A Child Is Born

Somebody called this the maternity ward version of Grand Hotel. I can't top that, unless you're from the generation that realizes that movie's premise was stolen for the TV Series The Love Boat by Aaron Spelling. And subsequently a TV Series called, yup, Hotel.

Anyway, nothing interesting happens in this movie, as far as I'm concerned. I don't find impending motherhood in the least bit funny, dramatic or otherwise. It's just a fact of life. It's very stagebound and stiff.

Oh, but there is one hilarious thing about this movie: 50-something Spring Byington playing an expectant mother. Come on now.

Get ready for an emotional roller coaster! One minute you'll be laughing the next minute the tears will be streaming down your cheeks! This is the story of one hospital's maternity floor and the women who are staying there waiting to have their babies. Geraldine Fitzgerald gives a fine performance as Mrs. Grace Sutton, a young lady, like any other, going to the hospital to have a baby...only she is handcuffed! She has evidently murdered a man (though no explanation is given as to the circumstances)and will likely spend the rest of her life in prison. The stress of being in jail and having a baby is proving to be too much for her. Gloria Holden (star of Dracula's Daughter a few years earlier) plays a woman who is worried about losing her first child. Spring Byington has a field day as a gal who is now popping out her 6th child, and a very young Nanette Fabray is a teenager whose mother doesn't know she is having a baby, or that she is even married! Then there is Gale Page as the oh so professional nurse, and Eve Arden in a rare non-comedic role as another nurse. But the stand-out performances are by Jeffrey Lynn as the tragic husband of the incarcerated mom-to-be and Johnnie Davis as another franticly nervous spouse! These and a few other characters play out this underrated film which, while slightly dated, is sure to wring out the tears in just about everyone! I give it 10 stars!!!

The top notch cast makes this film worth watching. Since the human condition doesn't change, this film is not at all dated.

All kinds of ladies are having babies in this maternity ward! Spring Byington, somewhat improbably cast as the happy housewife who pops them out once a year or so. Geraldine Fitzgerald, very touching as a woman brought from prison to have the always appealing Jeffery Lynn's child. She was arrested for killing someone in self-defense but we're never told if she really did or was, as Lynn says, was falsely accused.

I watched this to see that fine and sadly neglected actress Gladys George, who plays a vaudevillian who doesn't want to mess up her career with a baby. Unfortunately, though she's good, the role is a little clichéd and it is not a sympathetic character.

I find the allusion to the birth of Jesus peculiar. The title of this movie is often used in religious texts and in carols. Surely whoever gave the movie this title was aware of this.

"A Child is Born" is a remake of "Life Begins," which was precode. This film is from 1939 and features many Warners contract players, hoping to move up, and some more established: Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gladys George, Jeffrey Lynn, Gale Page, Spring Byington, Nanette Fabray, Gloria Holden (of Dracula's Daughter), and Eve Arden. John Litel plays a doctor.

First of all, back in 1939, women didn't look pregnant at all when they entered the hospital to give birth. Apparently you knew when you were about to go into contractions and just went into a hospital, got into bed and waited. This ward had women who had given birth and women who hadn't. Maybe they were having contractions, and that was as verboten as showing pregnancy.

The story centers around a woman in prison (Fitzgerald) married to Lynn, who comes into the hospital to have her baby. We're given to believe the homicide she's imprisoned for was justified, and that in two years, she has a chance at a pardon. If she has a chance for a pardon in two years, why can't she get one now? Gladys George plays part of a performing team who is expecting twins against the wishes of her husband/partner, and evidently herself. She's sneaking booze and pretending it's water. When one of the baby needs "the mother's milk" the nurse gives it to her. I wish the infant luck. He or she will be in a twelve step program before kindergarten.

Fabray plays an underage girl, married without the knowledge of her parents, and about to give birth. The parents find out and according to the husband, they're en route. Thus, the trials and joys of those in a maternity ward.

Fitzgerald enjoyed a long career in films and television; Arden, Byington, and Fabray had film careers but found their greatest success in television; Gale Page got married and retired; Jeffrey Lynn ultimately went into real estate; Gloria Holden worked through the '50s, starring in B movies, supporting in top films, and later on, uncredited. Gladys George had already had a fine career and worked until her death in 1954.

An interesting film for the treatment of pregnancy back then, soapy-ish but still entertaining and poignant because of the performances.

Times have changed. As Lucille Ball once said, "You used to not be able to show a woman pregnant. Now you not only see it, but how she got that way." But birth still remains part of the circle of life.