What Becomes of the Children?

Robert Frazer spends all his time building his railroad into the biggest in the US. Natalie Moorhead spends her time in society and his money on, well, it's never specified, except for one bridge debt. They pay no attention to their son and daughter until the divorce, then the girl goes with Miss Moorhead and the son with Frazer. Both are shuttled off to school, until they grow into Glen Boles and Joan Marsh; their parents' continuing neglect makes them each walk out, Boles into a job as a piano player at a night club, and Miss Marsh into a situation.

Walter Shumway's sole directorial effort is one of those lecturing, hectoring movies that Poverty Row producers putout to make their small-town audiences feel smug. They might not have millions of dollars, but they paid attention to their children! (even when they didn't). Most of the technical work is of the cheap-yet-competent variety, and the acting is pretty good, except for Frazer and Miss Moorhead, who tend to declaim at each other.

The smaller roles, including Claudia Dell, Barbara Pepper, and an uncredited Franklyn Farnum go by so fast you can't form much of an opinion, but Boles is surprisingly good. He started out as a stunt man, worked his way up to small roles at the major studios, then headed east, where he was part of the original cast of You Can't Take It With You. During the War, he worked as a code breaker. After, he went to Columbia University and became a practicing psychologist. He died in 2009 at the age of 95.