Cradle Snatchers

Cradle Snatchers is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Howard Hawks. The picture is based on the 1925 Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell stage play of the same name that starred Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Raymond Hackett, Gene Raymond, and Humphrey Bogart.^[1][2]

Cradle Snatchers
Lobby card
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Written by	Sarah Y. Mason (scenario) Malcolm Stuart Boylan (intertitles)
Based on	Cradle Snatchers by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell
Produced by	William Fox
Starring	Louise Fazenda Dorothy Phillips Ethel Wales
Cinematography	L. William O'Connell
Distributed by	Fox Film
Release date	May 28, 1927 (1927-05-28)
Running time	7 reels; 6,281 feet
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The film was remade as Why Leave Home? (1929).^[3]

Plot

Surviving portions of the film

Three unhappy, middle-aged housewives teach their adulterous husbands a lesson by starting affairs with college-aged men during the jazz age.

Cast

• Louise Fazenda as Susan Martin
• Ethel Wales as Ethel Drake
• Dorothy Phillips as Kitty Ladd
• J. Farrell MacDonald as George Martin
• Franklin Pangborn as Howard Drake
• William B. Davidson as Roy Ladd
• Joseph Striker as Joe Valley
• Nick Stuart as Henry Winton
• Arthur Lake as Oscar
• Diane Ellis as Ann Hall (credited as Dione Ellis)
• Sammy Cohen as Ike Ginsberg
• Tyler Brooke as Osteopath

Preservation

An incomplete print of Cradle Snatchers, missing part of reel 3 and all of reel 4, is in the collection of the Library of Congress.^[4]