Broken Dreams (1933) User Reviews

Don't Call Buster, Shirley

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 20 April 2011]

Looking at Broken Dreams it seemed to me like Monogram Pictures was trying to develop their own child star in Buster Phelps. This film is just like the material that Shirley Temple was starting to do over at Fox Films. In fact Randolph Scott was in several of her feature films.

Broken Dreams opens on a tragic note as Dr. Randolph Scott's wife dies in childbirth delivering a healthy baby boy. But overcome with grief Scott can't deal with the baby so he leaves his kid in the care of his aunt and uncle Beryl Mercer and Joseph Cawthorn and goes to Europe on a medical assignment.

Six years later, now a respected physician, Scott returns home with a new wife in socialite Martha Sleeper and wants the kid back, now a lively six year old Buster Phelps. He has to fight Cawthorn and Mercer for custody, but the law is on his side. Winning young Buster over is a whole other proposition and Sleeper has mixed emotions about it.

I won't go any farther, but if this doesn't sound like the plot of a Shirley Temple movie you haven't seen too many of them. As for Buster Phelps he hardly had the career that Shirley did. Then again Monogram did not give this film the production values that Fox could Shirley Temple.

It's not a bad film, Buster is cute in his own way. I did love the mischievous trick he played on his French governess involving a pet dog and a chimpanzee. I won't say another word, see the film.

Randolph Scott can act!

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 29 August 2021]

Broken Dreams started off with a bang. Randolph Scott is anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child. The doctor comes out of the delivery room with the news that it's a boy, but his wife has died. Scottie cries and flees the hospital, leaving his aunt and uncle (Beryl Mercer and Joseph Cawthorn) to pick up the pieces. For some reason, Scottie decided to stop giving heavy dramatic performances later in his career, so if you catch him in this movie, you'll see one of the rare times he tried to show off his chops. Cary Grant and John Wayne weren't good actors, Gary Cooper was a lousy one, and Clark Gable was never asked to do much. Why was Randolph Scott left out in the cold?

Anyway, back to Broken Dreams. Scottie abandons his son and pursues his career as a doctor. But after what happened to him, why would he ever specialize in pediatrics? He's engaged to a high society woman (Martha Sleeper), and she has no idea he has a son. The boy, played by the adorably pouty Buster Phelps, is extremely happy living with his great- aunt and uncle, and as they've raised him, he's grown up calling them Mom and Pop. Do you think Scottie's going to want his cake and eat it, too? He's extremely unlikable after the first ten minutes of the movie. So, weigh the pros and cons. If you want to see him act, rent this one. If you want to like him, skip it.

Randolph Scott Heads The Cast

[boblipton · 6/10 · 27 April 2023]

When his wife dies in childbirth, newly minted doctor Randolph Scott turns the infant over to his in-laws, Joseph Cawthorne and Beryl Mercer. Scott heads off to Europe to study. He returns six years later with a specialty in pediatrics and an adoring fiancee in Martha Sleeper. But a rising doctor is always on call, and when he returns to his nuptials from a lying in talking about the twins, and hoping they can have children as engaging, Miss Sleeper expresses her fears, and suggests he already has a son. There's a bit of a struggle with the old couple, and the boy, Buster Phelps, misses his mom and pop and dog and chimpanzee. Miss Sleeper tries to be a mother, but Scott is always off on a case.

It's an ambitious movie from Monogram, and an ambitious one for Scott. He was already making a name for himself, but here was a chance to see if he could perform off a horse in a lead role. He's pretty bland here, speaking his words without much weight to them, but that's the way the character is written: without much in the way of introspection. Others carry the brunt of the movie, including Sidney Bracey as the butler who enjoys indulging Master Phelps, and the six-year-old gets a lot of screen time to himself.... with the dog and the chimpanzee, of course.

A bit sappy, but still enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 24 March 2012]

I bought the DVD for this film for one reason--it starred Randolph Scott. He was a wonderful underrated actor and I was excited to see him in one of his earlier performances--well before he became a western star. However, I was a bit surprised as he was not exactly the most likable person in this film--not evil but also rather thoughtless.

"Broken Dreams" begins with a very sad scene--Scott's wife dies giving birth. Not too surprisingly, he's not interested in the baby (a natural initial reaction) and dumps it on his aunt and uncle. What isn't normal, though, is that he never checks up on the kid and goes about establishing a life without the child. Years pass and now Scott is a super-successful doctor who's about to remarry. However, just before remarrying, his aunt reads about him in the paper and brings the boy to see him. The kid thinks the aunt and uncle are his parents, but Scott is immediately smitten by the boy. Soon, he contemplates going to court to try to custody of the kid. And, since the aunt and uncle never obtained legal custody, the judge seems to have no choice but return the adorable 6 year-old to his father. Not surprisingly, the kid is not very happy (though he clearly likes Scott). Also, the new wife isn't very happy either, as she seems to have no idea how to relate to the kid and comes to resent all the attention Scott pays his son. How will all this work out? See the film.

