Children of Divorce (1927)

7/10

Here are my notes from introducing the restored film Jan. 22, 2010

Larry41OnEbay-225 January 2010

Warning: Spoilers

Tonight's print was a Library of Congress lab restoration. When we acquired the original nitrate negative in 1969, it was complete, but had some image loss due to nitrate decomposition. It had even been lacquered (think of waxing your car to fill in scratches.) So when it was copied using the state-of-the-art resources available in 1969, there were problems printed in. Then in the year 2000, the LoC went back to the original camera negative and using newer film stocks and light filters preserved a better image. By 2000, one-quarter of the superior original nitrate camera negative had melted and that source was lost forever. On the surviving nitrate, the lacquer caused splices (cement joins) to break open and the emulsion (picture area) to crack as it bent over the printer rollers. Wet-gate printing (immersing the film in a special liquid) was used to fill in the scratches. The deterioration visible on the note you see Clara Bow writing about 60 minutes into the story shows how the footage looked in 1969. For the lost original source footage the LoC had to make the best possible image from the 1969 master. Much of what seems to be dirt printed in, especially on the fades, is actually deterioration. In the first reel the image may jump a little but that goes away. Over 200 work-hours were spent to make this the best print possible and the Library is the only archive to hold material on this title. This print has been screened a relatively few number of times over the last decade, (most recently at the BFI in London just last month); it's not available on home video and it hasn't played on television so this is a rare opportunity to see it.

The star of Children of Divorce is Clara Bow who was an even bigger box office draw at the time than Angelina Jolie is now.

She grew up poor on the streets of Brooklyn. According to silent film actress Louise Brooks who was a friend of Clara's, Bow liked to say she came to Hollywood not through winning a beauty contest (as many stars claimed to have gotten their start) but through wining a personality contest. In her first film DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS she played a spunky tom-boy. Then after making 23 films by the age of 18, mostly small uncredited parts, she starred in THE PLASTIC AGE as a sexy flapper and a star was born! Roaring twenties writer Elinor Glyn wrote about Clara Bow claiming she had "IT," - IT being sex appeal and so much more! This "IT girl" persona was capitalized upon by the studio who starred her in films with titles like IT - DAUGHTERS OF PLEASURE, THE ADVENTUROUS SEX, KISS ME AGAIN, FREE TO LOVE, MAN TRAP, DANGEROUS CURVES, NO LIMIT, CALL HER SAVAGE and this romance-society-melodrama -CHILDREN OF DIVORCE! But there was much more to her than just "IT." Bow was known for adding little pieces of business, human touches that made her character unpredictable, more real and fascinating.

Clara also discovered a tall stuntman from Montana who had a 2 minute scene in WINGS and another 2 minute bit in her film IT, his name is Gary Cooper. (Gary, Indiana) Actor James Hall was originally chosen to play the male lead in CHILDREN OF DIVORCE, but the role was given to Gary Cooper at the insistence of star Clara Bow. The role helped to propel Cooper towards super stardom. Gary Cooper had appeared uncredited in over 20 films by the time CHILDREN OF DIVORCE came along. After this film he never went uncredited again. That's not to say he's really good in it. And I don't want to say Cooper is bad in it either, he was just young and not yet comfortable with acting. His character is a rich playboy type and it was probably the first time he'd ever worn fancy dinner clothes. One scene called for him to walk through a room where a party was going on. He was supposed to breezily stroll through the crowd flirting with the girls and sipping champagne from their glasses. But he was more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. They did upwards of 30 takes as he continued to stumble and spill his champagne on the party goers. He was fired but the actor they replaced him with was even worse so he was summoned back, but only after they had spent a good amount of time searching for him. He had taken off for awhile to be alone, thinking his career was over.

One recent review described Children of Divorce as a woman's emotion picture with a soapy flavor centered on two friends played by Bow and Esther Ralston (best known as playing the mother in PETER PAN which we played here a few months ago). As the title suggests the film is full of lurid warnings about the dangers of divorce and the terrible effects on the next generation.

