A Son Comes Home
Cast & Crew
E. A. Dupont
Mary Boland
Julie Haydon
Donald Woods
Wallace Ford
Roger Imhof
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Mary Grady's chowder house is a favorite with locals on the San Francisco docks. Her restaurant's twenty-fifth anniversary is celebrated by her reporter friend Steve, who publishes an article about her. The article questions if Mary's son Denny, who disappeared years before, is still alive. One dark, rainy night Paul Connolly hitches a ride with a stranger, who robs and kills a gas station owner, then escapes. Paul is arrested under suspicion of murder, but having read the article on Mary, Paul tells the police that he is Denny, and although Mary discovers the ruse, she pretends that he is her son and promises to help him find the true killer. Mary posts bail using loan money she obtained by mortgaging her property and brings Paul to the chowder house. Her companion Jo, who is like a daughter to her, is suspicious of Paul until he openly admits he is not Denny. Paul's honesty redeems him, and the chowder house becomes his true home. Paul does not tell Mary when he recognizes a picture of Denny's father and realizes that the murderer is Denny. Meanwhile, Steve finds Denny, now known as Brennan, through the seamen's agency, and discovers that his ship will dock in San Francisco that night. Steve and Mary are allowed access to the ship by the captain, who believes that they are writing a story on sailors. When Steve encounters Denny, he is able to positively identify him by the one odd detail Paul had remembered about him: that he crushes his cigars into his pipe. Steve also finds clothes bought from a store near the gas station where the crime was committed, and he and Mary go to the store and verify Denny's purchase. They return to the ship, and while Mary calls the police, Steve interrogates Denny. Mary interrupts them and discovers to her shock that the murderer is her son. He asks her to help him evade the police, but she refuses and insists he stay and face his punishment. Denny refuses, however, and when he tries to escape, the police kill him. Later, Mary gives her blessings to the union of Jo and Paul, whom she favors as a son.
Director
E. A. Dupont
Cast
Mary Boland
Julie Haydon
Donald Woods
Wallace Ford
Roger Imhof
Anthony Nace
Gertrude W. Hoffman
Eleanor Wesselhoeft
Charles Middleton
Thomas Jackson
John Wray
Robert Middlemass
Lee Kohlmar
Herbert Rawlinson
George Hassell
Ann Evers
Sherwood Bailey
Edgar Dearing
Helen Flint
Jerry Mandy
George Chan
Grace Hale
Joan Breslau
Phil Dunham
Russ Powell
George Humbert
Kewpie Morgan
Irene Coleman
Harrison Greene
Eddie Fetherston
Cyril Ring
Philo Mccullough
Paddy O'flynn
Budd Fine
Irving Bacon
Ted Oliver
Roger Gray
Herbert Heywood
Harry Depp
Robert Homans
Edgar Sherrod
A. S. Byron
Janet Young
Sydney De Grey
Keith Daniels
Maurice Black
Sven Borg
Constantine Romanoff
Sam Bennett
David Clyde
William Benedict
Pat West
Alfred P. James
Joseph Allen
Leonid Kinskey
James P. Burtis
Billy Bletcher
James Kilgannon
Tom O'grady
Russell Hopton
Emmett Vogan
Maurice Cass
Joseph Sawyer
Edward Gargan
John Northwood
Rosita Butler
Alexander Novinsky
John Northpole
Sol S. Simons
Crew
Nick Barrows
Franklin Coen
Hans Dreier
A. E. Freudeman
Earl Hedrick
Harry Hervey
George Hippard
Charles Hisserich
Chandler House
Don Johnson
William Lebaron
Albert Lewis
William C. Mellor
Boris Morros
Sylvia Thalberg
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Screen Achievements Bulletin notes that the title of Harry Hervey's original story was "Every Mother's Son." According to the M-G-M Story Department card file in the AFI Library, in October 1933, Paramount was planning a film based on an original story entitled "A Son Comes Home" by Julien Josephson. News items in April 1934 stated that Charles Vidor was to direct a film based on this title, Bayard Veiller was to supervise, and John Howard was to be cast in the film, which was to be based on a script by Kubec Glasmon, which, in turn, was based on an adaptation by Adela Rogers Hyland and Marjorie Klein. In May 1935, news items stated that "Every Mother's Son," an original developed on the Paramount lot by Hervey, was purchased and that Pauline Lord would star in the film. In August 1935, news items reported that Hervey and Marguerite Roberts were writing the script to the film, which by then had taken on the title of Josephson's original story, and that Tom Brown was to be in the film.
