Rambling Rose **** (1991, Laura Dern, Robert Duvall, Diane Ladd, Lukas Haas, John Heard, Kevin Conway) – Classic Movie Review 8,115

The 1991 drama film Rambling Rose stars the splendid daughter and mother team of Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, both of them Oscar and Golden Globe nominated.

Director Martha Coolidge’s 1991 drama film Rambling Rose is one of those intelligent, bitter-sweet, sentimental, On Golden Pond-style movies the Americans do so well, and actors in the US live for because they provide the Oscar-winning parts that other films cannot reach. It stars the splendid daughter and mother team of Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, who were both Oscar nominated and Golden Globe nominated, Dern as best actress and Ladd as best supporting actress.

It is the 1930s in the American south. Dern plays Rose, a girl of easy virtue and exuding sexuality, taken on as housemaid by Mother (Ladd, actually Dern’s real-life mom) and Daddy (Robert Duvall) to look after their house and three kids (including precocious young Buddy, played by Lukas Haas from Witness). Rose falls for everyone, confusing sex and love, propositions the honourable Daddy (Duvall), goes to bed with young Buddy (Haas), and sleeps with all the boys of the town. Daddy gets tired of Rose’s rambling ways.

Dern’s charisma easily overcomes the awkwardness of her role and the weirdness of her character, and her performance and the other carefully etched, intricate performances, as well as the great Thirties period sense make this a lovely film, despite the difficult, unwieldly, undramatic material.

The screenplay is by Calder Willingham, based on the book by Calder Willingham.

Also in the cast are John Heard, Kevin Conway, Robert J Burke, Lisa Jakub and Evan Lockwood.

Rambling Rose is directed by Martha Coolidge, runs 113 minutes, is made by Midnight Sun, Edgar J Scherick Associates and Carolco Pictures, is released by Guild (UK) and Seven Arts (US), is written by Calder Willingham, based on the book by Calder Willingham, is shot by Johnny E Jensen, is produced by Renny Harlin and is scored by Elmer Bernstein.

It is rated R for sensuality.

It is the first ever Oscar nomination for a mother and daughter for appearing in the same film. Father and daughter Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda were nominated for On Golden Pond (1981).

The British Board of Film Classification removed 30 seconds from the scene where 15-year-old Lukas Haas and Laura Dern are in bed together, judging it in breach of the Protection of Children Act that forbids the use of minors on screen in sexual contexts. However, the BBC has broadcast the uncut version several times and the cuts were restored for the 2002 Guild DVD release.

Diane Ladd to Derek Winnert: ‘Honey, I’ll take a hug!’ Oh, and ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down.’

Diane Ladd earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress for her turn as the acerbic, straight-talking Flo  in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her many credits included Chinatown, Primary Colors and best supporting roles in Wild At Heart and Rambling Rose.

Diane Ladd’s death was announced on 3 November 2025 by her daughter Laura Dern. She died at her home in Ojai, California, with Dern at her side.

She won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for the sitcom Alice (1980–1981). She also won the 1991 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for Rambling Rose.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8115

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