Mothers Cry

Mary Williams gets married soon after the film begins. After having four kids, her husband is killed and she is forced to raise them on her own. But trouble is brewing, as her son Danny clearly is a sociopath and delights in tormenting one of his sisters (Helen Chandler) and shows nothing in the way of a conscience.

Years pass and Danny is still awful...and a criminal. The second daughter is barely mentioned or seen in the story. The second son, Artie, is a successful young man and budding architect. As for the mother, she is STILL making excuses for Danny and while she doesn't realize it, this will spell disaster for the family as she really has to make a choice...Danny or the other three and their happiness.

This film is a product of when it was made. Instead of having the usual First National/Warner Brothers polish you'd expect, it's oddly silent and overly restrained. There is little incidental music (not too uncommon for 1930) and the acting is occasionally pretty bad (Chandler is the worst of them...often staring into space instead of acting). While the story is interesting, this is a very uninspired and low energy tale....and it shouldn't have been. A time-passer that should have been better.