Early sound films are pretty hard going sometimes and this is no exception. But it gives a window on the evolving movies scene as "talkies" came into being. Performers were still using their silent film emoting which was usually over the top and the camera work was static to say the least.
Ruth Chatterton was a big name on the stage and in early film and this film will make you wonder why. (To see Chatterton at her best, watch "Dodsworth" where she plays the erring wife of Walter Huston). Here she plays the suffering mother forced to leave her young son by her stolid husband, Lewis Stone and takes to the streets where she sinks into oblivion......but not for long. She murders a man when he threatens to reveal her identity to her son, now grown and a lawyer. Surprise, surprise, her son is called upon to defend her at trial although she is still unknown to him. And let the histrionics begin.
This film was a real weeper in its day but to modern eyes it appears simply overwrought and over-acted. Still, it is part of the history of film and should be viewed, if for no other reason, than to provide a further understanding of the movie industry at the dawn of the talking pictures. I have to admit that I actually enjoyed it!!!!
Ruth Chatterton was a big name on the stage and in early film and this film will make you wonder why. (To see Chatterton at her best, watch "Dodsworth" where she plays the erring wife of Walter Huston). Here she plays the suffering mother forced to leave her young son by her stolid husband, Lewis Stone and takes to the streets where she sinks into oblivion......but not for long. She murders a man when he threatens to reveal her identity to her son, now grown and a lawyer. Surprise, surprise, her son is called upon to defend her at trial although she is still unknown to him. And let the histrionics begin.
This film was a real weeper in its day but to modern eyes it appears simply overwrought and over-acted. Still, it is part of the history of film and should be viewed, if for no other reason, than to provide a further understanding of the movie industry at the dawn of the talking pictures. I have to admit that I actually enjoyed it!!!!