, but only a pernickety person like myself would notice the difference, and that there are too many rivers and not enough trees, and a severe shortage of very steep hills. The Michigan scenes were also shot in Illinois. Oh well, never mind, it all works anyway. The wonderfully accurate use of language and turns of phrase present in the script were presumably all taken word for word from the novel, and it is a joy to see and hear this record for posterity of a now-vanishing speech which was a direct survival of the 17th century language of England and Northern Ireland ('Ulster') amongst the Kentucky country folk who describe themselves as the 'Scotch-Irish' because they are descended from the Protestant Scots who settled in Ulster in Elizabethan and Stuart times, as I partly am myself, and as by far the majority of the American presidents have been (such as Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, to name but two, Lincoln being a distant relation of mine by marriage only, through his stepmother Johnston). One especially good aspect of this film is the casting of the children, all of whom were chosen very carefully and are excellent. (Hollywood casting of children is often so very puke-making, isn't it?) The TV film was directed by Daniel Petrie (1920-2004), who directed 91 films in his career, mostly for television, but whose best known feature films for the cinema were A RAISIN IN THE SUN (1961) with Sidney Poitier and FORT APACHE THE BRONX with Paul Newman (1981). For TV he made films about Truman, Roosevelt, and Nixon, thus carving a presidential niche for himself. He was a Canadian, and it is not known how he came to make such a sensitive film about Kentucky country folk as this, having presumably never had experience of them. He was clearly a man of greater talent than is customarily recognised. The story of this film is based upon a common problem faced by women throughout history, namely that they sometimes marry men stupider than themselves. That is always a bad idea, because the woman and her children are then at the mercy of bad decisions made by someone who is essentially a fool, but who insists upon exerting authority in the household because it is his right as a superior male, and he has the muscle to back it up. Fonda's husband means well but he is just not very bright, and early in the tale, she is still frozen in the mould of the dutiful wife, enforced by threats from her overbearing mother (played by Geraldine Page), who would rather die than defy her husband in any way whatever and who insists that it is Fonda's duty to 'love honour and obey', with the emphasis on the obey. So the husband, without telling his wife, sneaks off to Detroit to become a factory worker for Mr. Flint (yes, Mr. Flint of Flint, Michigan) and earn lots of money (or so he imagines). Fonda is forced by her mother to follow her husband to the appalling environment where he is now living in a paper-thin shack in a row of what are essentially workers' barracks, and where the good salaries they earn are soon wasted on the higher prices paid to live and frittered away on surviving the endless strikes, so that after a lengthy period of misery they end up with nothing after all. As things get grimmer, Fonda is increasingly forced to develop a bit more self-confidence and start taking the initiative herself. She has always had a knack for 'country whittling' with wood, a habit indulged in by most mountain folk in Kentucky in those days. But her talent is greater than most, and she is discovered by an arts and crafts teacher and enabled to sell her carvings, especially her animals and dolls (hence the title of the film), which finally earns them enough money to get ahead, while all the husband's efforts have dismally failed. I shall not relate the end of the story, as that is against IMDb rules, but I urge everyone to see this remarkable film. If only there were more like it, and less money were wasted on worthless, insipid cinematic trivia.

Fine performances

[Caledonia Twin #1 · 7 September 2000]

I saw this film for the first time back in 1984. Jane Fonda's performance in this is extraordinary within an assembly of very talented actors. The film isn't overtly sentimental, though it touches on several controversial social issues and has a lot of very powerful points to make on those issues. The family, compelled to move from Virginia to Detroit in the 1940s, must come to terms with adjusting to city life and living in a factory town far from the rural life they have known. For some of the children, making the adjustment is more difficult, and the family experiences its share of tragedies. Yet if much of the Dollmaker is about coping with change, it is also a story of survival and hope, and the Dollmaker (Jane) finds a way to restore the family's hope, morale, and their future livelihood through her craft. Without giving away any more spoilers, I'll just end my commentary by recommending this film to anyone who enjoys good, inspirational storytelling.

mid career jane fonda.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 3 November 2022]

When gertie's husband gets a job in the city , she moves the family into detroit, so they can all be together. But her plan was to buy the big house down the street, near her own family, in the country. After listening to her husband and her neighbors, gertie agrees to move the family into town to be near hubbie. But they just aren't suited to city life and everything is going wrong. Family. Priorities. Goals. Happiness. As poor, mountain folk, they are constantly being mistaken for foreigners from another country. Kind of a trial by fire, like job being tested in the bible. We can see she's a strong-willed mom, and wants to do what's best for her kids. Pretty early jane fonda, but she had already done some big big films. Co-starred levon helm. It's okay. Not her worst, but probably not her best.

