Saturday's Children

This very entertaining film is directed flawlessly by Vincent Sherman and based on a Maxwell Anderson play. Top notch script providing laughter, sympathy and reflective determination.

A lovely young woman(Anne Shirley) ends up tricking a hopeless schemer/inventor(John Garfield) into marriage. Is it tricked or trapped? The young couple struggle to the point of almost breaking up. They earn $101 a month, but spend $108. The poor lovers try to prove two can live as cheap as one...maybe if one doesn't eat!

My favorite scene is when Garfield and brother-in-law(Roscoe Karns)come home drunk. Also funny is when Garfield is told that he was tricked into the marriage.

Claude Rains is the young woman's father and plays the part cool and witty with his own brand of humor. Lee Patrick is sister Florrie, who is quite obnoxious from the get go.

A very touching movie. Being poor is no fun, but it isn't the end of the world. Someone always has it worse. More than likely another Saturday child.

This film is a comedy with sad parts. If you want to see the past, the fashions, the way women were treated, or just escape from modern films, you might enjoy this. I watched it solely for Claude Rains, but found the female lead to be very likable and certainly very pretty. A girl of 22 meets a man at her new job, and they begin a solid friendship. I liked that she wasn't a typical girlie-girl, trying to catch a man. She was a person first and very honest. It's her sister who is determined the two must marry. The marriage runs into trouble mostly due to finances--nothing much has changed in America, has it! Claude Rains is absolutely charming as ever, kind, gentle, funny, and very devoted to his daughter. It shocked me that a 1940s film, or any father, would tell his daughter it was OK for girls to sow some "wild oats" as well as boys! Dad's action toward the end of the film shocked me as well, and overall this was a fairly poorly written, unrealistic kitchen-sink drama. However, Anne Shirley is so lovely and likable, and Claude Rains is wonderful. Great to see him not playing a villain or an overly intense individual for once (though he did that so well!) Worth seeing for those two actors. Without them, it would be a miss.

As most IMDB folks already know, this film version of Saturday's Children (SC) is derived from a Maxwell Anderson play that first appeared on Broadway in 1927. After it opened on Jan. 26th of that year, the play ran for a respectable 310 performances before closing. While another IMDB reviewer has noted that the Rimes Rosson character (performed in the film by John Garfield) was played on the stage by Humphrey Bogart, it should be pointed out that Bogart did not originate the part. That honor was given to one Roger Pryor, who sometime after the opening came down with an undisclosed illness which necessitated his being replaced by Bogart. The female lead (Bobby) was portrayed on the stage by Ruth Gordon and in this film version by Anne Shirley. Interestingly, while Bobby's family name in both the play and film is the same ("Halevy"), in the play the male lead is known as Rimes O'Neil and not Rimes Rosson as in the film. There appears to be no known explanation for this change of names, nor is there one to clarify why Bobby's family name is pronounced in the film with the accent on its first syllable. The more common way to pronounce the name "Halevy" is with the accent on the second syllable. It is possible that the film's producers were attempting to downplay the ethnic origins of that family name. We just do not know.

In any event, Bogart left the play after a few months to then assume his next role on the Broadway stage in a farce entitled "Baby Mine.". It opened on June 9, 1927 and closed unsuccessfully after just 12 performances. The play starred Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and was intended to be a comeback vehicle for Arbuckle from a well known scandal that ultimately doomed him as an actor in Hollywood.

Garfield's role in SC is not like the work he was doing at Warner Brothers at this stage of his career. He played it in a somewhat subdued and understated way that greatly enhanced both its realism and charm. Some reviewers have suggested that Garfield was miscast in this role. Others have opined that he took it on to show that he had a broader acting range than he was able to demonstrate in his previous WB films. The latter explanation seems to be the more plausible one, based upon the many examples of similar efforts made by other Hollywood actors presented with like situations. See e.g. Fred Astaire in On the Beach (1959), Gene Kelly in Inherit the Wind (1960), Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942), Frank Sinatra in Suddenly (1954), Bob Hope in Beau James (1957) etc. Bogart's assuming an atypical (for him) romantic and comedic leading man role in Sabrina (1954) would appear to be yet another illustration of the same phenomenon. To this reviewer, Garfield was believable, likable and quite natural playing Rimes. It is possible that under the right set of circumstances, Garfield (like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson before him) might have also developed into a reasonably successful comedic actor. Again-----unfortunately-----we will never know.

SC is a sensitive and touching film that was greatly aided by Garfield's likable and boyish performance. Special mention also must be made of Claude Rains's nuanced portrayal as Anne Shirley's warm and kindly father. The rest of the supporting cast was strong and greatly enhanced the story's Depression-era narrative.

To many filmgoers, SC is probably an unknown or forgotten movie. Because it is so endearing, SC deserves to be seen and appreciated anew by a contemporary audience.

This copy of this film, seen recently on TCM, had a faded look, which contributes to lose the viewer's interest in a film that doesn't seem too relevant today. The main attraction for watching it, was the interesting cast put together for it. Unfortunately, the most important part, is terribly miscast.

The story takes place in Manhattan at the end of the Great Depression. Based on a play by Maxwell Anderson, it probably worked better on the stage than in the adaptation that Julius Epstein, one of the best writers of the period, gave it. It doesn't help either, that director Vincent Sherman didn't appear to be too enthused with the material, as evident in the finished product.

John Garfield was totally wrong for Rims Rosson. He doesn't have that spark that was his trade mark. In the film he is just too bland. Ann Shirley plays the sweet Bobby Halevy. Claude Rains, though, is about the most likable character in the film because as the father of Bobby, he is an honest man who wants to do everything possible to guarantee his daughter's happiness.

The supporting cast is excellent. Lee Patrick, is seen as Florrie. Roscoe Karns and the always dependable George Tobias, make good contributions in minor roles.

Watch "Saturday's Children" as dated curiosity piece.

This version of Saturday's Children is the third film version of a popular Maxwell Anderson play that ran for 326 performances on Broadway during the 1927-28 season. It's a story of young love with sad to say a most miscast John Garfield.

Of course Garfield might not have thought so since back on stage the role he plays as the young calf-eyed Rube Goldberg inventor was originated by none other than fellow Warner Brothers tough guy Humphrey Bogart. Hard to believe, but Bogey on stage played those kind of roles until The Petrified Forest changed his image. He and Ruth Gordon starred in the stage version.

But image is everything and Garfield's similar image of a tough guy was set in the mind of the movie-going public then. Garfield insisted on doing this film and Jack Warner gave in. But when it flopped at the box office and it did, Warner was ready with the 'I told you so'.

A silent version was done with Grant Withers and Corinne Griffith in 1928 and Warner Brothers later did the story again in 1935 with a more suitable Ross Alexander in the lead opposite Gloria Stuart.

I suppose it was the thing back then for young marrieds to live with their parents. This film has Garfield and Anne Shirley living with her parents, Claude Rains and Elizabeth Risdon, along with other married sister Lee Patrick and her husband Roscoe Karns. No wonder these two want a little privacy.

Rains brings Shirley to work in the office where he is a clerk and there she meets Garfield whom she falls for. Garfield is like George Bailey, a guy with an itch to do great things and sees an opportunity in the Phillipines for adventurous type work. But now he's got a wife who doesn't quite share that disposition.

The best performance in the film belongs to Claude Rains. He almost makes quite the sacrifice to keep our young folk together.

Even with a John Garfield that you can't quite get over, Saturday's Children is a nice film about people in love. That's a formula that always sells.