Just think of mother love movies of the 1930's: "Confession", "Madame X", "Imitation of Life", "The Life of Vergie Winters", "Mother Carey's Chickens", etc. Dozens of them....sacrificing mothers, presumed dead mothers, secret mothers, murdering mothers, mothers on trial, and now, mother defending the might-have-been stepmother in this Republic version of the Faith Baldwin story where all is revealed in a remotely short running time. Like Fanny Hurst, Faith Baldwin was a woman's writer, many of her Cosmopolitan stories ending up on the screen starring many of the glamorous stars of the day. Here, the mother, lawyer, and revealer is Frieda Inescort, a second lead of major studios who got a rare lead in a not bad soap opera playing a rather tough character who utilizes her own past to defend the woman who has taken her place with the man (Neil Hamilton) she once loved and might take on the role she never had the opportunity to be: the mother to Hamilton's love child.
All this is revealed pretty early on, but it's the story unfolding which keeps the mystery of why Inescort never got to become Hamilton's wife. The typical domineering wealthy patriarch (Clarence Kolb) had his own reasons for claiming his grandson and keeping Inescort and Hamilton apart, and even years later, he still despises her. He's not pleased at all when she shows up at the engagement party of Hamilton and fiancée Heather Angel, and it soon becomes obvious to Freida that Kolb is up to his old tricks with the fiancée. So when Angel ends up as a defendant in a murder trial, it's a reluctant Inescort who must reach back into her past and find the right defense to make amends with the past and right the wrongs done to her. There's a nice cameo by "Dead End" kid Leo Gorcey as one of Inescort's clients which shows the opposite side of what he played in all those late 1930's "tough kid" movies before the "Bowery Boys" series turned him into the world's oldest juvenile delinquent with a heart of gold.
There's approximately a reel of film missing from the DVD release of this Republic studios women's picture, but the structure of the story is still easy to follow. This is a film about forgiveness, atonement and reconciliation. Top-billed Walter Abel plays the D.A. in love with attorney Inescort (even though they are often on other sides of the bar)but this is Inescort's film all the way. It's pretty lavish by Republic standards, but history has shown that even amongst their many "B" westerns, Republic had an excellent art department, producing a few "A" pictures each year that were the equivalent technically in comparison to the five major studios. This is one of the few Republic films that was "top of the bill", warranting an excellent poster and thorough advertisement coverage in many a Hollywood fan magazine. A restored version of this would be an excellent addition to classic films which are being re-discovered and might even take its rating up a notch or two.
All this is revealed pretty early on, but it's the story unfolding which keeps the mystery of why Inescort never got to become Hamilton's wife. The typical domineering wealthy patriarch (Clarence Kolb) had his own reasons for claiming his grandson and keeping Inescort and Hamilton apart, and even years later, he still despises her. He's not pleased at all when she shows up at the engagement party of Hamilton and fiancée Heather Angel, and it soon becomes obvious to Freida that Kolb is up to his old tricks with the fiancée. So when Angel ends up as a defendant in a murder trial, it's a reluctant Inescort who must reach back into her past and find the right defense to make amends with the past and right the wrongs done to her. There's a nice cameo by "Dead End" kid Leo Gorcey as one of Inescort's clients which shows the opposite side of what he played in all those late 1930's "tough kid" movies before the "Bowery Boys" series turned him into the world's oldest juvenile delinquent with a heart of gold.
There's approximately a reel of film missing from the DVD release of this Republic studios women's picture, but the structure of the story is still easy to follow. This is a film about forgiveness, atonement and reconciliation. Top-billed Walter Abel plays the D.A. in love with attorney Inescort (even though they are often on other sides of the bar)but this is Inescort's film all the way. It's pretty lavish by Republic standards, but history has shown that even amongst their many "B" westerns, Republic had an excellent art department, producing a few "A" pictures each year that were the equivalent technically in comparison to the five major studios. This is one of the few Republic films that was "top of the bill", warranting an excellent poster and thorough advertisement coverage in many a Hollywood fan magazine. A restored version of this would be an excellent addition to classic films which are being re-discovered and might even take its rating up a notch or two.