The film begins in an American "divorce colony" in Paris after the First World War and during prohibition in the states, where parents left their children at convents for months at a time while the adults partied. Kitty, Jean and Ted meet and become friends. Years later, wealthy Ted (Gary Cooper) falls in love with Jean (Esther Ralston). And while Kitty (Clara) is in love with a penniless Prince (played by Einar Hanson who died in a car accident 2 months after this film opened), she reluctantly follows the advice of her mother - (marry for money). Hedda Hopper (best known for being a famous Hollywood gossip columnist who wore outrageous hats) plays the mother.

P.S. - Bottom line the print looked amazing and the audience was very moved, I recommend it to all silent film buffs. LS

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7/10

They Had Faces Then

dglink4 April 2017

Early in the 20th century, divorced ex-pat Americans living in Paris dropped their unwanted children at the local convents and visited them only when their busy schedules permitted. Kitty and Jean were among these lonely children, and the pair quickly become friends. One day, a young boy, Edward, who was also a child of divorced parents, appears, and both girls are smitten with him. Years pass, and the three meet up again in the U.S., where a romantic triangle develops, which expands into a square, when a gold-digging prince enters the scene. "Children of Divorce," which was written by Adela Rogers St. Johns from a novel by Owen McMahon Johnson, is a sudsy melodrama, whose dated appeal lies, not in the story, but in the stars.

The "It" girl herself plays the adult Kitty; vivacious Clara Bow is wonderful as the sexually aggressive woman, who needs to marry well. Jean, Kitty's protector as a child and now described as the richest woman in America, has grown into lovely Esther Ralston. Ralston, who seems to have been largely forgotten, gives a naturalistic performance as a caring understanding woman, who is capable of self sacrifice. However, Jean's money is like catnip to the impoverished Prince Ludovico, played by Einar Hanson, and his uncle, Duke Henri, played by Norman Trevor. But the Prince and his uncle have to compete with tall lanky Gary Cooper of the piercing blue eyes, who captivates both Jean and Kitty. As the adult Edward, Cooper has it all: startling good looks, wealth, education, and lack of ambition. Besides the three stars, Hedda Hopper as Kitty's self-absorbed mother also makes an impression, although the rest of the cast has unfortunately fallen into obscurity.

Besides the melodramatic plot, a few aspects of this silent film may be off putting to general audiences. While the sets are convincing, they are so tall they disappear into the clouds, and the gargantuan doors dwarf the performers. Although a few flourishes of the grand style intrude, the acting is generally natural and underplayed. The film is short, even shorter if the inter-titles are taken into account, and director Frank Lloyd maintains a good pace. However, "Children of Divorce" will likely appeal primarily to silent-film buffs. Already attuned to both the limitations and the pleasures of pre-sound movies, aficionados of silent cinema can overlook the unconvincing drama and relish the luminous stars. Indeed, they had faces then, and Clara Bow, Gary Cooper, and Esther Ralston provide ample evidence herein.

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7/10

Worth seeing for the three lead performances

Briguy-1416 August 2007

Warning: Spoilers

Although the message is ridiculous (it is better to kill yourself than to divorce your spouse) this soapy film is definitely worth seeing for the performances of the three leads. Clara Bow is absolutely delightful - at her coquettish flapper best. This is one of her few roles that does have a tragic conclusion. Cary Grant and Esther Ralston are also quite good.

This comment was originally submitted 7 years ago and apparently deleted. Due to spoilers perhaps??? I don't think I gave away too much. AND there has yet to be another comment posted on this extremely rare film. I would think that someone might want to read about it, since it is never shown and unavailable in any format. Please keep that in mind before deleting.

Another interesting item about this film: A young Hedda Hopper plays a supporting role, years before she became the gossip queen of Hollywood.

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Ted and Jean and Vico and Kitty

GManfred16 August 2016

Seems as though everyone's in love with everyone else in this soaper from what ultimately became Paramount Studios. There are good performances from all concerned, even from Gary Cooper in his first starring role. It is summarized by the reviewer from the Library of Congress above, and is a jumble of love shuffled among the various characters. The nominal star is Clara Bow, who here plays the 'heavy', but all eyes are on Gary Cooper, who subsequently became a huge Hollywood star. Esther Ralston has the supporting actress role and she is beautiful in a sympathetic part.

