A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.A District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.
- Awards
- 1 win
Tyrone Power Sr.
- District Attorney Richard Walton
- (as Mr. Tyrone Power)
Mrs. Tyrone Power
- Mrs. Richard Walton
- (as Helen Riaume)
Alva D. Blake
- Roger - Mrs. Walton's Brother
- (as A.D. Blake)
George Berrell
- Judge
- (uncredited)
Georgia French
- Child
- (uncredited)
Mary MacLaren
- Walton's Maid
- (uncredited)
Andy MacLennan
- Man on Street
- (uncredited)
Anne Power
- Infant
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Phillips Smalley(uncredited)
- Lois Weber(uncredited)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe two children of Tyrone Power Sr. and his co-star and real-life wife Helen Reaume (aka, Mrs. Tyrone Power), appear in this film: their newborn daughter Anne Power and their two-year-old son Tyrone Power, who became a matinee idol from the 1930s to the 1950s. He appears in the last minute and a half of the movie as a "ghost child".
- Quotes
Opening Title Card I: The question of birth control is now being generally discussed. All intelligent people know that birth control is a subject of serious public interest. Newspapers, magazines and books have treated different phases of this question. Can a subject thus dealt with on the printed page be denied careful dramatization on the motion picture screen? The Universal Film Mfg. Company believes not.
- Alternate versionsIn 2000, the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center copyrighted a preservation print reconstructed from several incomplete prints. Funded by the Women's Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film and Television, it was coordinated by Scott Simmon, has a piano score composed and performed by Martin Marks, and runs 62 minutes.
- ConnectionsEdited into Governing Body (2023)
Featured review
A remarkable surprise
This remarkable film has sometimes been described by historians as a movie about birth control, but it isn't, although birth control is presented as an alternative to abortion, which is the film's true subject. "Where Are My Children" is probably the most forthrightly anti-abortion movie ever made by a mainstream American studio, and how Lois Weber got away with it, I'll never know; a film like this couldn't possibly be made today.
I have no objections to a filmmaker using a movie as a vehicle for his or her convictions, as long as they're honest about it, and this movie is honest. Weber follows the logic of her plot, and her convictions, right to their end, without flinching from the logical and merciless conclusion. This is a gripping and powerful tragedy, well acted, written and directed. There is one unforgettable moment in which a quiet little gesture by Helen Riaume tells volumes; she has taken her friend to a doctor who performs abortions (and has done so for her), and while lingering in the waiting room, Helen yawns, as if terminating a pregnancy is a completely casual matter. It is a perfect, subtle sign about the depth of her corruption.
"Where Are My Children" isn't perfect; the scenes of souls in Heaven's antechamber, "waiting to be born," are a little heavy-handed, even if they give Weber the chance to use the trick photography she was so fond of. But the skill with which this movie is made is remarkable for 1916; this is a much more powerful movie than Griffith's "Intolerance," the most famous film of that year. I was amazed by "Where Are My Children," and I will never forget it.
I have no objections to a filmmaker using a movie as a vehicle for his or her convictions, as long as they're honest about it, and this movie is honest. Weber follows the logic of her plot, and her convictions, right to their end, without flinching from the logical and merciless conclusion. This is a gripping and powerful tragedy, well acted, written and directed. There is one unforgettable moment in which a quiet little gesture by Helen Riaume tells volumes; she has taken her friend to a doctor who performs abortions (and has done so for her), and while lingering in the waiting room, Helen yawns, as if terminating a pregnancy is a completely casual matter. It is a perfect, subtle sign about the depth of her corruption.
"Where Are My Children" isn't perfect; the scenes of souls in Heaven's antechamber, "waiting to be born," are a little heavy-handed, even if they give Weber the chance to use the trick photography she was so fond of. But the skill with which this movie is made is remarkable for 1916; this is a much more powerful movie than Griffith's "Intolerance," the most famous film of that year. I was amazed by "Where Are My Children," and I will never forget it.
helpful•325
- cygnus58
- Aug 29, 2001
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Illborn
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 2 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Where Are My Children? (1916) officially released in Canada in English?
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