I will warn you that the ending is a bit sappy and the film isn't exactly the most realistic project (hey, the kid has a pet chimp--how many parents would get their kid a chimp?!). BUT, it also is quite enjoyable. I must admit that sometimes although a film isn't great it is fun and worth your time--and this can be said for most of the films from Monogram Studios. I think most of the reason it was worth seeing were a few of the performances--particularly the wonderful actors who played the aunt and uncle. Beryl Mercer could do incredible things with just her eyes and she truly looked like her heart was breaking in part of the film--and I liked seeing the uncle (Joseph Cawthorn) blowing his stack. As for the boy (Buster Phelps), he was a bit too saccharine BUT for a kid that young, he still did an awfully good job and probably melted a few hearts in the theaters. Well worth your time even if the film is far from brilliant.

Although Nothing More Than An Ungainly Melodrama, Some Interesting Performances Shine Through.

[rsoonsa · 6/10 · 15 November 2007]

Robert Morley (Randolph Scott), a medical intern at a large metropolitan area hospital, becomes emotionally enervated when his wife dies giving birth, and because he had reserved all of his love for her, Morley has no desire to even look upon their newborn son, abandoning him instead into the loving care of an aunt and uncle and moving overseas to Vienna, there to complete his final years of internship. It is apparent that he has energetically addressed his career goals, since within two years of his return to the United States, he has not only graduated from Harvard Medical School but has additionally established a flourishing practice as a pediatrician! (Admittedly more concerned with easing the pain suffered by pregnant women than that of children.) It would seem that Doctor Morley has been quite successful at ridding his consciousness of his forsaken child. This is altered when his aunt (Beryl Mercer) escorts young Billy Morley (Buster Phelps) to his father's office upon the boy's sixth birthday, whereupon Morley is riveted by his son's endearing personality, a circumstance not at all to the liking of beautiful socialite Martha (Martha Sleeper) whom Robert has found time to successfully woo. After the doctor and Martha are wed, his association with his aunt and uncle (Joseph Cawthorn) is bruised when he calls for the return of Billy, who believes that the older folks are his parents, and who is completely content residing with them in an apartment to the rear of their business, a pet store. Following a judgement by a court appointed referee who has no option but to return the youngster to his birth father, a new conflict arises, one between charming Billy and Martha, dissension that indeed imperils the Morley marriage. Director Robert Vignola is alloted a customary low Monogram Pictures production budget, along with a prosaic screenplay, but he has an advantage of able editing from Carl Pierson, while the absence of a musical score actually increases the dramatic effect of the work, while the players for the most part create their roles in effective fashion, given their arid lines. Scott is somewhat wooden here, while vivacious Sleeper wins the acting bays with a nicely defined turn as an elegant woman vying with a situation not at all to her liking, and stage-trained Cawthorn has always a perfect sense for his character's dialogue. Alpha Video does not re-master its DVD reissues of older films, and this is by all odds one of the more vexatious, being awash with skips, jumps, and elisions. Its cast saves a film that is best served by way of a theatre showing.

"That ain't a dog, it's a rat!"

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 9 November 2022]

Another reviewer gushes over Randolph Scott's acting in this film while I thought just the opposite. I don't think I've ever seen him in a role where he was more stilted and wooden. It was as if coming out of the silent era, his character didn't know how to carry on a normal conversation, and just waited for his opposite player to finish speaking before responding a second or two later. Not only Scott, but the supporting actors as well, particularly Martha Sleeper as Robert Morley's (Scott) second wife, Martha. Especially in the latter part of the picture where she was all over the place regarding her acceptance of young Billy (Buster Phelps) as Morley's son, abandoned at birth to Morley's aunt and uncle. One minute she was dismissive as a prospective parent, then attentive and caring, in a flip-flop that continued throughout the story. Maybe it was intended for that tearjerker of a finale when Martha stepped up to give Billy a blood transfusion and he dazedly called her 'Mother' while coming out of a coma. It worked as a feel good ending to the story, but you had to endure a series of disjointed characterizations before you got there.

The perfect late night movie to send the viewer to dreamland.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 11 November 2023]

This is the kind of movie that mighti inspire nightmares of being tied up and forced to watch over and over. It's a sappy melodrama with an unbelievable story, mostly unlikable characters and excruciatingly interminable pacing. Featuring Randolph Scott in one of his few really unlikable roles as a doctor who decides that he wants nothing to do with his newborn son when his wife dies in childbirth. The baby is taken in by his aunt and uncle (Beryl Mercer and Joseph Cawthorn), and when Scott finally meets the boy, a nasty custody battle erupts. Scott wins and marries the uppity Martha Sleeper who has problems getting along with her new stepson, the painfully bad Buster Phelps.

There's a nasty French teacher (Adele St. Maur) who seems to be abusive because Phelps has no desire to learn French, at least outgoing Sleeper for the coldness quotient. The film is just too unpleasant to have made me care about any of these characters with an insipid script, painfully slow direction and actors who just seem to be walking through the film. Cawthorn is the only one who shows any kind of spark, giving nephew Scott a piece of his mind at the hearing. Mercer isn't very appealing as the aunt, having already ruined her moments on screen as weepy washer women type mothers in "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Outward Bound", photographing rather harshly on screen. Definitely not one of Monogram's better higher budgeted movies.