The film is what amounts to a polemic on the hazards of divorce but is not without merit. There are several poignant, sentimental moments which hold up due to some very competent performances, even by Cooper himself in his first big part. The year is 1927 and the film holds some very outdated views of marriage and divorce but, as often with silents, they must be viewed with a sense of atavism, as when one goes to a museum - or, in this case, a film festival. (Capitolfest, Rome, N.Y., 8/12/16.

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7/10

Biggest Role For Young Gary Cooper Thus Far

springfieldrental29 March 2022

The Frank Lloyd directed film, April 1927's "Children of Divorce," opens at a Catholic divorce colony where recently-single parents who can't afford to raise kids by themselves drop off their children on a temporary basis. The children actors playing the three leads form a close bond, with Ted (Cooper) promising to marry Jean (Ralston) when they grow up while Kitty (Bow) looks on. But as adults, flapper Jean gets Ted drunk at a party and marries him, much to the consternation of intended lover Jean.

Ralston claims being on the set with the 22-year-old Clara was both enjoyable and scandalous. She recalls Bow describing in detail where and how she and her actor boyfriend Cooper made love, causing cast members to experience a red glow on their faces listening to such escapades. Bow also saved Cooper's budding career by intervening on his behalf when Lloyd threatened to release the young actor for constantly not remembering his movements in a early scene. Cooper's visibility in "Children of Divorce" catapulted his screen presence, launching him towards Hollywood stardom.

As for Clara, "Children of Divorce" provided her with one of the most dramatic scenes in her growing portfolio. Near the film's ending, Bow's character swallows poison because she realizes she can't marry a prince. She lays in bed comforted by her childhood friend Jean, who forgives her for her past indiscretions. The dramatic sequence's atmosphere required more than director Lloyd provided. So Paramount brought in young director, Josef von Sternberg, who was gaining a reputation for his expert lighting, to reshoot Kitty's final moments. His genius was to provide the shadow of a curtain sweeping over her as the nun lowers the wondow drape, emphasizing the end of Kitty's tempestuous life.

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7/10

Very tragic story

HotToastyRag28 July 2020

This tragic silent movie completely lives up to its title. The beginning of the movie shows a school for children whose parents are busy getting a European divorce. One mother drops her daughter off without a care in the world, and the lonely child quickly gets taken under the wing of a more experienced girl, whose mother is on her fourth divorce. The girls become very close, but a boy comes between them.

The older girl sees a boy at the "orphanage" and vows to marry him when she's older. She grows up into Esther Ralston, and the younger girl grows up to become Clara Bow. The boy is Gary Cooper, and while he and Esther have feelings for one another, Esther isn't as pushy as the beautiful flapper. Clara is impulsive and doesn't let a little thing like friendship stand in her way. After all, how can a child of divorce really respect and value marriage?

You've been warned: this is a heavy movie, and you'll probably shed a tear by the time it's all over. But if you love watching Clara Bow movies or want to see Gary Cooper in a silent movie, you can give it a chance.

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7/10

I for one would love to wake up next to Clara Bow.

topitimo-829-27045921 May 2020

"Children of Divorce" (1927) is a melodramatic love triangle directed by Frank Lloyd, and starring Clara Bow, Esther Ralston and Gary Cooper. In 1927, the Cooper stock was on the rise. Gary had met Clara Bow in a party just after she had finished her signature film "It" (1927). They quickly became "special friends", and Bow insisted that Coop must be inserted into her new film, even though it was finished and all but one of the sets had been destroyed. But the studio was forced to agree with their star, and Josef von Sternberg filmed a quick scene with Cooper as a reporter, and it was added to the film. This is all told very well in Larry Swindell's book "The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper" (1981).

By their next onscreen encounter, Cooper was elevated to be the male lead, albeit in a very female centric melodrama. "Children of Divorce" is a morality tale that asks, whether children of divorced couples are more likely to become divorcees themselves. Thus, its attempt is to glorify the sacred nature of marriage by casting shame on divorced couples. It's not a subtle film. Like many a silent film, it begins with the characters as children. All three, Jean (Ralston), Kitty (Bow) and Ted (Cooper) were raised in a children's home run by nuns, because their rich, divorced parents couldn't bother to take care of the kids themselves. As they grow up, Jean and Ted are in love and want to marry, but Kitty also has an eye for Ted.

