Edward, My Son

Another movie that I watched over the weekend was Edward, My Son.

Spencer Tracy plays Lord Arnold Boult, a Canadian-born Brit who tells us at the beginning that he badly screwed up his family's lives and that now his son Edward is dead. You can probably guess from this that we're about to have a flashback to how Arnold did all this. Flash back to Edward's first birthday, which Arnold and his wife Evelyn (Deborah Kerr) are celebrating along with Dr. Larry Woodhope (Ian Hunter), the family doctor who helped deliver Edward. The Boults aren't particularly well-to-do, but Arnold is ambitious, about to go into the banking industry with his friend Harry (Mervyn Johns) lending small amounts to people looking to buy things on the installment plan.

Fast forward to when Edward is five. He's in need of an operation that's going to cost a lot of money, and frankly he doesn't have that money since the business isn't going all that well. However, he has inventory that's insured, and he realizes if something happens to that inventory he'd have the money for Edward's operation. So naturally, Arnold decides to commit arson to get that insurance money.

It's just the first of many nasty things Arnold is going to go do "help" out his son, who ultimately grows up into a spoiled brat. Arnold blackmails the headmaster (Felix Aylmer) of Edward's boarding school, drives Harry to suicide, has an affair with his secretary, drives his wife to drink and threatens to claim she and Larry had an affair if she tries to file for divorce, and tries to get a woman Edward knocked up to have an abortion! Talk about nasty!

The one interesting thing about My Son, Edward is that we never actually see Edward. It's Spencer Tracy's movie all the way, and even though Kerr was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, she's really a supporting character here.

As for the movie, I can't help think it could have been better than it turned out to be. Lord Boult was made Canadian-born for the movie so that MGM could give the role to Tracy without his having to essay a British accent. The movie was based on a play co-written by actor Robert Morley who also played the Arnold role in the original stage version. Tracy had too many good-guy roles behind him to be truly convincing as the piece of work Arnold is. Deborah Kerr is also a surprising problem in that she goes way over the top once Evelyn starts drinking. I'd guess she was directed this way, since she's normally much better than this.

Edward, My Son is an interesting but flawed movie that's probably worth one viewing. But it's not one I'm going to rush out and buy the Warner Archive DVD of.