Grab your tissues! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the biggest tearjerker moments from the Old Hollywood Era.
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00:00 Someday, when we get outside again, I'm going to.
00:05 - Welcome to Miss Mojo.
00:07 And today we're counting down our picks
00:09 for the biggest tear-jerker moments
00:10 from the old Hollywood era.
00:13 - Bambi, quick, the thicket.
00:15 - Number 10, Vicky's monologue, "A Star is Born."
00:20 - You don't know what it's like to watch somebody love,
00:25 just crumble away bit by bit and day by day
00:29 in front of your eyes and stand there helpless.
00:34 - Some of the greatest actresses of their generation
00:36 have played the leading role in "A Star is Born,"
00:39 the rags-to-riches melodrama about the perils of fame.
00:42 Judy Garland's incredible dressing room monologue
00:44 about her husband's alcohol use
00:46 might just be the most devastating moment
00:48 in any of the remakes.
00:50 - Love isn't enough.
00:51 I thought it was.
00:54 I thought I was the entrepreneur.
00:56 But...
00:57 But love isn't enough for him.
01:01 - Anyone who's watched a loved one
01:03 go through similar experiences
01:05 knows exactly the kind of heartbreak she's expressing.
01:07 It's doubly sad when you know the tragic meta-narrative
01:10 of Garland herself,
01:11 who had substance use disorder for most of her career.
01:14 - He does try.
01:16 But I hate him for failing.
01:23 I hate me too.
01:25 I hate me 'cause I failed too.
01:30 - It's a simple scene,
01:32 but it's a testament to her abilities as a dramatic actor.
01:35 Number nine, Wilma refuses to leave Homer,
01:38 the best years of our lives.
01:40 This homecoming drama captivated American audiences
01:43 who were, at the time,
01:44 dealing with emotional and physical trauma of World War II.
01:48 - You don't know what it'd be like
01:49 to have to live with me,
01:52 to have to face this every day, every night.
01:57 - First-time actor and real-life veteran, Harold Russell,
02:00 played a returning hero who lost his hands in the war,
02:02 a real-life injury that Russell sustained
02:05 in a training accident.
02:06 Homer fears that his childhood sweetheart, Wilma,
02:09 will no longer want to marry him.
02:11 - I want you to be free, Wilma,
02:13 to live your own life.
02:15 I don't want you tied down forever
02:19 just because you've got a kind heart.
02:21 - However, in one of the movie's most profound
02:23 and heart-tugging scenes, Wilma shows Homer
02:26 she's more than ready to be his partner in all things.
02:29 It's a quiet moment, but so touching.
02:32 - It's all right.
02:33 Go on home.
02:34 Go away like your family said.
02:36 - I know what to say, Homer.
02:40 I love you, and I'm never going to leave you.
02:44 Never.
02:46 - Number eight, last meeting, brief encounter.
02:51 - I love you with all my heart and soul.
02:53 - I want to die.
02:56 If only I could die.
03:00 - If you died, you'd forget me.
03:03 I want to be remembered.
03:05 - In David Lean's romantic drama
03:06 about two people from different worlds
03:08 who are constantly being pulled apart,
03:10 not even their farewell is a private moment.
03:12 As the married lovers try to say goodbye,
03:14 their last moments together are interrupted
03:17 by a casual acquaintance.
03:18 They can do nothing more than exchange a few pleasantries
03:21 as if they hardly know each other.
03:23 - I felt the touch of his hand on my shoulder for a moment,
03:27 and then he walked away.
03:28 Away out of my life forever.
03:32 - Laura's devastating inner thoughts grow more dangerous
03:35 as she realizes her lover is about to disappear forever.
03:38 Just as she's on the verge of a desperate act,
03:40 she decides to return to her husband.
03:42 - I'd like to be able to say that it was the thought of you
03:44 and the children that prevented me, but it wasn't.
03:48 I had no thoughts at all.
03:49 Only an overwhelming desire not to feel anything ever again.
03:55 Not to be unhappy anymore.
03:58 - The way the movie teases the characters
04:00 with a passionate goodbye,
04:01 only to rob them and us of it in the last scene,
04:04 makes for a deeply poignant cap to their brief love affair.
04:08 - You've been a long way away.
04:09 Thank you for coming back to me.