The contrast between Jean and Kitty is shown to be night and day. Jean is respectful, "wife material" so to say, while Kitty is a carefree flapper who likes to have fun. During a night when he gets drunk, Kitty tricks Ted into marrying him, and when it's announced that they are going to have a child, Jean won't allow Ted to divorce Kitty, because then world would have one more child of divorce. If you can't guess the outcome, you probably haven't watched too many silent melodramas.

I have mixed feelings about this film. The core merit it has going on, is the presence of Bow and Cooper, who are both very charismatic. The film is worth watching solely because of them. I dislike films that give such a black and white separation of good girls and bad girls. From my perspective, probably from today's perspective, Ralston appears boring and lifeless, while Clara Bow's charm has not been damaged by the years. I for one would love to wake up and discover myself married to a girl like Kitty. The film is heavy-handed with its marital themes, and it feels like it tries to brainwash the female audience into obedient housewives and dutiful mothers. Clara Bow is another alternative for a female role model, and therefore must be destroyed. "It" presented Bow's sex appeal in a lively way, and allowed it to exist. This film looks down on her, even if she is the star.

I also have never liked the American notion of "childhood sweethearts must marry as adults" in films. This is nonsense. It is very unlikely, that the first person of the opposite sex that you meet, is going to be the most suitable marital candidate you will ever meet. Therefore films like this, that tell the audience how Ted and Jean must be re-united, because they loved each other a long time ago, don't really hit home for me. There is even a creepy scene, where Ted stares at Jean, who is comforting his child, and imagines Jean as a little girl. It played the wrong way in this context, sorry.

So all in all, as a narrative, this doesn't hold up even a bit. But it does show how Cooper can act and led to better parts for him. Clara Bow may be the bad woman here, but she is easily the most memorable thing in the film.

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7/10

Travis Banton's Luminous Gowns Are the Star!!!

kidboots26 February 2020

Warning: Spoilers

It didn't seem to matter if the story was flimsy - Gary Cooper was already a heart-throb around the Paramount studio and being teamed with Clara Bow, his female equivalent, was viewed with anticipation. But it didn't go to plan - Cooper who had been mainly in out door epics, was like a fish out of water in this sophisticated drama. After a few days Cooper was sacked and replaced by Douglas Gilmore a more experienced actor but Clara had campaigned behind the scenes on Cooper's behalf and he was reinstated.

The movie started out as a daring, topical drama but not even Clara could save it. Most cinema goers found Esther Ralston mechanical and Gary Cooper unconvincing. I thought it was a case of Paramount trying to widen Clara's appeal but it didn't really work - apart from her initial scenes there was just too much pathos and until the end her character was unsympathetic.

Jean and Kitty meet in a French convent, both products of the divorce rage with parents eager to get back into the single swing and not wanting a child cramping their style (Joyce Coad makes a very appealing Kitty).

Years later they are both young debs - Kitty (Clara Bow) is the life of any party, yet as a child she lacked confidence. Maybe explained by her mercenary mother (Hedda Hopper, who else?) that because of their financial position she must marry money!! That's too bad for Prince Vico (Einar Hansen) an impoverished aristocrat who really loves Kitty who in turn returns his love. Jean (Ralston) on the other hand is supposed to be the richest girl in America - she catches the eye of Ted Larabee (Cooper), the wild boy of the group who remembers a childhood promise of marriage they both made to each other. Jean will not agree to the marriage - Ted is now one of the idle rich where once he had ambition to be an engineer and she wants him to find his self respect again. Kitty is determined that the only bridges he will be connected with are the ones he burns!! She takes him out for a night of revelry and he wakes up married - to Kitty who has tricked him into it!! Two years later, Jean has vowed never to marry even though receiving a proposal from Vico who truthfully confesses he can't give her his love!!

You can see it's a pretty doleful movie, no one is really happy and when Kitty finally tries to make amends by asking for a divorce when she realises that Vico still carries a torch for her, she finds no joy there either as his family will not allow him to marry a divorced woman. Clara has some emotive moments but Gary Cooper was the only actor to receive any glory - for his first leading role he is a stand out, you can't take your eyes from him!! And the restoration just illuminates Travis Banton's (although uncredited) luminous gowns, they are breath taking.