Perfection

[aspreadb1 · 10/10 · 20 February 2003]

This is hands down, one of THE best movies/show ever shown on TV. I've only seen it a handful of times but I remember it so vividly. There isn't a single thing wrong with this movie. The acting, the directing, the script, costumes, everything is...well...perfect. Easily the best performance of Jane Fonda's career. I hope to come across it soon on DVD.

Outstanding

[jrein39 · 10/10 · 18 February 2007]

This is an all time favorite of mine. A tear jerker, good story line. True to life drama, of the way things were, for the dirt poor. Not having enough money for medical and other expenses, moving to the city should make things better, but does it? Gertie puts her heart and soul into carving a piece of wood to try to get the peace she is seeking. And to get enough money to get her family back home. Out of the big city and back to the hills. This movie has the old time folk music which is great. You don't hear to many of them any more. Does anyone know if a sound track was made for this movie? I am looking for it with no success.

As a mother I found this heartbreaking

[juicyfruits · 3/10 · 20 December 2004]

I watched this movie also, and altho it is very well done, I found it a heartbreaker and would not recommend this to women who have small children.. The terror on this mother's face when she sees her child about to be run over by a train is truly heartbreaking. And the sad thing is--internally she dies. Eventually she goes back to the Applacian mountains. All the money in the world which she makes from making dolls does not conceal the grief she has. I remember her desperate face as she pulls money out of her clothes to try to have her child healed. I'm surprised this movie takes place in Detroit, because when I watched it I thought for sure the people had come to Cincinnati, Ohio. This also was a route for the poor from the mountains.

A bona fide tearjerker

[kathymiller · 10/10 · 26 June 2005]

My favorite memory of seeing "The Dollmaker" was at a workingman's bar in the mid-'80's. It was a classic "shot & a beer" bar for truck drivers and construction workers. The bartenders were playing a tape of the film. As the film had just shown the scene where Jane Fonda's daughter is killed, a yuppie couple wandered in talking loudly. The biggest & burliest trucker turned & told them to shut up. A row of workingmen, with moist red eyes turned and stared them down. The yuppies paid their tab and left. THAT is a testimonial to this film. Jane Fonda's Tom Joad to be sure. A simple, heartfelt, strong film and the best she's ever done. See it.

Don't Underestimate This Little Masterpiece

[hanover34 · 10/10 · 20 September 2007]

This is a movie you'll want to watch again and again. Jane Fonda has created memorable characters throughout her career but her portrayal of Gertie is so achingly authentic and original, Fonda, as you may have seen her in other roles, is all but unrecognizable here.

Originally made for TV, I hope this movie will be released on DVD and be re-run frequently on TV and get some of the attention it deserves (I caught for the first time as a late night rerun.) Fonda's Gertie represents a very real American woman who is too rarely seen in movies, presented here with such stark realism, you'll take her into your heart.

This movie and Fonda's performance can stand along side the very best of American films. And it is simply a beautiful story - I hope more people get a chance to discover The Dollmaker.

Heart wrenching and wonderful!

[blffan4 · 10/10 · 29 November 2005]

The summary may seem like a dichotomy but this movie is so achingly beautiful it is the only way I can describe it so few words. I have only seen this movie once about 20 years ago in its entirety and it's still imprinted on my memory. Each character in this movie is lovingly depicted and so 3-dimensional, even the children (they are such exquisite performances by the children too). You would hardly recognize Jane Fonda not necessarily because of her looks but because her demeanor and accent is so spot on. She really shows just how great of an actress she can be in this role because she couldn't get any further from her privileged background, Hanoi-Jane, wife of Ted Turner real life than this role and yet there isn't even one second of her portrayal that I doubted. She completely inhabited Gertie down to the fabric of her soul. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who gets the chance to see it. It's hard to believe this was a made-for-TV movie because it so easily could've been made for the big screen. There are very few movies that I've seen that have left the last impression that this one did. To this day, I recall a vast majority of the movie vividly and it's not just the plot points that have stuck with me, it's also the way it made me feel when I saw it. You feel every poignant moment with these characters and you won't soon forget it. As an aside, this movie was my first real exposure to Appalachian music and I've had a fondness for it since. It's a wonderful soundtrack and I've often wished it was available for sale because it is truly beautiful.

