A 70-minute gut-punch about a doctor who'll sell his soul for his kid's future. Pre-Code melodrama hits different.
A doctor in New York City, who has had to raise his son without a mother since his wife died, struggles and sacrifices to be able to send the boy to a top-ranked, but expensive, medical university in Europe. His dream is that the boy will return to help him provide much needed medical care for the poor of his Lower East Side neighborhood.
Acting
Ralph Morgan's exhausted dignity as the doctor who keeps losing.
Writing
Pre-Code dialogue that actually says the quiet parts out loud.
Director
John Francis Dillon
Ralph Morgan
Dr. William MacDonald
Boots Mallory
Nancy Moore
Alexander Kirkland
Bill MacDonald
Irene Ware
Olive Pelton
Noel Madison
Sam Bernstein
Wade Boteler
Police Lt. Mike Farley
Christian Rub
Schmiddy
Betty Jane Graham
Rosie Schmidt
Ferike Boros
Mrs. Bernstein
George Irving
Dr. Van Buren
Crauford Kent
James Pelton
Nella Walker
Mrs. James Pelton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the brief 'pre-Code' window before 1934 censorship, this film got away with frank sexuality, moral ambiguity, and class anger that vanished from Hollywood for decades.
Ralph Morgan was the older brother of Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz), and this was one of dozens of 'quota quickies'—cheap films made to satisfy British content laws.
US
