I'll admit the title of this 1940 film takes one aback. It is something of an op-ed against some unsupervised (not exactly sure what the director/producer meant by that) "charity" home for single mothers. The story opens with a young newpaper reporter (Glenn Ford) hearing of the "babies for money" adoption schemes from an old, kind-hearted doctor. He leaves the newspaper over it and starts his own independent research on the issue. The other half of the story is about a young, pretty widow who goes to a place called Mercy House for help. The scheming doctor and nurse try to coerce her into giving her baby up for adoption, claiming it will be better for both her and the baby. Their real motivation is the money they can get for the child.
The lives of the young widow and her friend, a fellow Mercy House inmate, become entwined with those of the reporter and kind doctor. There is nothing sexual about this film and the closest one gets to "romance" is the final shot in the film--it's actually quite sweet. The topic addressed is not so much un-wed mothers, but the treatment single mothers (whether un-wed, abandoned wives, or widows) and their children recieved at the hands of profiteering "charity" institutions. How much of the film was based on actual events and facts, I don't know. What I do know is it brought it's point across very clearly without condemning all charity organizations. Just because it's "charity", doesn't mean that it's good. The sale of a child (even if he gets into a good home) is immoral--not because one is getting the child adopted, but because of how it is done. For a B-movie the story really was pretty good. I found it engaging and while not explicitly Christian, I cannot recall (I watched this last week so please forgive me if I have missed something here) anything that really stuck out to me as bad theology.
1 Comment
Racheal
8/30/2013 03:37:15 am
As an editorial note: it was 'black market adoption'.
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RachealA Reformed Presbyterian girl who enjoys a good movie or a good book any ol' time. Archives
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