Jane's Best Work Ever

[Helpfan65 · 9/10 · 31 January 2020]

So why does she make drek films like Book Club, This is Where I Leave You, and Monster In Law?

Anyway heart warming story, I wish Jane Fonda would forget about her beauty image and concentrate on roles with substance

Moving, well-acted, great story.

[szokia · 10/10 · 25 June 2001]

Very well-acted, well-cast, moving story of a poor backwoods family struggling to survive. All the acting is great, even the children's. Probably Jane Fonda's finest work to date. The story is deep and well-plotted too. One of my favorite movies of all time. Doesn't come around often enough.

One of Jane Fonda's proudest achievements!

[lagreen-95777 · 10/10 · 10 May 2018]

I read this book about a year or so before it became a movie. I have loved Jane Fonda from long before this, I being born in the 60's and discovering the Golden Age of Hollywood as it was heading for the door in about another 10 years. I had watched many of her films, dramas and comedies and by 1984 she had the reputation of a Hollywood Goddess and a consummate actor par none. So I felt this most amazing book, so moving, so touching, so heart wrenching and in the end finding hope was in the hands of one who would do it the very justice it deserved. I was not disappointed! To the tee Jane and company portrayed the story and its characters fully and truthfully to the original of the author's genius. Thank you to all for portraying these usually unseen folk as the authentic human beings they are. Blessed Be!

Fonda has a few extraordinary moments...but TV-movie is excruciatingly tasteful

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 14 March 2017]

Jane Fonda gets very few quiet moments to herself in this busy, bustling, overlong and melodramatic TV-movie adapted from Harriet Arnow's book by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn. Fonda plays Gertie Nevels, a farmer's wife from the hills of Kentucky who, in 1944, is forced to move with her gaggle of kids to the Detroit projects after her husband is rejected by the US Army and enlisted to work in a parts factory. We never see the factory or meet many of the husband's co-workers, as the focus here is on Jane's sufferin' and carin' for her displaced young 'uns. It's a good performance from Fonda (who won an Emmy); she radiates warmth or tenderness at all times, whether taking her youngest daughter to kindergarten on her first day or talking with one of her neighbors through the wall in her kitchen. However, director Daniel Petrie has directed this piece for maximum heart-tugging impact--and every other scene is designed to wallop us with sentiment. Gertie is a fish-out-of-water and must learn to grocery shop and cook on a gas stove, moments of character study that might work with another actress. But Jane Fonda has too intelligent a presence to convince us of her character's confusion (rube hesitancy isn't a natural fit for her). The star gives her all to this project, even hoping to bond with the artificial tykes playing her children (typical TV commercial kids). Petrie guides the film carefully, tastefully, but he goes overboard putting a halo around Gertie. He might have learned something from "Coal Miner's Daughter" in that the surrounding action must compliment the star, not pale in her wake. Six Emmy nominations in all, winning two including Julie Weiss for her costumes.

One of a kind

[marthasallee · 8/10 · 4 February 2019]

Please try to bring this film back to the those interested still in determining what the Good Life could mean...

One of the best representations of Kentucky life in the 40's

[Susansgoldens · 10/10 · 19 June 2023]

Saw this film when it came out, and the depiction of Kentucky life in the 40's, during WW II was spot on. This could have been the story of my family. They too left Kentucky in the 40's for a better life in Michigan. My dad worked in the coal mines and my mom was caring for her mom who was dying of cancer, and raising 3 children. She too went to work in the factory, Rosie the riveter. Work was dirty and paid little. As so many, they left Kentucky and moved to Michigan where the auto factories paid much more than coal mines. Housing sprouted up to provide a decent living condition for all the workers. They enjoyed running water in the house and electricity for the first time.

