... and I'll let you decide as to whether or not that would be a good thing! Let me also warn you that I spoil the 1937 film, "Confession" just a little bit further down. The title "Alimony Madness" is meant to get your sympathy from the start, because, let's face it, nobody would be sympathetic of the ex-husband in a film named "Child Support Madness".
This poverty row film by PRC is quite well done with players that showed up in some of the major studios' films of the 1930's, in particular Leon Ames and Helen Chandler, and they certainly show their acting chops here.
Architect John Thurman (Leon Ames) is doing well, and although good with blueprints and design, apparently never saw the blueprints for his first wife's designs on his money - past, present, and future. After a year of marriage, Eloise wants a divorce. She also wants one thousand dollars a month and John's 40K stock portfolio, pre stock market crash. John agrees to all of this and even agrees to a New York divorce rather than a Reno one, and the only grounds for divorce in those days in that state was adultery.
It turns out that the paid correspondent is just a girl down on her luck (Helen Chandler as Joan) who needs money to send back home to the folks. She's actually a stenographer. All she has to do is sit in a chair until the wife's paid detectives break in - all pre-arranged of course. Now, almost everyone has an unusual story of how they met their spouse, and John's story is that this paid correspondent is the woman of his dreams - honest, forthright, and not at all bad on the eyes.
John and Joan eventually marry, but in the meantime the Great Depression sets in causing the collapse of John's business. It doesn't help that John's ex-wife, who insisted on the adultery ruse, is going around playing the wronged wife to the privileged set, further contracting John's business. Joan, who thought the two could just live on love, now sees the facts - the first wife is a premeditated blood sucker and will never remarry because she has such a great deal in John. They will always toil away as court appointed slaves to her.
Even this is acceptable to Joan until one night when their child gets ill John is arrested for non-payment of alimony on the way to the drug store to buy vital medicine for the child. Hauled into court and not even allowed to tell his wife he's been detained, he has to give up his last twenty bucks to the court to avoid jail. When he finally returns home with the medicine the child is dead. Joan decides to abandon her pride and go and settle things with Eloise once and for all. Eloise orders her out, but when Joan sees a twenty dollar bill for veterinary services for "Baby", Eloise's dog, the same amount of money that would have saved her child, she grabs a gun and shoots Eloise dead.
Now all of this is told in flashback, in the courtroom, by Joan herself. The jury is in tears, the district attorney is in tears, and Joan is exonerated, and practically congratulated by the judge.
The reason I'm so completely spoiling this film is that this is quite a turn from what would be accepted after the production code came in just a year later. In 1937's "Confession", Kay Francis kills a real blackguard who is about to lead the daughter who doesn't know her down the road to ruin, not to escape heavy financial obligations as Joan did, and yet she has to go jail under the code.
Highly recommended as a well done film from the 1930's on an unusual subject.
This poverty row film by PRC is quite well done with players that showed up in some of the major studios' films of the 1930's, in particular Leon Ames and Helen Chandler, and they certainly show their acting chops here.
Architect John Thurman (Leon Ames) is doing well, and although good with blueprints and design, apparently never saw the blueprints for his first wife's designs on his money - past, present, and future. After a year of marriage, Eloise wants a divorce. She also wants one thousand dollars a month and John's 40K stock portfolio, pre stock market crash. John agrees to all of this and even agrees to a New York divorce rather than a Reno one, and the only grounds for divorce in those days in that state was adultery.
It turns out that the paid correspondent is just a girl down on her luck (Helen Chandler as Joan) who needs money to send back home to the folks. She's actually a stenographer. All she has to do is sit in a chair until the wife's paid detectives break in - all pre-arranged of course. Now, almost everyone has an unusual story of how they met their spouse, and John's story is that this paid correspondent is the woman of his dreams - honest, forthright, and not at all bad on the eyes.
John and Joan eventually marry, but in the meantime the Great Depression sets in causing the collapse of John's business. It doesn't help that John's ex-wife, who insisted on the adultery ruse, is going around playing the wronged wife to the privileged set, further contracting John's business. Joan, who thought the two could just live on love, now sees the facts - the first wife is a premeditated blood sucker and will never remarry because she has such a great deal in John. They will always toil away as court appointed slaves to her.
Even this is acceptable to Joan until one night when their child gets ill John is arrested for non-payment of alimony on the way to the drug store to buy vital medicine for the child. Hauled into court and not even allowed to tell his wife he's been detained, he has to give up his last twenty bucks to the court to avoid jail. When he finally returns home with the medicine the child is dead. Joan decides to abandon her pride and go and settle things with Eloise once and for all. Eloise orders her out, but when Joan sees a twenty dollar bill for veterinary services for "Baby", Eloise's dog, the same amount of money that would have saved her child, she grabs a gun and shoots Eloise dead.
Now all of this is told in flashback, in the courtroom, by Joan herself. The jury is in tears, the district attorney is in tears, and Joan is exonerated, and practically congratulated by the judge.
The reason I'm so completely spoiling this film is that this is quite a turn from what would be accepted after the production code came in just a year later. In 1937's "Confession", Kay Francis kills a real blackguard who is about to lead the daughter who doesn't know her down the road to ruin, not to escape heavy financial obligations as Joan did, and yet she has to go jail under the code.
Highly recommended as a well done film from the 1930's on an unusual subject.
