This rather obscure little film from '51 must have been one that attracted GENE TIERNEY, given the circumstances of her private life wherein her own parentage problems came about when her pregnancy resulted in a child born mentally retarded. She puts her heart and soul into her performance here, as the obsessive wife who "must" have a child to call her own regardless of where the child comes from. Hubby RAY MILLAND is more realistic about things and wants to know the background of any infant they adopt.
While she falls completely in love with the adopted infant boy, Milland, who is a newspaper columnist, decides to do his own research into the baby's real parents. Therein, the story takes a few melodramatic turns before the domestic problems are ironed out.
FAY BAINTER is excellent as the head of an adoption agency who wants to make sure both parents are right for the child. Her scenes with Tierney are sensitively played and well scripted. Tierney looks ravishing and there is no trace of the illness which would overtake her career in a few short years.
Milland has some good moments, especially toward the end when he has his final confrontation with Bainter, insisting that he's no longer holding the baby's criminal father as a factor in not signing the final adoption papers, having met with the man in prison and realizing that heredity is not going to poison the child.
Although the presentation is an intelligent enough one, there is the flavor of a Lifetime TV movie to the production (by today's standards), and it verges on being daytime soap opera in quality more than once. But fans of Gene Tierney and Ray Milland will like their performances in this one.
A nice background score by Max Steiner helps, as does the direction of William Keighley.
