"Forgotten" on some levels is a rather tragic movie and it really depends upon personal factors how one interprets it.
The main character, Papa Strauss (Lee Kohlmar), was a German immigrant who was trying to make his mark in America. He started the Strauss Dye Co. And built it up to something successful. He shared his wealth and his life with his children: Lena (June Clyde), Louie (Leon Ames), and Hans (Selmer Jackson). As he got older and his two sons got married, they pushed him out of the way more and more. Lena was still attached to him, but she had to go to California to take care of her sick uncle Adolph. While she was gone the two sons, at the urging of their wives Myrtle (Natalie Moorhead) and May (Natalie Kingston), relegated their father to the margins of their lives and the company.
This is where the sentiments of the viewers may vary. It was clear that Invincible Pictures was making Papa the sympathetic character. His sons no longer had time for him and their wives weren't keen on him at all. A poor old man who'd given them everything was now "forgotten."
I'm sure there are those viewers who sided with Papa Strauss and probably had animus towards his sons and their wives.
Then, there are the viewers like me. Not that I liked his sons or anything, but Papa Strauss was quite pitiful. His whole life was centered around his children. He had not a friend to speak of. He was one of those parents who wanted to keep their children attached to them until the end. What's funny is that if Papa Strauss was a mother, he'd be an antagonist of sorts. He'd be a doting meddlesome mother tearing her sons from their wives ala the mothers in "Shopworn" (1932), "The Silver Cord" (1933), and "Another Language" (1933). But, because he was a father and it was unbecoming for a man to be so meddlesome, his daughter Lena did the talking for him while he suffered in silence.
It all boiled down to Papa Strauss needing friends and a hobby and he had neither. So, even though his sons were made to look ungrateful because they were no longer listening to their poor old dad and were being influenced by their seemingly selfish wives, I would hardly characterize them as such. They were men with lives and wives of their own and like most children, their parents play a smaller and smaller role in their lives as they get older. I know that in this case the boys owed a lot to their father because he gave them the dye business, but that's just it--he gave it to them. Sure, they should show him some gratitude, but at some point they were going to become independent of him and that's what they did. In the case of "Forgotten" their independence was insolence, and in another movie their independence would be men making a name for themselves.
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