04:16 - Number seven, Annie's funeral, "Imitation of Life".
04:19 - I won't listen.
04:21 There isn't going to be any funeral.
04:23 Not for a long, long time.
04:25 You can't leave me. I won't let you.
04:27 - Douglas Sirk's classic melodrama
04:29 hits an emotional crescendo at the funeral of Annie Johnson,
04:33 a black housekeeper whose selflessness
04:35 and love for her daughter verges on saintly.
04:38 The scene turns the drama up to 10
04:40 as the tearful Laura and the crowd
04:43 listen to Mahalia Jackson's soaring gospel vocals.
04:47 But it's the climax of the moment
04:48 that really gets the tears flowing.
04:50 Sarah Jane, Annie's fair-skinned daughter,
04:52 who rejected her own heritage,
04:54 throws herself against the casket
04:56 and begs her dead mother's forgiveness.
04:58 - Stand back.
05:00 - But it's my mother.
05:01 - Stand back.
05:02 - I tell you, it's my mother.
05:05 - Losing a parent is sad enough,
05:08 but that so much remains unspoken between the two
05:11 is the real tragedy.
05:12 - I wanted to go home now.
05:15 You should have known how much I wanted to come with us.
05:18 - Number six, "The Richest Man in Town."
05:22 "It's a Wonderful Life."
05:23 - Show me the way.
05:24 Not at the end of my rope, right?
05:27 Show me the way, oh God.
05:32 - Although widely remembered as a feel-good Christmas movie,
05:34 "It's a Wonderful Life" is based on some pretty heavy themes.
05:37 George Bailey's encounter with Clarence the Angel
05:40 comes about after a ruinous series of events
05:43 leads George to consider ending it all.
05:45 - I'm worth more dead than alive.
05:47 - Now look, you mustn't talk like that.
05:49 I won't get my wings with that attitude.
05:51 You just don't know all that you've done.
05:54 - In the end, though, all the personal sacrifices
05:56 he's made throughout his life are repaid,
05:58 as the entire town comes together to pay off his debts.
06:01 It may be a happy ending,
06:02 but what it takes to get there is enough
06:04 to take out a whole box of tissues.
06:07 - Toast to my big brother, George,
06:10 the richest man in town.
06:11 (crowd cheering)
06:15 - Number five, "Stella's Sacrifice", Stella Dallas.
06:18 - You too, lady.
06:19 - Oh, please let me see her face when he kisses her, please.
06:22 - There's nothing quite like a mother's love.
06:24 In this 1937 classic, Barbara Stanwyck plays Stella Dallas,
06:29 a working-class woman who goes without
06:31 so that her daughter has a chance at a respectable life.
06:34 But when Stella's own humble background
06:36 turns out to be the biggest hurdle to that goal,
06:38 she decides the best thing to do
06:40 is to leave her daughter's life forever.
06:42 - I've thought it all out.
06:44 It'll be better to just let her come for the visit,
06:47 like always, and by that time it'll all be over.
06:50 Divorce, I mean, and you can break it to her.
06:57 - If you don't weep along with Stella in those final moments
07:00 as she secretly watches her daughter's wedding
07:02 from outside in the pouring rain, you have no heart.
07:06 - All right, folks, you've seen enough.
07:07 Come on, move along, please.
07:09 Come on, clear the sidewalk.
07:11 - Number four, "The Discovery," "The Diary of Anne Frank."
07:21 - For the past two years, we have lived in fear.
07:25 Now we can live in hope.
07:26 - The legendary story of Anne Frank
07:28 and her family hiding from Nazi soldiers
07:30 during the Holocaust was adapted for the screen in 1959.
07:33 Watching as the Franks and their neighbors
07:35 hear the approaching siren and resign themselves
07:37 to their fate is a stunning and deeply upsetting moment.
07:41 The entire cast is frozen in a hopeless tableau
07:58 as the German officers break down the door.
08:00 Despite their circumstances, Anne's almost naive optimism
08:04 in humanity is what lingers as the movie ends.
08:07 - In spite of everything, I still believe
08:11 that people are really good at heart.
08:13 - She puts me to shame.
08:16 - Talk about a gut punch.
08:18 Number three, "The Flower Girl," "City Lights."
