Where Are My Children?

1916 Drama 62 minutes Directed by Lois Weber

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About Where Are My Children?

District attorney Richard Walton prosecutes Dr. Homer for publishing a book on birth control. Homer's defense is a run of cases: poverty, cruelty to children, a mother's suicide. At home, Walton's wife Edith has been to Dr. Malfit so she can keep her social life, and she sends Mrs. Carlo the same way. Edith's brother seduces Lillian, the housekeeper's daughter. Malfit performs the abortion and Lillian dies. Walton reads Malfit's ledgers, faces Edith, and asks where his children are. He bars her friends. They go on without a child.

Cast & crew

More about Where Are My Children?

Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley directed, both uncredited on surviving credits. Universal distributed the Lois Weber production. Tyrone Power Sr. plays Walton. His wife, billed as Mrs. Tyrone Power, plays Edith. Released in May 1916. Stephen S. Norton and Allen G. Siegler are the uncredited cameramen.

Themes

  • A prosecutor of a birth-control book
  • A wife who will not have the child
  • The maid's daughter who dies
  • Richard Walton
  • Edith Walton
  • Dr. Malfit
  • birth control
  • abortion
  • Lois Weber
  • Lillian

Background

Made while distributing information about contraception could still be prosecuted. The picture argues both for and against the practices it shows, and a state board banned it anyway.

Music

Silent. Later home-video editions add piano or orchestral scores by Martin Marks, Allen Feinstein, and Maud Nelissen. Those scores are not from 1916.

Preservation

Named to the National Film Registry in 1993. Scored video editions appeared in 2000, 2007, and 2018.

Notes

  • Marie Walcamp plays Mrs. Carlo. Rena Rogers plays Lillian. Cora Drew plays the housekeeper. Juan de la Cruz plays Dr. Malfit. C. Norman Hammond plays Dr. Homer.
  • A. D. Blake plays Roger. William J. Hope plays Walton's brother-in-law. Catalog listings also give the wife's name as Helen Riaume.
  • Pennsylvania banned the film after cuts. The state board called it unfit.
  • A 2000 DVD uses a piano score reconstructed by Martin Marks. A 2007 DVD orchestrates that score, by Allen Feinstein, with commentary from Shelley Stamp. A 2018 DVD and Blu-ray uses a new piano score by Maud Nelissen.

Scenes

  • Dr. Homer answers the charge with cases of poverty and a mother's suicide.
  • Lillian dies after Dr. Malfit's operation.
  • Walton reads the ledgers and asks Edith the title question.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Where Are My Children? (1916).webm)

Quotes

Where are my children?

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