My Son, My Son!

A superb drama has Aherne in one of his best roles as a gentle and considerate writer of romantic novels, a man who sacrifices most of his life for others, chiefly an ungrateful, hurtful son, Hayward. Aherne is a product of the Manchester slums but he struggles heroically and becomes a famous novelist. He is devoted to his son, played first by Beckett, then, as an adult, by Hayward. The boy and then the young man prove, over 25 years, to be thoroughly rotten. Hayward makes fun of his father's writing, brings tragedy to his childhood girlfriend Day, and even tries to seduce artist Carroll, the woman his widowed father loves and plans to marry. Yet Aherne cannot brin...