ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Applause Meter John Garfield, a greatly underrated actor, with a sadly short career, was the first real "modern" actor pre-Brando. He is stellar as the working class hero struggling with financial setbacks, unrealized ambitions and a new marriage. He imbues the character of Rims Rosson with a poignancy illustrating the inner turmoil of a man whose responsibilities and love for his wife conflict with his desire to accomplish his dream of travel and professional distinction. Claude Rains, as the titular head of this extended family, a man toiling for years at a company desk as bookkeeper, lends heart and dignity to this story of a father driven to carry out the ultimate sacrifice in order to aid the newlyweds. Ann Shirley gives an adequate performance as the modest, simple wife whose expectations and worldly ambitions starts and end with marriage. Although produced earlier on stage and film, the story elements are timeless. This 1940 movie version is an excellent slice of life representing the American "everyman" in a Depression era America on the brink of World War II.

bkoganbing This version of Saturday's Children is the third film version of a popular Maxwell Anderson play that ran for 326 performances on Broadway during the 1927-28 season. It's a story of young love with sad to say a most miscast John Garfield.Of course Garfield might not have thought so since back on stage the role he plays as the young calf-eyed Rube Goldberg inventor was originated by none other than fellow Warner Brothers tough guy Humphrey Bogart. Hard to believe, but Bogey on stage played those kind of roles until The Petrified Forest changed his image. He and Ruth Gordon starred in the stage version.But image is everything and Garfield's similar image of a tough guy was set in the mind of the movie-going public then. Garfield insisted on doing this film and Jack Warner gave in. But when it flopped at the box office and it did, Warner was ready with the 'I told you so'. A silent version was done with Grant Withers and Corinne Griffith in 1928 and Warner Brothers later did the story again in 1935 with a more suitable Ross Alexander in the lead opposite Gloria Stuart.I suppose it was the thing back then for young marrieds to live with their parents. This film has Garfield and Anne Shirley living with her parents, Claude Rains and Elizabeth Risdon, along with other married sister Lee Patrick and her husband Roscoe Karns. No wonder these two want a little privacy.Rains brings Shirley to work in the office where he is a clerk and there she meets Garfield whom she falls for. Garfield is like George Bailey, a guy with an itch to do great things and sees an opportunity in the Phillipines for adventurous type work. But now he's got a wife who doesn't quite share that disposition.The best performance in the film belongs to Claude Rains. He almost makes quite the sacrifice to keep our young folk together.Even with a John Garfield that you can't quite get over, Saturday's Children is a nice film about people in love. That's a formula that always sells.

edwagreen The director of this film died recently as we was approaching 100. Dennie Moore, who plays the common Gertie, with a typical Brooklyn accent, turns 99 in December.Wonderful seeing John Garfield in a non-gangster role. As the sympathetic Sims, an inventor whose a dreamer, Garfield etches a totally believable character. Anne Shirley plays the girl who loves and tricks him into marriage.Garfield plays basically another George Bailey type. The opportunities are there for him but situations arise which prevent him from fulfilling his dreams.Claude Rains plays his philosophical father-in-law who plots to do away with himself so that Garfield and Shirley can live happily ever after.The two work in the same office, fall in love and marry. With the coming of war, she gets laid off and he is asked to take a pay cut.Sad but realistic. This true to life film does end happily.

lkpo90 It should go like this: Monday's child is fair of face Tuesday's child is full of grace Wednesday's child is full of woe Thursday's child has far to go Friday's child is loving and giving Saturday's child must work for a living and the child that is born on the sabbath day is bonny and blithe and good and gay. I'm not sure why Jack Warner didn't catch this. It seems that to use the title to begin with presumes knowledge of the poem (I for one have to run through the entire thing in order to make sure myself. "Work for a living" also seems to fit better with the theme of the movie-- not that it matters though since the author came up with the title to begin with.