I was in awe of how accurately the film displayed their life. The actors did a phenomenal job, and it is the only film I am aware of that depicts that time so accurately. My brother and two sisters were little kids when they moved "up North to Deetriot", I arrived in 1950 and couldn't have experienced a more different upbringing. We would go back every summer to visit our down South relatives. As I became a teenager, I balked at going back down every summer. My cousins wanted me to tell them all about living up North. To them I was someone who could tell them about life outside the Hollers. It was two different worlds.

It was a hard life but they made a better life for their family, at the expense of leaving everything and everyone they knew. Calling them the greatest generation is well deserved.

Makes a spiritual statement if you can figure out what it means.

[lightninboy · 8/10 · 12 May 2005]

First of all, writing credit should go the 1954 novel The Dollmaker by Hariette Arnow. Jane Fonda plays Gertie Nevels, a Kentucky mountain lady who happens to whittle. In fact, she has started whittling a head of Jesus Christ, but she hasn't finished it yet. Her husband got a World War II-era job in Detroit at Flint Motors. Flint Motors? Well, Ford starts with an "F", and General Motors has a plant in Flint, Michigan, and this is fiction, so Flint Motors is used as a generic composite, got it? Gertie's family is up in Detroit now, but one boy wants to go back to Kentucky, and there's a very sad incident with a little girl. Gertie's husband says the Bible says the man should be the head of the family, but Gertie is forced to act as the head of the family. This is a pretty good family film.

Jane Fonda could have been an excellent Dramatic actress

[mlschell · 10/10 · 3 May 2010]

This TV Moves shows that Jane Fonda could have been an excellent Dramatic actress, but political activism, personal wealth and her lack of dedication to acting have lead her elsewhere. The Dollmaker shows how drastically times have changed and helps us to understand part of our history and possibly a limited society that some people do not know exist. So often the struggles of the less well off are not given proper realism or understanding. The fact that the working poor have communication issues and different values and appreciations are often overlooked. Do people feel that the working poor have no time to have personal problems or that only the educated can appreciate art and beauty? This movie also points out the lack of women's rights and control or lack-there-of over their own lives in the 1940's.

Masterpiece

[josephmichael-02094 · 10/10 · 22 March 2023]

This is one of the best acted movies of all time. Every performance is full of meaning and inspired. This real life story of goodness, sacrifice, and redemption could have only been penned by the Master of the universe himself, right down to a scene that parallels the cross near the end of the movie. There is something for everyone in this cinematic adaptation of a true story about an extraordinary family that has just survived the Great Depression in rural Kentucky only to be called into the WWII effort. The lead of Gerty by Jane Fonda is shown to be a master artist so full of personal fortitude and simple faith that even the most downcast heart can draw inspiration from this Oscar worthy performance. Do yourself a favor: check out this movie which is probably one of the 10 best ever made!

A collectible of a film

[jilljohnson-80359 · 1/10 · 19 July 2022]

Toomuch to cover in this masterpiece. Jane Fondas performance as gerie novels is the same merit. My so said you forget it's jane fonda. She is an artisan wood carver making a Christ figure. Clovis has a wizards hands with machinery.

She saved so hard for a farm of their own She became tight fisted. Clovis thinks moving to Detroit would be better for all of them,he is the man do as I want. Once they arrive there it gets hard. Clovis boasting and bragging how great he art about all the big money.

He wanted his family to have nice things understandably, since gertie don't spend anything g she deems frivolous, that too is a problem. Shes so busy saving saving she buys cheap food, and that upsets him the most. They have five kids, the oldest boy and little girl hate that place, a far cry from kentucky a place of grace plenty. Cassie marie has an imaginary friend Callie Lou to help dealing with that place,ruben leaves for home. I don't understand why gertie didn't flat outright tell him she had money for a farm when he yelled at the little girl, what an ass..... she gets killed by playing by the railroad tracks.

Endless hardships, but after another tragedy losing her beloved father, she sacrifices the Christ figure to make figurines to get back home. Clovis finally realizes what an incredible woman he's married to.

What I found astounding was Clovis letting her take the helm, she moved over. And went home All the performances in this movie was superb.