A bit of back stage gossip - none of the big wigs liked the movie but they couldn't shelve such an expensive A grade movie so they got in Josef Von Sternberg as a "movie doctor" to fix up many of the scenes. Since all the stars had already started their next movie filming was done at night and the non stop schedule was brutal!!

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8/10

Broken children of selfish parents

denisb-41-93801917 December 2019

Marriages, divorces,..mariages,divorce, ... ok, ok, , you want enjoy Life, but what about the children Hearts ?

This movie is a divorce trial and of wedding trial. To Avoid divorce try to succeed your marriage, it's seems evident but haw many people really think of that ?

Traumatised by abandon Kitty & Jean wanted 2 things, first never divorce, so make a good marriage.

It's such a moving Clara, who make you cry for sure, apparently she's seems happy, but inside juste broken and desperate, she always made the wrong things, thinking of course they was the best things to do,...

A movie who is still topical , even if actually divorced children are no longer abandonned.

Eternal questions: What is the way to succeed a marriage ? If it fails, divorce is a solution but how doing it softly for kids ? etc...

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6/10

Old fashioned morality tale

bkoganbing13 April 2018

Children Of Divorce has an honored place among films of Hollywood's wildest child of the Roaring 20s Clara Bow It's also her second film with Gary Cooper with whom she was getting wild with at the time.

According to the Citadel Film series book on the Films Of Gary Cooper, Bow saw him and raved like the rest of the American public in his breakout role in The Winning Of Barbara Worth. She got him a small role in her film coming up which was It and personally saw he was cast as the male lead in Children Of Divorce.

Two girls who met as kids and coming from divorced parents grow up to be Clara Bow and Esther Ralston. Esther is a good girl with firmly fixed ideas on morality and a man size crush on a boy who grows up to be Gary Cooper. Clara is not so good and she has a fool proof way of getting a man. In fact after a drunken orgiastic night they find themselves married.

Ralston who has a lot of bucks on her own gets nailed by an impoverished prince who played by Einar Hansson on the rebound. Hansson wants to start living like a prince for a change.

Bow is at her hedonistic best in Children Of Divorce. And as we all learned the movie camera just loved Gary Cooper. He was fortunate indeed to have a voice that matched that look when talkies came in.

Children Of Divorce is the kind of old fashioned morality tale that is unlikely to be remade today. One for fans of the stars.

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5/10

Great cast, but melodramatic morality tale

gbill-7487718 September 2023

The year 1927 was a fine one for Clara Bow, having already achieved superstardom with It and still to make the first Oscar winner, Wings, among other films that year. She's as expressive and lovable as ever here, and is paired with Gary Cooper, who comes across as quite lively despite apparently having had lots of jitters, causing him to be briefly replaced in the cast. That may have been because he was playing counter to his usual type, but it was also because he and Bow and fallen hard for one another, setting in motion a torrid off-screen romance. As Bow was not above talking about her sex life, it also added to Cooper's reputation in Hollywood for being, er, very well endowed, and with a great deal of stamina. Those details courtesy David Stenn's biography of Clara Bow, Runnin' Wild.

Adding to the level of talent in the cast is Esther Ralston, who is engaging in a quieter way than Bow, providing a nice counterpoint to her. Mary Louise Miller, the "Million Dollar Baby" from Mary Pickford's Sparrows (1926), also appears, and is an adorable little sweetie. Behind the camera was James Wong Howe (still going by just James Howe at this time) providing the cinematography, including that nice dolly shot following Gary Cooper in the office scene.

Because the quality of the initial print of the film was noticeably weak, Stenn writes that studio executives brought in director Josef von Sternberg to reshoot several scenes at night, the cast having already begun working on other pictures. The schedule was so challenging that James Wong Howe fell asleep during this reshoot. One scene in particular that von Sternberg redid was the death scene, allowing Bow's acting ability to shine so much that decades later Victor Fleming believed it to be "the greatest (death scene) ever done on the screen."

Despite all the layers of talent and a few fine moments like that, unfortunately, Children of Divorce isn't one of the better projects built around Clara Bow. The trouble is in the script, which suffers from being both overly melodramatic and a morality tale. The message to the viewer is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, amounting to Divorce is Bad! Marrying hastily is Bad! Marrying for the wrong reasons dooms not only you but your children!

