I am very surprised that they have not re-made this film with Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears. This is the type of women's film that calls to be updated, and focus on the three current ladies of scandal. In this 1950 melodrama (directed by the legendary Robert Wise), three women gather together at the base of Thunder Mountain where a young boy has been stranded, still living after a plane crash that took the lives of his adopted parents. The three women each think they could be the boy's natural mother, and through flashback, the audience learns their story. The first story surrounds unwed mother Eleanor Parker who was about to tell her boyfriend about her pregnancy when he announced he was returning to an old girlfriend. The second story surrounds a career woman (Patricia Neal) whose marriage ends, and rather than give up her position as head of a scandal magazine, gives the child up instead. The third involves nightclub chanteuse Ruth Roman, a gangster's moll who is forced to give up her child when she murders the louse who was too chicken to break up with her. Get the connection between the three current ladies of scandal? Two "bad girls" and one "nice girl" gone wrong...
The problem with this film is the convoluted and sometimes unbelievable way it is told. Is it really realistic at all that Parker's new husband (Leif Ericksen) would happen to be one of the reporters covering the story and tell her about the child? She rushes to the scene of the crash where she encounters Patricia Neal, who recognizes her from the foundling home. Then, Roman storms in, drunker than all three of the current ladies I mention put together, and her story is revealed. And Ross Hunter's name is nowhere in sight on the producing credits for this movie.
In the film's favor, it is very fun to watch, the type of soap opera that would soon take over TV. In fact, the storyline could belong to any of the three good or bad girls of soon-to-be broadcast on daytime ("Search For Tomorrow's" Jo; "Guiding Light's" Meta, and "Love of Life's" Meg). In some ways, this film reminded me of "Ace in the Hole" (aka "The Big Carnival"), where reporters gather together along with the curious public while a man is trapped in a mine cave-in. The film has a nice conclusion where the two "bad girls" reveal themselves to be quite noble.
The problem with this film is the convoluted and sometimes unbelievable way it is told. Is it really realistic at all that Parker's new husband (Leif Ericksen) would happen to be one of the reporters covering the story and tell her about the child? She rushes to the scene of the crash where she encounters Patricia Neal, who recognizes her from the foundling home. Then, Roman storms in, drunker than all three of the current ladies I mention put together, and her story is revealed. And Ross Hunter's name is nowhere in sight on the producing credits for this movie.
In the film's favor, it is very fun to watch, the type of soap opera that would soon take over TV. In fact, the storyline could belong to any of the three good or bad girls of soon-to-be broadcast on daytime ("Search For Tomorrow's" Jo; "Guiding Light's" Meta, and "Love of Life's" Meg). In some ways, this film reminded me of "Ace in the Hole" (aka "The Big Carnival"), where reporters gather together along with the curious public while a man is trapped in a mine cave-in. The film has a nice conclusion where the two "bad girls" reveal themselves to be quite noble.