Republic Pictures turned out this touching tearjerker that begins on Mother's Day 1946 (the film was released later in the same year, around Christmastime). We start with a young woman, played by Mona Freeman, who has now become a mother herself. Things haven't gone smoothly for her, and that's an understatement.
Stopping outside a florist's shop, she looks through the window at an arrangement of flowers. Then she flashes back to another Mother's Day eight years earlier in 1938, when she took a flower home to her own mother (June Duprez). We quickly see that the girl's selfless act of showing appreciation for her mother was a wasted effort.
In order to escape the poverty in their rundown tenement apartment building, Duprez basically prostitutes herself and passes her then-12 year old daughter off as a kid sister. So when Freeman brings a rose to her to commemorate Mother's Day, it nearly spoils the ruse of them being sisters.
It's an interesting way to start the movie, because we already have learned some home truths about the girl Freeman is portraying; important things like what type of background she's from, what a poor role model her own mother is, and how this will undoubtedly affect Freeman's ability to be a decent mom herself.
Adele Rogers St. Johns' story adds in some fascinating peripheral characters, nearly all of them with their own sort of con in motion. Freeman aids Duprez in various schemes to fleece stupid men, so they can get ahead. It's a bit alarming to see a young preteen girl smoking and drinking in some of the early scenes. Supposedly, the production code office had many objections to the script and forced a few rewrites, so one can only imagine what the initial drafts contained.
Into the mix we meet the main con artist, played by recent Oscar winner James Dunn. He picks up on the phony "sister" act, deducing that Duprez and Freeman are really mother and daughter. But he's not going to get in the way of their grifting. In fact, he is running his own racket involving stolen furniture, and he offers Freeman a side job helping him and his gang with those endeavors.
Most of the casting, in terms of the actors' real life ages, is perfect for this story. Mona Freeman was 20 when the film was made, and she gets to age from 12 to 20. During those early scenes she does look extremely young. It's somewhat jarring to see her do such bad things while "12" and yet when her character grows up in the subsequent sequences, the slight changes in makeup and hairstyle plus her own subtle performance in suggesting the maturing of the character, well it is all rather convincing.
June Duprez was only 28, but she passes for mid-30s. She doesn't exactly conceal her British accent, and there is no dialogue to indicate she's playing a British American woman, but that's a minor quibble. As for Jimmy Dunn, he was actually 44 during production, and he does look 44. But his wise-to-the-world approach works for the character, plus Dunn is of Irish heritage, and he works beautifully with Dorothy Vaughan, who plays his kind-hearted Catholic Irish ma.
The other main performer I should mention is William Marshall, a singer who became an film actor at Warner Brothers and Republic. Like Miss Duprez, he is also 28, but unlike Duprez, he looks younger. So it is believable for him to be paired with Freeman, playing a military man on temporary leave. His role is that of a handsome and wholesome contrast to Dunn, and it makes sense that Freeman's character gravitates to him. Mostly because she needs some goodness in her life. They quickly marry, but then he is killed overseas in the war. She soon discovers she's pregnant.
I won't spoil all the plot, but suffice it to say that the middle section of the picture has Freeman adjusting to widowhood and single parenthood. She strives to be better at raising a child than her own mother was, and it's a huge struggle for her. Meanwhile, Dunn has been apprehended for his crimes and spends time in prison. When he gets out and looks up Freeman, he is surprised to learn all that's happened to her while he was incarcerated.
The narrative stops short of having Dunn and Freeman end up together, though it is heavily implied in the final scene. I think it is to the filmmakers' credit that we don't get a predictable ending. The story's resolution is more concerned with showing how Freeman has evolved, and that she has survived the hard knocks. She will now enjoy a stable life.
Stopping outside a florist's shop, she looks through the window at an arrangement of flowers. Then she flashes back to another Mother's Day eight years earlier in 1938, when she took a flower home to her own mother (June Duprez). We quickly see that the girl's selfless act of showing appreciation for her mother was a wasted effort.
In order to escape the poverty in their rundown tenement apartment building, Duprez basically prostitutes herself and passes her then-12 year old daughter off as a kid sister. So when Freeman brings a rose to her to commemorate Mother's Day, it nearly spoils the ruse of them being sisters.
It's an interesting way to start the movie, because we already have learned some home truths about the girl Freeman is portraying; important things like what type of background she's from, what a poor role model her own mother is, and how this will undoubtedly affect Freeman's ability to be a decent mom herself.
Adele Rogers St. Johns' story adds in some fascinating peripheral characters, nearly all of them with their own sort of con in motion. Freeman aids Duprez in various schemes to fleece stupid men, so they can get ahead. It's a bit alarming to see a young preteen girl smoking and drinking in some of the early scenes. Supposedly, the production code office had many objections to the script and forced a few rewrites, so one can only imagine what the initial drafts contained.
Into the mix we meet the main con artist, played by recent Oscar winner James Dunn. He picks up on the phony "sister" act, deducing that Duprez and Freeman are really mother and daughter. But he's not going to get in the way of their grifting. In fact, he is running his own racket involving stolen furniture, and he offers Freeman a side job helping him and his gang with those endeavors.
Most of the casting, in terms of the actors' real life ages, is perfect for this story. Mona Freeman was 20 when the film was made, and she gets to age from 12 to 20. During those early scenes she does look extremely young. It's somewhat jarring to see her do such bad things while "12" and yet when her character grows up in the subsequent sequences, the slight changes in makeup and hairstyle plus her own subtle performance in suggesting the maturing of the character, well it is all rather convincing.
June Duprez was only 28, but she passes for mid-30s. She doesn't exactly conceal her British accent, and there is no dialogue to indicate she's playing a British American woman, but that's a minor quibble. As for Jimmy Dunn, he was actually 44 during production, and he does look 44. But his wise-to-the-world approach works for the character, plus Dunn is of Irish heritage, and he works beautifully with Dorothy Vaughan, who plays his kind-hearted Catholic Irish ma.
The other main performer I should mention is William Marshall, a singer who became an film actor at Warner Brothers and Republic. Like Miss Duprez, he is also 28, but unlike Duprez, he looks younger. So it is believable for him to be paired with Freeman, playing a military man on temporary leave. His role is that of a handsome and wholesome contrast to Dunn, and it makes sense that Freeman's character gravitates to him. Mostly because she needs some goodness in her life. They quickly marry, but then he is killed overseas in the war. She soon discovers she's pregnant.
I won't spoil all the plot, but suffice it to say that the middle section of the picture has Freeman adjusting to widowhood and single parenthood. She strives to be better at raising a child than her own mother was, and it's a huge struggle for her. Meanwhile, Dunn has been apprehended for his crimes and spends time in prison. When he gets out and looks up Freeman, he is surprised to learn all that's happened to her while he was incarcerated.
The narrative stops short of having Dunn and Freeman end up together, though it is heavily implied in the final scene. I think it is to the filmmakers' credit that we don't get a predictable ending. The story's resolution is more concerned with showing how Freeman has evolved, and that she has survived the hard knocks. She will now enjoy a stable life.