What Becomes of the Children | 1936 | Family Drama | Melodrama | Poverty Row | Cinema

Описание: What Becomes of the Children? (1936)

Director: Walter Shumway

Studio: Reliable Pictures Corporation

Starring: Edith Fellows, William Farnum, Larry Kent, Anna May Wong (note: often confused in sources, but the credited cast is William Farnum, Edith Fellows, Larry Kent, with others in supporting roles) Release

Date: April 15, 1936

Runtime: 58 minutes

Format: Black-and-white, 35mm

Country: United States

Language: English

Genres: Family Drama | Melodrama | Poverty Row | Cinema

Summary: When divorce tears a family apart, the lives of the children caught in the middle spiral into hardship and uncertainty. What Becomes of the Children? follows a broken home struggling to hold together as poverty, fractured relationships, and societal judgment weigh heavily on each member. At the center is young Edith, whose innocence and longing for stability highlight the film’s emotional plea: what becomes of the children when parents fail to reconcile? This melodrama, typical of the 1930s Poverty Row studios, attempts to mix moral lesson with heartfelt storytelling.



Background: The film was produced by Reliable Pictures, one of Hollywood’s “Poverty Row” studios, known for churning out low-budget features to fill out double bills at neighborhood theaters. Director Walter Shumway helmed the project, working with a minimal budget and a cast that included veteran actor William Farnum, once a major star of the silent era, who was by then appearing in smaller productions. The film’s subject matter—broken families, divorce, and the fate of children—reflected Depression-era anxieties about economic survival and social values. Though cheaply made, the movie represents a snapshot of B-grade filmmaking in the 1930s.



Trivia: This film shares its title with an earlier 1918 silent feature but is unrelated. William Farnum, who stars as the family patriarch, was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1910s and 1920s before transitioning to B-movie roles in the sound era. Like many Poverty Row films, What Becomes of the Children? was released with little fanfare and quickly faded into obscurity, later resurfacing in public domain film archives. Reliable Pictures often specialized in westerns, but this film was one of their rare attempts at social melodrama.



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