My Son, My Son! (1940)

Powerful

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

After the brilliance of "Those High Grey Walls" it was inevitable that director Charles Vidor would most likely be stuck with a lesser screenplay for his next assignment. In fact, Edward Small now asked for Vidor's services on My Son, My Son (1940), an adaptation of Howard Spring's best-selling English novel about a best-selling English novelist, who does everything he can to spoil his son. Brian Aherne is the excessively fond father. Louis Hayward plays the wayward son who, after failing to seduce his future step-mother (Madeleine Carroll), succeeds instead in seducing the daughter (Laraine Day) of his father's best friend (Henry Hull). In the book by Howard Spring, the son dies by hanging; in the film, however, he dies a hero! Admittedly, director Vidor and his players give this potboiler from Howard Spring's remarkably successful novel the full treatment, but I would normally doubt if "My Son, My Son" would earn many brownie points among moviegoers and television fanatics today. But I stand corrected , however. The movie has earned some enthusiastic reviews at IMDb even though it betrays the book and provides an entirely different outcome for its degenerate "hero"!

Not having read the novel upon which this tedious film was based, I can only guess that it must have been epic and dense with lots of character detail, one of those historical romances the reader can get lost in. Translated to celluloid it becomes a long series of episodic sketches transporting us from the Victorian age to World War One. Brian Aherne comes across as a bland variation of Erroll Flynn; he seems to stand around looking vaguely disappointed much of the time. Amazingly, his character is a highly successful novelist-turned-playwright but we get no sense of what relationship his art has to who he is as a man. Ostensibly he is from the slums but never does he look, act or speak like someone from that social stratum. Madeleine Carroll as always is lovely to behold but is given very little to do. Louis Hayward has the meatiest role as the rotter son but even his character lacks depth. His delivery reminds one of Noel Coward, who, by the way, mentored him early in his career. The whole enterprise has a highly artificial look and feel, particularly in the battle sequences featuring Hayward. All this adds up to a most unengaging 2 hours.

Brian Aherne stars in "My Son, My Son," the son being Louis Hayward in this 1940 film. Madeline Carroll, Laraine Day, Henry Hull, and Josephine Hutchinson also star in this saga that spans 20+ years. William Essex is an ambitious young man, determined to get out of the slums. He winds up helping a sick man and his daughter (Hutchinson) by delivering bread to their customers. After the man's death, he marries the daughter, a stern religious woman. Together they have a son, Oliver. William has a blind spot when it comes to the boy and is overly indulgent, even when it becomes evident that the kid is a manipulative cheat and liar. William is eventually widowed and reconnects with an artist, Livia (Carroll), whom he met while doing research for a novel in the mines. Unfortunately Oliver is in love with her as well and considers this a big competition, although Livia is not in love with him. His behavior nearly drives Livia away. Oliver then has his way with a childhood friend, now an actress currently starring in William's play - and the daughter of William's best friend. By the time Oliver goes to serve in World War I, he has cut a wide path of destruction."My Son, My Son" makes for an okay movie but has a very disappointing performance by Brian Aherne. Aherne, who by this time had been overshadowed by Errol Flynn, was capable of much better as he showed in "Merrily We Live" and other films. He was an accomplished stage actor as well. However, he did not seem very committed to this material. In a way, I don't blame him. The character comes across like an idiot letting this brat get away with what he did.The rest of the performances are very good, particularly from Hayward, who did this smooth con man type of character very well. Carroll is luminous as a woman desperately in love with William but frightened of what Oliver might do next. Laraine Day is lovely as Maeve, who harbors a secret love for William and whose life takes on tragic proportions."My Son, My Son" is nowhere near as horrible as one of the reviews indicates (in my opinion) but it isn't great. It seems to have a tacked-on Hollywood ending as well.

Having read the book I was quite keen to see this. Despite it not being the potboiler it could have been in later years, and having the terminally dull Aherne in the lead, the rest of the cast (specifically Louis Hayward, Laraine Day, Madeleine Carroll) spur the film along and keep the interest. It does suffer from a certain amount of sugary sentimentality from Aherne (and isn't he a bit too tall?!) but apart from that it does justice to its source and manages to be entertaining as well.