Child of Divorce

No traditional happy ending here, in this clear-eyed and very unsentimental look at the effects of a divorce on a sensitive young girl. The very bleak ending took me by surprise, and the performance of Sharyn Moffett in the title role is terrific. This was Richard Fleischer's first film as a director. Well worth your time!

Movie director Richard Fleischer made some good movies in his career, but also made his share of stinkers. Happily, "Child of Divorce" - the first feature film he directed - is one of his good movies. Although it only runs about 60 minutes long, its brief length seems appropriate for this particular story, and manages to pack a good amount of punch along the way. There seem to be two main themes in the movie, the first obviously being that divorce is a bad experience for anyone directly or indirectly involved. The second is that all people, whether adults or children, can be cruel at times. Obviously the child's parents are cruel to each other, but there are also some incidents of the parents being cruel to their child, and the child being cruel towards her parents. Related to this is the message that life itself can be cruel, but the ending does suggests that there can be hope for the future. The acting by the main players is very good, including Sharyn Moffett as the title child. If there is any real problem with this overall very good movie, it is that there is some below average acting by some supporting child actors, though fortunately they aren't given that much to do.

Sharyn Moffet does a fine job with her role as a child torn emotionally apart when her parents divorce. This young lady was a good child actress, who did not exude a sickening sweet persona in her roles. One of the best natural female child performers of her day. Her role in this movie shows it. She also did nice jobs in the films Banjo and My Pal Wolf. Miss Moffet can also be seen in The Judge Steps Out. This film also features a nice cameo of sorts at the end of the film by Ann Carter-another RKO child performer who did a nice job with the lead child role in The Curse of the Cat People. Hats off to RKO to do subjects like divorce in a time period when such topics were avoided by most studios.

I didn't know of the "Hays Code" re divorce until coming here today after viewing this movie. TCM ran several divorce theme films last week & I couldn't help but notice that this movie is a remake of the 1934 movie "Wednesday's Child". "Child of Divorce" has a 7 year-old girl as the main character, while Wednesday's Child's is a 10 year-old boy. Interesting twist. having seen the movies back-to-back!

One gaffe that stood out was when "Bobby" tells the judge that's she's "7, almost 8" and in grade "4A". Unless I heard it wrong, a 7 year-old would be in 2nd grade, not 4th! No big deal, but I wonder how that got by the editors. (I think Bobby added that she "skipped a grade", but even so, that would put her in 3rd, not 4th grade)!

Poignant film.

"Child of Divorce" is an incredibly depressing film. Yet, I also enjoyed it because it didn't sugar-coat the story and shows the effects divorce can have on a child. In fact, I think this film should be a must-see for anyone contemplating having a divorce, as too often I have heard folks talk about how kids 'get over things' rather easily--and in this film, it certainly isn't true.

The story begins with a man (Regis Toomey) going off on a business trip. While he's gone, his daughter, Bobby (Sharyn Moffett), catches her mother (Madge Meredith) with another man. Later, the woman asks her husband for a divorce--and the child is sucked into the middle of this custody battle. In fact, throughout the film, these selfish and thoroughly despicable parents never seem to care about the effect all this has on the child. And, unlike most Hollywood films of the day, this one does NOT end on a happy note. The child is traumatized, cast aside and left to fend for herself in a boarding school.

As I said, this one is awfully depressing. But it's also well made and quite compelling. I especially like that there is no magical happy ending--it adds to the realism and impact of the film. Well worth seeing and an amazingly well made B-movie.