How many films today deal with older people and how they impact their children and grandchildren? Not too many – and the ones that do, tend to romanticize older people.
This film – made in 1937 - is still very valid today.
An older couple, due to a bank seizure, are forced out of their home and have to rely on their children for support. It doesn't go smoothly. It is surprising how the same issues from the 1930's still exist today. The children squabble and negotiate who keeps their elderly parents and for how long. The unfortunate couple is split up between two of their children. More problems start when the grand-daughter must share her bedroom with her grand-mother. She no longer wants her friends over because she is not comfortable with them in the presence of her grand-mother. All these and other difficulties are presented in a very non-judgemental fashion – we are able to see these conflicts as "shades of grey" – no one is entirely right or wrong. They are just trying to live their own lives. It is the elderly couple who are caught within this paradox over-which they have sadly lost control. It is a fine performance by the grandmother – Beula Bondi. The film, I feel, is marred towards the end by the over-generosity of various restaurateurs in New York City – I am dubious of free meals in fine dining restaurants. But the very ending is poignant.
This is a fine film that well illustrates the timelessness of cinema.
This film – made in 1937 - is still very valid today.
An older couple, due to a bank seizure, are forced out of their home and have to rely on their children for support. It doesn't go smoothly. It is surprising how the same issues from the 1930's still exist today. The children squabble and negotiate who keeps their elderly parents and for how long. The unfortunate couple is split up between two of their children. More problems start when the grand-daughter must share her bedroom with her grand-mother. She no longer wants her friends over because she is not comfortable with them in the presence of her grand-mother. All these and other difficulties are presented in a very non-judgemental fashion – we are able to see these conflicts as "shades of grey" – no one is entirely right or wrong. They are just trying to live their own lives. It is the elderly couple who are caught within this paradox over-which they have sadly lost control. It is a fine performance by the grandmother – Beula Bondi. The film, I feel, is marred towards the end by the over-generosity of various restaurateurs in New York City – I am dubious of free meals in fine dining restaurants. But the very ending is poignant.
This is a fine film that well illustrates the timelessness of cinema.