My Son, My Son!

My Son, My Son! is a 1940 American drama film directed by Charles Vidor and based on a novel by the same name written by Howard Spring. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by John DuCasse Schulze.^[1]

My Son, My Son!
Film poster
Directed by	Charles Vidor
Written by	Lenore J. Coffee
Based on	My Son, My Son by Howard Spring
Produced by	Edward Small
Starring	Madeleine Carroll
Cinematography	Harry Stradling
Edited by	Fred R. Feitshans Jr. Grant Whytock
Music by	Edward Ward
Production company	Edward Small Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	March 22, 1940 (1940-03-22)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Cast

• Madeleine Carroll as Livia Vaynol
• Brian Aherne as William Essex
• Louis Hayward as Oliver Essex
• Laraine Day as Maeve O'Riorden
• Henry Hull as Dermot O'Riorden
• Josephine Hutchinson as Nellie Moscrop Essex
• Sophie Stewart as Sheila O'Riorden
• Bruce Lester as Rory O'Riorden
• Scotty Beckett as Oliver as a Child
• Brenda Henderson as Maeve as a Child
• Teddy Moorwood as Rory as a Child
• May Beatty as Annie
• Stanley Logan as The Colonel
• Lionel Belmore as Mr. Moscrop
• Mary Gordon as Mrs. Mulvaney
• David Clyde as Drayman
• Vesey O'Davoren as Parker, Butler
• Pat Flaherty as Joe Baxter
• Victor Kendall as Pogson
• Mary Field as Betsy, First Maid
• Audrey Manners as Second Maid
• Sibyl Harris as First Landlady
• Connie Leon as Second Landlady

Production

Edward Small bought the film rights to the book for $50,000^[2] and believed that the story could provide an ideal vehicle for his new star Louis Hayward.^[3] Lenore Coffee, who wrote the script, said that Small "was a rather ignorant man, but he had inklings and hunches ... I liked him very much. He had a hunch about My Son, My Son! and he bought it. He had never bought an elegant story before."^[4]

Production of the film was temporarily halted with the outbreak of World War II.^[5]