08:22 (siren blaring)
08:24 Charlie Chaplin took his little tramp character
08:37 to new emotional depths with his late period silent film.
08:41 In "City Lights," the dusty and disheveled Chaplin character
08:44 befriends a blind girl selling flowers.
08:47 After securing the money for surgery to restore her sight,
08:50 the tramp is wrongfully imprisoned
08:51 before the flower girl can learn
08:53 who her mysterious patron is.
08:55 It's only months later when she recognizes
09:09 the touch of his hand that she sees
09:11 and knows him for the first time.
09:13 Their overwhelming gratitude, hers for his generosity,
09:16 and his for her acceptance is absolutely beautiful,
09:20 and not a single word is spoken.
09:22 Number two, "Taking the Dog Out Back," "Old Yeller."
09:37 - What's the matter, boy?
09:38 Come on, it's time to eat.
09:40 (dog growling)
09:43 - If you've never read the book or seen the movie,
09:48 you know about "Old Yeller."
09:50 It's a classic coming-of-age story about a boy and his dog,
09:54 but it's the movie's final scenes,
09:56 which find young Travis Coates realizing
09:58 his beloved canine is rabid and must be put down,
10:01 that everyone remembers.
10:03 - He's suffering.
10:04 You know we've got to do it.
10:07 - I know, Mama.
10:09 (dog growling)
10:11 He was my dog.
10:12 I'll do it.
10:15 - It's not just the death of the dog that's so painful,
10:18 but also the teary-eyed Travis's realization
10:20 that he should be the one to put him out of his misery.
10:23 It only makes the story's lessons about maturity
10:25 and responsibility hit that much harder.
10:28 - It's not a thing you can forget.
10:30 Maybe not even a thing you want to forget.
10:34 - Before we unveil our top pick,
10:35 here are a few honorable mentions.
10:37 "Kay's Despair," stage door.
10:40 This showbiz comedy takes a turn
10:41 when a young, struggling actress makes her final exit.
10:45 (audience applauding)
10:48 "The Butterfly," all quiet on the Western Front.
11:03 A battle-scarred young soldier reaches out for a butterfly
11:07 while a sniper lies in wait.
11:09 (dramatic music)
11:12 "Tony's Last Moments," West Side Story.
11:24 Maria comforts Tony after he is gunned down by a rival gang.
11:29 ♪ Hold my hand and we're halfway there ♪
11:36 ♪ Hold my hand and I'll take you there ♪
11:41 Saying goodbye, "The Wizard of Oz."
11:44 Dorothy prepares to leave Oz
11:46 and her newfound friends behind.
11:48 - I think I'll miss you most of all.
11:50 - "The Nearest Thing to Heaven," an affair to remember.
11:56 Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr share a tender final moment
12:00 in this romance classic.
12:02 - It was nobody's fault but my own.
12:05 (Dorothy crying)
12:07 I was looking up.
12:08 It was the nearest thing to heaven.
12:12 You were there.
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12:30 Number one, "Bambi's Mom," Bambi.
12:34 - We made it.
12:35 We made it, Mother.
12:37 We...
12:39 Mother!
12:42 - The best children's stories are the ones
12:43 that teach young audiences how to endure hardships in life.
12:46 Disney has a knack for teaching us
12:48 all about the loss of a parent or both.
12:50 - Mother!
12:51 Mother, where are you?
13:00 - It doesn't help that in the classic "Bambi" movie,
13:04 Walt Disney's talented artists went out of their way
13:06 to make the animated deer look incredibly cute.
13:10 In an iconic scene that we all know and dread,
13:12 a hunter descends on the forest
13:14 where Bambi and his mother live,
13:16 and they make a run for safety.
13:18 We never see Bambi's mother again,
13:20 although we know what happens after we hear a gunshot
13:23 and see Bambi running solo on screen.
13:25 It's easily the most heartbreaking moment
13:27 in any classic movie.
13:29 - Your mother can't be with you anymore.
13:31 - I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
13:33 - I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
13:35 - I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
13:37 - If these tearful classic Hollywood moments
13:40 didn't bring back all the feels,
13:42 tell us which ones do.
13:43 Let us know in the comments below.
13:45 - Oh, don't cry.
13:46 (crying)
13:47 You were us so dreadfully.
13:49 - Do you agree with our picks?
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