Broken Dreams

When his wife dies in childbirth, newly minted doctor Randolph Scott turns the infant over to his in-laws, Joseph Cawthorne and Beryl Mercer. Scott heads off to Europe to study. He returns six years later with a specialty in pediatrics and an adoring fiancee in Martha Sleeper. But a rising doctor is always on call, and when he returns to his nuptials from a lying in talking about the twins, and hoping they can have children as engaging, Miss Sleeper expresses her fears, and suggests he already has a son. There's a bit of a struggle with the old couple, and the boy, Buster Phelps, misses his mom and pop and dog and chimpanzee. Miss Sleeper tries to be a mother, but Scott is always off on a case.

It's an ambitious movie from Monogram, and an ambitious one for Scott. He was already making a name for himself, but here was a chance to see if he could perform off a horse in a lead role. He's pretty bland here, speaking his words without much weight to them, but that's the way the character is written: without much in the way of introspection. Others carry the brunt of the movie, including Sidney Bracey as the butler who enjoys indulging Master Phelps, and the six-year-old gets a lot of screen time to himself.... with the dog and the chimpanzee, of course.