Children of Divorce
About Children of Divorce
Jean Waddington and Kitty Flanders, parked at a convent school by divorced parents, meet Ted Larrabee there and the three of them swear they will never divorce. As adults, Kitty (Clara Bow) wants Ted's money and Jean (Esther Ralston) wants proof he can work. After a drunk party Ted (Gary Cooper) wakes up married to Kitty. Jean, still opposed to divorce, leaves for Europe. Years later in Paris, Kitty watches Jean treat her daughter more kindly than she does, and poisons herself rather than break the childhood vow.
Cast & crew
More about Children of Divorce
Frank Lloyd directed the adaptation of Owen Johnson's 1927 novel for Jesse L. Lasky, E. Lloyd Sheldon, and Adolph Zukor. Louis D. Lighton and Hope Loring wrote the script, with Alfred Hustwick and Adela Rogers St. Johns. With about a million dollars already spent, B. P. Schulberg had Josef von Sternberg reshoot large parts. The Paramount stages were full, so the new scenes were made in a tent on the lot, with stored set pieces, over three days and three nights. Norbert Brodine and Victor Milner are the credited cameramen. Paramount released it on 25 April 1927.
Themes
Making
Paramount publicists had judged Lloyd's cut unusable. Sternberg, newly an assistant at the studio, refused a rewrite of the titles and offered to reshoot instead. Schulberg took the offer.
Audiences
Sternberg wrote that the revised picture ranked high among 1927 box-office returns.
Look
Norbert Brodine and Victor Milner shot the feature, including the material Sternberg remade in the tent.
Preservation
A print is in the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Einar Hanson plays Prince Ludovico de Saxe, the lover Kitty drops because he has no money. Hedda Hopper plays Kitty's mother.
- Von Sternberg later wrote that he had warmed up "an ice-cold million dollars.
- Cooper's Ted is an architect who is told to design bridges before Jean will marry him.
Scenes
- Ted wakes to find he married Kitty during the party.
- Kitty, in Paris, takes poison after watching Jean with her daughter.
Influenced by
- Children of Divorce (Owen Johnson, 1927)
