Producer: Irving Asher & Mervyn LeRoy
Director: Mervyn Leroy
Awards: Received Oscar for Best Art Direction and was nominated for three more: Best Actress (Greer Garson), Best Cinematography & Best Picture.
Interesting Fact: This film was to be the first of eight pictures to have Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon cast together. They were the perfect couple on screen and this one has a greater emphasis on the characters courting than their other pictures.
My Mother's Favorite Scene: Her favorite scene is when she gives her speech to congress and says the famous line below.
Edna: "There are no illegitimate children. There are only illegitimate parents!"
In a day where children were marked for being born out of wedlock, there was a woman named Edna Gladney. As a child, she had an adopted sister, who was later rejected by her soon to be in-laws for this permanent mark. As a result, she committed suicide. Later in life, she had a child of her own that died on Christmas, and was forever saddened by this experience. Through the encouragement and persistence of her husband, Sam, she regained a love for children and began her own orphanage. It was when another young woman brought her a donation for the orphanage in tears, that she was reminded of her sister at youth. From that moment she waged a war against the branding of children for the choices of their parents.
This is one of those astounding true stories you don't hear about much. Through the persistence of one woman and then another and another, a label used for generations was removed from those who were too young to fight for themselves. Garson is amazing in this film and was nominated for an Oscar. The speech near the end makes your hair stand up. The fight for removing the word "bastard" from a birth certificate was still being fought when this picture was made. When it was released into the theaters it brought a swift finish to the struggle. What a spectacular picture.
Greer Garson & Walter Pidgeon for the first time.
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MOVIE?
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