When Jessica Tandy won her Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy a lot of people forget this was hardly the first southern lady that the British born Tandy played. On Broadway Jessica was the original Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire and was the only one of the original cast who didn't make the trip to Hollywood with Vivien Leigh playing Blanche and winning a second Oscar for it. But there is a universe of difference between Blanche Dubois and Daisy Werthing and it ain't just age.

In fact Tandy may play the only role film history where you start at 70 and then age in the part. She's a genteel southern woman, but formidable who happens to be Jewish. One day she has an accident and emerges unhurt, but the car is wrecked and son Dan Aykroyd decides that his mother needs a chauffeur.

An idea not pleasing to Tandy as she's used to doing for herself. Even the presence of Esther Rolle as a cook was upsetting to her, but Rolle toughed it out and became a household fixture. So when Aykroyd hires Morgan Freeman to be a driver, Freeman will have his work cut out for him.

The success of Driving Miss Daisy is really dependent on the chemistry between Tandy and Freeman. You haven't got that and the film would sink. Fortunately they click beautifully together.

Author Alfred Uhry grew up in the Atlanta of the time and Atlanta was relatively a beacon of some light in the cracker and segregated south of the time. Mayor William B. Hartsfield of the period always advertised his city as the one too busy to hate. Given the parameters of the times, Hartsfield moved to gradually end segregation and to improve the services for Atlanta's black population. Hartsfield is mentioned in passing in the film. Remember Tandy's character is Jewish, a people not looked on too fondly either by a lot of the Deep South. But in Atlanta they have some measure of safety.

Uhry's memories yielded him a Pulitzer Prize winning play and an Academy Award Best film. He also got an Oscar for adapting his off Broadway success to the screen. Of course Jessica Tandy became the oldest player to ever receive an acting Oscar. And Driving Miss Daisy also got an Oscar for Best Makeup.

And it was nominated for Best Art&Set Direction, Best Editing, Best Costumes with Oscar nods for Morgan Freeman for Best Actor and Dan Aykroyd for Best Supporting Actor.

For Freeman his best moment comes when on a trip to Mobile,Alabama with Tandy he puts up with the indignities and humiliation of segregation and exposes Tandy to a world she really wasn't aware of. And Tandy got her Oscar for the moment when she and those around her realize that Alzheimer's Disease has gotten control. For an elderly player to even contemplate such a thing that could so easily happen to them must be a nerve wracking experience. Jessica Tandy saw in her life such colleagues as Rita Hayworth, Dana Andrews, and Edmond O'Brien among others lose their last few years and careers to the long lingering twilight of Alzheimer's, no doubt she drew from all of them and her own fears that it could happen to her to deliver this performance.

Driving Miss Daisy is one of the best films of the last half of the last century and one that will be studied and revived for years to come. Budding actors who need chemistry lessons should study what is working between Tandy and Freeman.

"Driving Miss Daisy" is a slice of life film about an elderly white lady and her relationship with her black servant. What makes this interesting is that it takes place through the middle of the twentieth century and the race issue is ultimately a HUGE factor in the story.

I just noticed that "Driving Miss Daisy" cost about 7,500,000 to make but earned well over $100,000,000! This would make this film, dollar for dollar, one of the most profitable films in movie history. I think this seems reasonable when you think about the picture. It has no fancy special effects. The actors, while immensely talented, are not the super-high paid actors that star in blockbusters. And, the film is slow and simple--and this is NOT a complaint in the least. With the talents of Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman and a lovely script, you can see why the film did so well and eventually went on to earn the Best Picture Oscar.

Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) is an elderly Atlanta Jewish woman. The movie opens with her backing the car into her neighbor's yard. Her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) is a wealthy Textile factory owner, and he refuses to allow her to drive. He hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman) as her driver. She hates having him around at first, but their relationships eventually grows to the closest of friendship.

Written by Alfred Uhry from his award winning play, this is a touching evolution of the two's relationship. Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman are absolutely wonderful. Tandy would win the Oscar. The beauty in this is that it doesn't hit the audience over the head. She's not some two dimensional racist. Mostly she doesn't want to put on airs, and she doesn't want somebody bothering her at the her house.