''Mothers Cry'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

released by

First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

, a subsidiary of

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, and directed by

Hobart Henley Hobart Henley (born Hess Manassah Henle; November 23, 1887 – May 22, 1964) was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He was involved in over 60 films either as an actor or director or both from 1914 to 1934. Early ...

. The movie stars

Dorothy Peterson Bergetta "Dorothy" Peterson (December 25, 1897 - October 3, 1979) was an American actress. She began her acting career on Broadway before appearing in more than eighty Hollywood films. Early years Peterson was born in Hector, Minnesota, the ...

Helen Chandler Helen Chandler (February 1, 1906 – April 30, 1965) was an American film and theatre actress, best known for playing Mina Seward in the 1931 horror film ''Dracula''. Career Chandler attended the Professional Children's School in New Yor ...

David Manners David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom; April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who played John Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', which starred Bela Lugosi in the title role.Pa ...

Evalyn Knapp Evalyn Knapp (born Evelyn Pauline Knapp; June 17, 1906 – June 12, 1981) was an American film actress of the late 1920s, 1930s and into the 1940s. She was a leading B-movies, B-movie Serial (film), serial actress in the 1930s. She was the you ...

and

Sidney Blackmer Sidney Alderman Blackmer (July 13, 1895 – October 6, 1973) was an American Broadway theatre, Broadway and film actor active between 1914 and 1971, usually in major supporting roles. Biography Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, ...

. The film is based on the popular novel of the same name written by Helen Grace Carlisle.

Plot

The film is focused on the life of widowed mother Mary Williams (Dorothy Peterson) and her struggles to raise her four children. Daniel (Edward Woods), her eldest, torments her and his siblings throughout his childhood and grows up to be a criminal. Younger son Arthur (David Manners) grows up to be a successful architect. Daughter Jennie (Evalyn Knapp) loves domestic work and homelife and is courted by Karl Muller (Reinhold Pasch), a wealthy older gentleman. The other daughter, Beattie (Helen Chandler), grows up to be an idealistic dreamer. One day Daniel doublecrosses some gangsters, who beat him up, and he disappears for three years, returning with a moll whom he introduces as his wife. Meanwhile, Jennie has married Muller. Detectives trail Daniel to his mother's house as a suspect in a holdup and he's sent to prison. Daniel's return drives away Beattie, who ends up doing secretarial work at a Palm Beach hotel. There, she is seduced by a married man, who later pays her off to leave. Daniel reappears at the house with a blackmail scheme and ends up shooting and murdering his own sister Beattie. He is convicted of cold-blooded murder and sent to the electric chair. The film ends with Mary finding consolation in her two remaining children.

Cast

as Mary Williams *

as Beattie Williams *

as Arthur 'Artie' Williams *

as Jenny Williams *

as Mr. Gerald Hart *

Edward Woods Edward Woods (July 5, 1903 – October 8, 1989) was an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as Matt Doyle in '' The Public Enemy'' opposite James Cagney. Life and career Woods' parents were Mary Clark and William B. Woo ...

as Daniel 'Danny' Williams * Jean Laverty as Sadye Noonan Williams * Patrick H. O'Malley, Jr. as Frank Williams *

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

uncredited (disputed in some sources)

Preservation

A censored version of this film survives, prepared for re-release after June 1934 to remove

pre-code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

material, which is missing at least two minutes of footage. This version has been broadcast on television and cable. The film has been released on DVD by the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

has long held a copy of the surviving version of this film.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'' (<-book title) p.121 c.1978 the American Film Institute

References

Notes

External links

* * * 1930 films First National Pictures films 1930s English-language films Warner Bros. films American black-and-white films Films produced by Robert North American drama films 1930 drama films 1930s American films English-language drama films {{1930s-US-film-stub