Figlio figlio mio!

We have often seen in films the self-sacrificing mother and the negative effects it has had on children. This 1940 film deals with a father, who attains wealth as a writer, and has a son that he spoils rotten so that the latter can have everything in life that he didn't. Naturally, tragedy results from all this.

Our father is played wonderfully and Louis Hayward, as the son, is excellent as well as the son who ruins the life of so many.

Ironically, it is the mother here, a religious woman, who sees from the beginning that there is a need to discipline the boy. The father can't do this and the two argue only to show that their marriage has been a failure.

When dad meets Madeleine Carroll, his wife is conveniently killed by being run-over. Ironically, this occurs on her way home from church. The son has also met Carroll and when he learns that his father loves her, he plots to destroy their liaison.

The father's friend also marries and has two wonderful children. The daughter grows up to become a famous actress and is indebted to the father for writing her plays. The actress is Lorraine Day,and she is miscast in this film. When he can not have Ms. Carroll, Hayward turns to her and when she finds herself in trouble, the father offers to marry her as the son rejects her. Day takes her life tragically.

World War 1 in England intervenes and the son, seeing his father's devotion, becomes a hero but it is too late.

An absorbing film dealing with the loving relationship between father and son. It should not be missed.

Brian Aherne stars in "My Son, My Son," the son being Louis Hayward in this 1940 film. Madeline Carroll, Laraine Day, Henry Hull, and Josephine Hutchinson also star in this saga that spans 20+ years. William Essex is an ambitious young man, determined to get out of the slums. He winds up helping a sick man and his daughter (Hutchinson) by delivering bread to their customers. After the man's death, he marries the daughter, a stern religious woman. Together they have a son, Oliver. William has a blind spot when it comes to the boy and is overly indulgent, even when it becomes evident that the kid is a manipulative cheat and liar. William is eventually widowed and reconnects with an artist, Livia (Carroll), whom he met while doing research for a novel in the mines. Unfortunately Oliver is in love with her as well and considers this a big competition, although Livia is not in love with him. His behavior nearly drives Livia away.

Oliver then has his way with a childhood friend, now an actress currently starring in William's play - and the daughter of William's best friend. By the time Oliver goes to serve in World War I, he has cut a wide path of destruction.

"My Son, My Son" makes for an okay movie but has a very disappointing performance by Brian Aherne. Aherne, who by this time had been overshadowed by Errol Flynn, was capable of much better as he showed in "Merrily We Live" and other films. He was an accomplished stage actor as well. However, he did not seem very committed to this material. In a way, I don't blame him. The character comes across like an idiot letting this brat get away with what he did.

The rest of the performances are very good, particularly from Hayward, who did this smooth con man type of character very well. Carroll is luminous as a woman desperately in love with William but frightened of what Oliver might do next. Laraine Day is lovely as Maeve, who harbors a secret love for William and whose life takes on tragic proportions.

"My Son, My Son" is nowhere near as horrible as one of the reviews indicates (in my opinion) but it isn't great. It seems to have a tacked-on Hollywood ending as well.

A delightfully old-fashioned melodrama in the grand tradition of John M Stahl (whose films were sometimes remade in color by Douglas Sirk ),Irving Rapper or Edmund Goulding.

Even though it was given the full -bore melodrama treatment ,both characters (the father and the son) still exist today and one has certainly met some of them in one's lifetime ; the father who got a raw deal when he was young and who wants his offspring to enjoy all that life offers : the scene of the book is revealing and shows how dad can be blind (or rather pretends to be blind ).

William(Bruce Aherne) is prey to a monstruous love for a son , a not-so-magnificent obsession; Charles Vidor had filmed the opposite in his memorable "double door" :a woman who had made her nephew a waverer and whose hate for her daughter-in-law knew no bound.

William's mindless adoration for an ungrateful mischievous son is as destructive as Mary Morris ' hate for her family . The grown- up son will never take no for an answer and he won't be satisfied till he owns everything;under a handsome but sarcastic smile , Oliver (Louis Hayward is ideally cast here) hides a black soul, a man whose pleasure is to treat the others as puppets he pulls the strings of, deaf to their pain .

Great scenes: the railway station where a symbolic gate separates the father and the son busy wooing a girl on the platform ; the officers' meal when the father has finally understood and Rory's (the virtuous gent) arrival.

In fact,William discovers he's as guilty as his son ; his wife had already tried to rectify her son's behavior :but as a rather holier-than-thou woman , she had no real hold on them ;besides ,when she gets run over by a car, nobody sheds a tear and her husband hints at her only once, fleetingly ,afterward .The character ,with whom William was never really in love with ,is not developed enough,and it's the main flaw of the movie .When a new woman ;Livia,appears (Laraine Day),Oliver cannot consider her a stepmother and a ruthless competition begins, but as for the new flame, it's a one-way love (or so called love).

Like father,like son.

Some sincere performances by the cast characterize My Son My Son about the doings of a young cad and how he affects the lives of all around him. The title role here is played in adulthood by Louis Hayward who while pretty much forgotten today was a fine player and equally capable of playing heroes as in The Return Of Monte Cristo, villainous cads as in this film or both sides of the coin as in The Man In The Iron Mask.

Brian Aherne plays his long suffering father who realizes he's spawned a completely selfish cad in his desire to provide the best of everything for his son. Aherne and best friend Henry Hull are a pair of poor Irishmen who are determined to better themselves. Hull becomes a rich designer of furniture and Aherne a celebrated author. Both marry and have children, Aherne his one and only son and a boy and a girl for Hull.

Early on Hayward while still a child and played by Scotty Beckett is discovered to be charming but bad. His mother Josephine Hutchinson wants to discipline him severely, but she dies early and Aherne spoils him rotten.

Hayward ruins the lives of all around him, but in the end redeems himself somewhat so that Aherne can be proud of him. For how Hayward ruins and redeems you see the film for.

Madeline Carroll is also in the film as Aherne's second wife who Hayward makes a play for. Hull's grownup children are played by Bruce Lester and Laraine Day and both are touched negatively by Hayward.

Aherne maybe next to David Niven was the actor who was cast in roles that required charm and little else to carry a film. He never became as big a star as Niven among other of his contemporaries, but was on occasion called on to do more than be charming as in the case of My Son My Son. In this as in Smiling Through Aherne has to age many years and with the help of good makeup does so gracefully.

My Son My Son got an Oscar nomination for Art Direction for and black and white motion picture. Dated severely it still is a credit to the cast and crew who made it.

I gave this a "7" mainly on the strength of Louis Hayward's performance. I did not catch the beginning credits and so spent the whole picture wondering who young Essex was. I thought it was a young Dirk Bogarde! As noted before, Laraine Day (again a surprise) was miscast, although very pretty indeed. here she was an English girl, daughter of Irish parents, yet with an American accent. Day had a busy year in '40, having a leading lady role in "foreign correspondent". henry hull, as her father, was quite recognizable. Surprisingly, I thought the normally beauteous Madeline Carroll was a bit heavy, and older looking. well, her role did call for her to be a more mature woman, both as a counter-point to young Essex and mature for the older Essex. I don't know anyone who could be more fitting as the young rotter Essex, with Hayward's patented smirk and sarcastic voice. Brent was a study in naivete and at times seemed a bit bewildered how he should act in certain scenes. the movie must have been hard for the Brits to be really interested, what with WW11 already started and this movie's time period being up to and during WW1. Perhaps its production started before sept. '39.