Broken Dreams

When his wife dies in childbirth, newly minted doctor Randolph Scott turns the infant over to his in-laws, Joseph Cawthorne and Beryl Mercer. Scott heads off to Europe to study. He returns six years later with a specialty in pediatrics and an adoring fiancee in Martha Sleeper. But a rising doctor is always on call, and when he returns to his nuptials from a lying in talking about the twins, and hoping they can have children as engaging, Miss Sleeper expresses her fears, and suggests he already has a son. There's a bit of a struggle with the old couple, and the boy, Buster Phelps, misses his mom and pop and dog and chimpanzee. Miss Sleeper tries to be a mother, but Scott is always off on a case.

It's an ambitious movie from Monogram, and an ambitious one for Scott. He was already making a name for himself, but here was a chance to see if he could perform off a horse in a lead role. He's pretty bland here, speaking his words without much weight to them, but that's the way the character is written: without much in the way of introspection. Others carry the brunt of the movie, including Sidney Bracey as the butler who enjoys indulging Master Phelps, and the six-year-old gets a lot of screen time to himself.... with the dog and the chimpanzee, of course.

To anyone born in the past fifty years, Randolph Scott is probably most recognizable from a reference in Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles" (the townspeople bow their heads reverently at the mention of Scott's name).

Well, I understand that Scott was best known for westerns, but Robert Vignola's "Broken Dreams" is the first of his movies that I've seen. This story of a man whose wife dies in childbirth, prompting him to leave his son in the care of his aunt and uncle, doesn't hit as hard as some other movies about grief, but it still makes the viewer sympathize for the characters.

I will say that despite it being a drama, a couple of scenes of the son give it sort of a silly feeling (especially with his pets). Even so, this is the kind of movie that people considering parenthood should watch to gain an understanding of the trials and tribulations that one will face when taking this leap. It's not a masterpiece, but worth seeing. I hope to see more of Vignola's movies now.

Robert Morley (Randolph Scott), a medical intern at a large metropolitan area hospital, becomes emotionally enervated when his wife dies giving birth, and because he had reserved all of his love for her, Morley has no desire to even look upon their newborn son, abandoning him instead into the loving care of an aunt and uncle and moving overseas to Vienna, there to complete his final years of internship. It is apparent that he has energetically addressed his career goals, since within two years of his return to the United States, he has not only graduated from Harvard Medical School but has additionally established a flourishing practice as a pediatrician! (Admittedly more concerned with easing the pain suffered by pregnant women than that of children.) It would seem that Doctor Morley has been quite successful at ridding his consciousness of his forsaken child. This is altered when his aunt (Beryl Mercer) escorts young Billy Morley (Buster Phelps) to his father's office upon the boy's sixth birthday, whereupon Morley is riveted by his son's endearing personality, a circumstance not at all to the liking of beautiful socialite Martha (Martha Sleeper) whom Robert has found time to successfully woo. After the doctor and Martha are wed, his association with his aunt and uncle (Joseph Cawthorn) is bruised when he calls for the return of Billy, who believes that the older folks are his parents, and who is completely content residing with them in an apartment to the rear of their business, a pet store. Following a judgement by a court appointed referee who has no option but to return the youngster to his birth father, a new conflict arises, one between charming Billy and Martha, dissension that indeed imperils the Morley marriage. Director Robert Vignola is alloted a customary low Monogram Pictures production budget, along with a prosaic screenplay, but he has an advantage of able editing from Carl Pierson, while the absence of a musical score actually increases the dramatic effect of the work, while the players for the most part create their roles in effective fashion, given their arid lines. Scott is somewhat wooden here, while vivacious Sleeper wins the acting bays with a nicely defined turn as an elegant woman vying with a situation not at all to her liking, and stage-trained Cawthorn has always a perfect sense for his character's dialogue. Alpha Video does not re-master its DVD reissues of older films, and this is by all odds one of the more vexatious, being awash with skips, jumps, and elisions. Its cast saves a film that is best served by way of a theatre showing.

Broken Dreams started off with a bang. Randolph Scott is anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child. The doctor comes out of the delivery room with the news that it's a boy, but his wife has died. Scottie cries and flees the hospital, leaving his aunt and uncle (Beryl Mercer and Joseph Cawthorn) to pick up the pieces. For some reason, Scottie decided to stop giving heavy dramatic performances later in his career, so if you catch him in this movie, you'll see one of the rare times he tried to show off his chops. Cary Grant and John Wayne weren't good actors, Gary Cooper was a lousy one, and Clark Gable was never asked to do much. Why was Randolph Scott left out in the cold?

Anyway, back to Broken Dreams. Scottie abandons his son and pursues his career as a doctor. But after what happened to him, why would he ever specialize in pediatrics? He's engaged to a high society woman (Martha Sleeper), and she has no idea he has a son. The boy, played by the adorably pouty Buster Phelps, is extremely happy living with his great- aunt and uncle, and as they've raised him, he's grown up calling them Mom and Pop. Do you think Scottie's going to want his cake and eat it, too? He's extremely unlikable after the first ten minutes of the movie. So, weigh the pros and cons. If you want to see him act, rent this one. If you want to like him, skip it.

Looking at Broken Dreams it seemed to me like Monogram Pictures was trying to develop their own child star in Buster Phelps. This film is just like the material that Shirley Temple was starting to do over at Fox Films. In fact Randolph Scott was in several of her feature films.

Broken Dreams opens on a tragic note as Dr. Randolph Scott's wife dies in childbirth delivering a healthy baby boy. But overcome with grief Scott can't deal with the baby so he leaves his kid in the care of his aunt and uncle Beryl Mercer and Joseph Cawthorn and goes to Europe on a medical assignment.

Six years later, now a respected physician, Scott returns home with a new wife in socialite Martha Sleeper and wants the kid back, now a lively six year old Buster Phelps. He has to fight Cawthorn and Mercer for custody, but the law is on his side. Winning young Buster over is a whole other proposition and Sleeper has mixed emotions about it.

I won't go any farther, but if this doesn't sound like the plot of a Shirley Temple movie you haven't seen too many of them. As for Buster Phelps he hardly had the career that Shirley did. Then again Monogram did not give this film the production values that Fox could Shirley Temple.

It's not a bad film, Buster is cute in his own way. I did love the mischievous trick he played on his French governess involving a pet dog and a chimpanzee. I won't say another word, see the film.