There are no illegitimate children! There are only illegitimate parents.
This melodramatic weeper is loosely based on the true story of Edna Gladney, a ferocious campaigner for children’s rights and adoption; she was also famous for leading the charge to have the word “illegitimate” removed from the birth certificates of children born to unwed mothers. The stigma against those of “low birth” seems like it was pretty intense back in the day, with people having to state that they were illegitimate on everything from job applications to marriage licenses. This movie fabricates a ton of personal tragedy to give Gladney the motivation to become a crusader in this arena; everyone’s mileage on that kind of fabrication in a “biopic” varies, but it didn’t particularly bother me just because this movie is so obviously a heightened melodrama more than it is a serious biopic. And it does give Greer Garson, who plays Gladney, a fantastic role to play and she’s great, as she always is, though it is rather humorous to see her playing a Texan without really attempting to mask her British accent at all. Acting was just different back in the forties. This is the first film to pair Garson with Walter Pidgeon; they would end up starring in eight films together, most famously in Mrs. Miniver, the World War II home front drama that netted Garson her Oscar. He’s an actor that I have often found stiff and stodgy, but he has real charm here as Gladney’s husband. Felix Bressart is fun in a supporting part as an eccentric doctor. This film is what it is, you know? It’s a tear-jerking melodrama from Hollywood’s Golden Age and so you get what you get and if you don’t like it, well, I guess it’s not for you. Some of the acting is over the top, it hits all the typical inspirational beats and it really goes for the tears at the end. But it worked more often than I was expecting and I found myself, on the whole, being genuinely moved during the scenes where I was supposed to be moved. The rousing speech to a group of politicians is here, as it always in these types of movies, but damned if it didn’t work on me and if I didn’t actually cry at those last couple of scenes, I’ll admit things got a little misty. This one’s kind of forgotten, but it’s very much worth a watch and Garson, in particular, is excellent. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – tear-jerking melodrama has a lot of fabrications for a “biopic,” but it also boasts a wonderful central performance by Greer Garson and it’s surprisingly moving. 3 ½ stars.