Anecdotes

The titular character of Edward is unseen in both the stage and film versions, his presence deemed unnecessary by the authors, as the father's ruthless, corruptive influence defines the boy's increasingly antisocial behaviors. As such, Edward's unseen but much-discussed character flaws are the core element of the tale.

Edouard, mon fils (1949) did very poorly at the box office for MGM, resulting in a loss of $1,159,000 ($11.73M in 2017) according to studio records.

Much of the film's failure has fallen on the shoulders of Spencer Tracy, whose performance is distinctly out of step with his co-stars. Like most leading men of his day, Tracy refused to attempt dialects. In many cases, this did not negatively impact a film --- i.e. Clark Gable and Leslie Howard's home-grown tones tend to go unnoticed in Autant en emporte le vent (1939) --- but in the case of Edouard, mon fils (1949), Tracy's resistance to effecting an English accent resulted in his being a distractingly incongruous American presence in an otherwise all-British cast, with the drama taking place in and around London. Robert Morley, who wrote the play on which the film is based, originated Tracy's role on stage.

In another awards season, Deborah Kerr's Oscar® nomination surely would have been in the Best Supporting Actress category, but a dearth of 1949 candidates led to her being vaulted into the Best Actress race, which was all but clinched by Olivia de Havilland for L'héritière (1949) from the outset. This would occur again in future years, when a similar lack of competition led to Simone Signoret and Patricia Neal winning the Best Actress awards for their decidedly supporting roles in, respectively, Les chemins de la haute ville (1958) and Le plus sauvage d'entre tous (1963). Kerr also lost the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress to De Havilland the same year.

A sterling example of the risk studios took in casting their stars against type: Spencer Tracy experienced box office failure only when cast as an unsympathetic character in films such as this, Dr. Jekyll et Mr. Hyde (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942), Le maître de la prairie (1947), L'éternel tourment (1947) and Capitaine sans loi (1952).