The story is also mediocre, and almost completely consists of handwringing over either wanting to be with someone you can't have, or being with someone you don't love. Clara Bow's character loves Einar Hanson's, but marries Gary Cooper. He loves Esther Ralston. Ralston loves him too, but as he's unavailable, begins thinking about marrying Hanson. There are very few events shown in their lives, just meetings at parties filled with angst over their romantic status.

Worse yet is the fate assigned to Clara Bow because of her sins. She's a woman who steals her friend's fiancé, marrying him when he's drunk, and having a child by him even though she knows he loves someone else. Oh, if only she had learned the lessons from being a child of divorce like her friend did! We're meant to see further evidence of her immorality when she offers herself as a lover to Hanson's character, and he politely declines the idea of adultery. This is after he's told her that because of his church's policies, he wouldn't be able to marry her even if she got a divorce.

So barring the drunken lapse of Gary Cooper's character, tempted as he was by this woman of sin, everyone here is moral and upright except Bow and I suppose her mother (Hedda Hopper), who had multiple divorces. Bow's character is the prime offender in this morality story, and so must be punished with death. To make the audience feel good, she's ennobled by "thinking of her child" by giving her away to her friend, saying she should have been hers in the first place (good grief). It's ridiculous, tawdry type stuff, watchable only for the people who worked on it.

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8/10

The Roaring Twenties and F Scott Fitzgerald,Flaming Youth in one film

ptomley4716 March 2022

Warning: Spoilers

I love the Roaring Twenties and this film epitomizes it The world of Jay Gatsby, flaming youth everyone with a cocktail in their hand despite it being Prohibition I love the production design, the drop waist skirts, geometric patterns, short skirts. The beautiful photography,framing, lighting.

I am a real Clara Bow fan(the IT girl) and we can see why Middle American men lusted after the IT girl, she was so daring and knew what she wanted in men.

It's sad that generations of Americans are forgetting these movies recreate an era of America that had just seen the worst War in history and America was now a super power. New morals, new fashions, new technology, world full of possibilities and Hollywood embraced it.

Seeing Gary Cooper so young and handsome is a real thrill not the old man of "High Noon", gossip said they Clara and him were lovers.

Hedda Hopper as the mother, the Hearst newspaper Hollywood gossip columnist as an actor is great to see because she was in so few films.

Divorce in those days was seen as a failure by people and was almost sinful that they broke their marriage vows so this film was shocking in its day considering divorce as just a career step for women.

If you haven't seen a silent film I recommend this one because it typifies the Hollywood of the Roaring 20's and is still enjoyable.

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7/10

Morality tale

Philipp_Flersheim20 January 2022

'Children of Divorce' is about a love quadrangle: childhood friends Kitty (Clara Bow) and Jean (Esther Ralston) on the one side, Vico (Einar Hanson) and Ted (Gary Cooper) on the other. Kitty and Vico love each other, as do Jean and Ted, but what looks straightforward is a receipe for tragedy. This is because Kitty has been taught by her mother that a woman needs to marry wealth - at least when she marries for the first time - and unfortunately Vico is not wealthy. He is the scion of impoverished (that's a relative term) European nobility and expected to do his duty by his family and marry wealth himself. Ted is wealthy and is altogether a bit of a playboy. Tragedy strikes when Jean puts off marrying him until he has got a proper job. Kitty uses the time in order to organise a raucous party, and on the morning after Ted wakes up to discover that, in a drunken stupor, he has married her rather than his true love Jean.

The highlights of the picture are Clara Bow and Gary Cooper. Cooper playes his role evenhandedly. He is remarkable rather because of his later stardom than because his acting here is particularly outstanding. Bow, by contrast, is outstanding. She starts out as a careless flapper and ends as a desparately unhappy woman who sees suicide as her only way out, and every detail and moment of this transition is absolutely convincing. The plot is obviously pretty convoluted and heavy on morals. It does lay it on rather thick, I must say. The viewers are clearly expected to take away the message that divorce was to be avoided at all costs (Kitty's, Jean's and Ted's parents are all divorced, and it is Kitty's divorced mother whose idea of marriage is at the bottom of all the trouble). I am generally no fan of films that try to educate the audience in such a way, but in this case Clara Bow's performance makes up for the deficiencies, at least to a very large extent. All in all, the upsides of 'Children of Divorce' (meaning her and Cooper) outweigh the downsides by quite a bit. In sum: good film.

