Sarah and Son

"Grey" (Fuller Mellish Jr) is a bit of a rake. He treats his wife "Sarah" (Ruth Chatterton) appallingly and after years of this, absconds with their young baby son "Bobby" (who turns into Philippe De Lacy) of whom he soon bores and so he sells him onto a decent and wealthy family before enlisting. "Sarah" is heartbroken but the Great War intervenes and thereafter, the "Ashmore" family who acquired her son decline to give him up - she hasn't got tuppence to rub together. Her luck changes though - her singing takes her to operatic stardom and she is now in a better financial position to appeal directly to her now quite spoilt son. Grimly determined to reconcile her family, she tries to influence "Vanning" (Frederic March). He's a lawyer and a relative of the "Ashmore" family. As she pursues her real goal, a side benefit includes a burgeoning romance between these two. Can she establish her own ideal family unit? The story itself provides for quite an emotional maelstrom. The frustrated mother seeking a son who has never known anyone but the folks he grew up with, loved and took care of him. There's never going to be a conclusion that satisfies everyone, but so long as "Sarah" gets her way. Chatterton delivers well here as does De Lacy as the young lad, but there's just far too little of March for him to make much difference to the rather ploddingly melodramatic fashion in which Dorothy Arzner decides to tell the tale. The production is adequate and the denouement filmed quite effectively, but it's all just a bit flat.

Ruth Chatterton, a poor, low-life mother who can barely make ends meet, is married to a no-good jerk, Fueller Mullish Jr. When Fueller steals their infant son and sells him to a rich family, Ruth is heartbroken. She contacts a high-class lawyer, Fredric March, to help get her boy back, but he's already settled in his new home.

It actually takes a long time for the plot to unfold, so if you decide to watch this, you'll be looking at your watch wondering when Fredric March is going to show up. Unless you love silent movies or very early talkies, you probably won't make it through this one. It hasn't been remastered, so the sound quality is poor and the film looks like it's on the verge of overexposure. The actors talk in a very stylized manner, over-pronouncing things and having very obvious facial expressions. Also, Ruth talks in a very strong accent and it's tough to understand her at times. I'd recommend sticking with A Feather in Her Cap and Stella Dallas if you like these types of stories.

The first half of the title role in Sarah And Son is played by Ruth Chatterton who got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The second part of the title is done by young Philippe DeLacy who plays her son who was untimely ripped from Chatterton by his father Fuller Melish who in his third of three pictures plays a no good rat of a husband.

Melish who died untimely right after Sarah And Son was finished actually sells their young kid off to a wealthy American family for money and he then promptly takes off. It's unfortunate he died because he had a bright future playing all kinds of cad roles. Chatterton is shattered by this, but she picks herself up and becomes a great opera star from her humble days in French music hall. She also finds out where her son is and sets her sights on his return.

Enter Fredric March in one of his early roles. He's the brother of Doris Lloyd who now has custody of DeLacy who naturally thinks she's his real mother. But March is also an attorney with a sense of justice and he kind of fancies Chatterton anyway.

Chatterton despite attempting a Fifi D'Orsay type French accent registers well as the distraught mother. So does March although the film is clearly Chatterton's. The film is melodramatic and dated and allowances should be made there.

Still for fans of Chatterton and March I recommend it.

"Sarah and Son" is a very old fashioned film...the sort they made mostly in the late 1920s to the early 30s. The plot is a weepy thing with a longsuffering mother and her estranged son...sort of like what you'd also have seen in "So Big" (1932) or "Madam X" (1920, 1929). It's also the style film you really wouldn't see much of after the early talking picture days.

Sarah (Ruth Chatterton) is a woman who has fallen for the wrong man. Her husband turns out to be a lazy louse. He's so awful that one day he sells their baby and then joins the Marines in time to fight in WWI. Sarah is naturally beside herself with grief. Following the war, she discovers the name of the family the husband sold the baby to...but they refuse to return the child. Considering they are rich and she is a poor woman with little means, she eventually realizes it's futile and gives up...for now.

Now, ten years later, Sarah has become a world famous opera singer and has the means to fight back for her boy. And, considering how miserable the boy is, perhaps she'll get him back and they'll become a family once again. But what is next? Surely, getting him back won't be that easy in such a soapy picture...especially when the family with the boy are not above trickery to keep him.

In the early days of talking pictures, films tended to try too hard when it came to sound. Musicals were all the rage and in the case of this film, having Chatterton affecting such a strong accent was considered a good thing. Today, it just seems like she was overdoing the accent a bit and it made me wish the film either had subtitles or she'd dropped this odd Dutch-like accent. It's really hard to believe her performance garnered her an Oscar nomination, though many of the early winners and nominees are dated when you see them today (such as Mary Pickford in "Coquette").

Overall, a modestly enjoyable but very dated film that is mostly of interest to old movie buffs. Otherwise, the story is a bit hard to believe, the accent too thick and the story a bit sappy. Not bad, mind you...but also not all that good either.

By the way, years after the film was first released, it was re-released with a new title very sloppily slapped onto the title screen.

A virtual retread of Ruth Chatterton's role of the previous year as 'Madame X' with the difference that she's an Austrian immigrant (hence the accent) that charts her rise from a simple vaudeville hoofer at the time of The Great War before she rises in the world to become 'Madame Sarah Storm, Prima Donna Supreme' in chic off-the-shoulder dresses and dripping with fur, epitomising the glamour of the Roaring Twenties.

Naturally she has to suffer - a legacy of her earlier marriage to a drunken wastrel (played by Fuller Mellish Jr., who died of a cerebral haemorrhage before the film was even released): the father of her child who decamps with the infant and sells it to a wealthy couple.

When at long last mother and son are finally reunited it's facilitated by the then novel device (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) of a chase involving a speedboat.