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Worth Watching for Bow and Cooper

Michael_Elliott23 March 2017

Children of Divorce (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

As the film starts off we're told about special homes where children of divorced parents can go and stay. We then meet Kitty who is dropped off by her mother and can't make friends but soon Jean becomes an older sister to her. Jean meets Edward and the two make a childish joke that one day they will marry. Flash-forward and Kitty (Clara Bow) is a flapper and soon a drunken night leads to her marrying Edward (Gary Cooper), which of course breaks the heart of Jean (Esther Ralston).

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is the greatest movie that its stars ever made. In fact, I honestly thought there were quite a few problems throughout the picture and it wasn't nearly as good as I was hoping for when I went into it. With that said, both Bow and Cooper are legends of the screen and them alone makes this worth sitting through.

The story itself is pretty melo-dramatic and downright predictable at times. For starters, the story never really makes any sense because as children the Bow character is pretty much a shy and timid girl. Then, when we see the adult version, there she is as this loud, over-the- top party girl. There's just nothing here that's very believable as the first portion just seems over-dramatic and the second portion is just your typical Bow character from this period.

I'm certainly not going to ruin what happens as the movie goes along but there's no question that it's rather unbelievable and I'd argue that the ending is laughably bad and predictable. It's certainly a morality tale but to me it was just a bit overdone for its own good. Director Frank Lloyd (with apparent re-shoots by Josef von Sternberg) does a decent job at keeping the film moving but visually there's not too much here.

I thought Bow was good in the film, delivering the type of performance that you'd expect from her. This certainly wasn't her best role but there's no question that it's hard to take your eyes off of her. Cooper was also good in the part, although it's clear he was still learning his way on the screen. I didn't care too much for Ralston's performance as she was certainly the weak link.

It seems I'm really coming down hard on CHILDREN OF DIVORCE but perhaps it's mainly due to how disappointed I was in it. It's a decent movie and certainly worth watching if you're a fan of the stars but there's no question that they did much better work.

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7/10

Clara & Gary are luminous...

leifhelland3 December 2023

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is one of those films that has little to recommend it in terms of story, filmmaking technique or brilliant performances.

What it does have is the luminous presence of Clara Bow at the height of her beauty, solidly coming into her talent, and acting the flapper to her usual perfection. In addition, there is Gary Cooper at the very beginning of his career, not quite a great actor but fantastically handsome and difficult to keep your eyes off him.

With the spectacular beauty of Cooper and Bow on full display, the third rising star in the trio is Esther Ralston, who, while pretty and serene, can't compete with Bow & Cooper in terms of sheer magnetism. The only other silent film I've seen her in is as the mother in Peter Pan, where she was also pretty and serene. I'd be curious to see if she is more of a standout in any of her other silent starring vehicles.

CHILDREN OF DIVORCE is worth a look if only for Bow & Cooper and what better way to pass an hour or so in such engaging company.

The print I saw was on YouTube and was truly magnificent, clear and bright and looking like it was made yesterday. My only complaint was the truly horrible piano accompaniment which almost ruined the film for me. It did nothing to support, intensify or supplement the action on the screen and was more of a distraction than an enhancement.

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10/10

Such a simple little tale

OldieMovieFan15 May 2023

....yet the performances from Clara Bow and Gary Cooper are so powerful that the story becomes incredibly profound and moving.

Several commenters have made the point that this is an just old fashioned morality play, but it is in fact timeless, as old as Rome and as modern as tomorrow morning. The emotions and the relentless logic surrounding this little group of people is a constant source of celebrity headlines and they play out again and again, all over the world.

Cooper was still learning his craft - and the makeup department was, too - but it doesn't matter; his performance is stunning.

The years and decades pass but there have been few actresses indeed that can reach the level of Clara Bow. A century later, her ability to show her audiences greed, envy, love, despair with nothing more than facial expression is still virtually unmatched.

This is an all-time great film.

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