Edward Arnold and Frankie Thomas
If “coming-of-age” means realizing that your parents aren’t the stable loving couple you thought they were, then twelve-year old Bobby has certainly reached that age in the 1934 film Wednesday’s Child.
Karen Morley and Frankie Thomas
Frankie Thomas, as Bobby Phillips, seems to carry all the emotion in this story that focuses on the collateral damage of a very bitter divorce between Mom (Kay Francis) and Dad (Edward Arnold). Bobby is a secure and happy child who’s only concerns are the long trips Dad takes away from home for his business. We see this conflict at the train station as mother and son say goodbye to dad. When the train pulls out of the station Bobby says “Gee, a month away from home” and a sad disappointment overwhelms his face. Next to him mother gives a sly little smile.
Richard Quine, Frankie Thomas and friends
One day Bobby is playing at the river with his friends and are told a couple is in a nearby car necking and kissing. The boys sneak off for some fun, only to discover that its Bobby’s mother and a strange man. The little boy now has a secret to keep from his father and openly denies to his friends that it was his mother in that car.
It’s the 30’s and issues of divorce and extra marital activities were a scandal on the movie screen. In the big confrontation scene where Mom & Dad argue (Bobby is in the next room and hears everything) she tells her husband that her secret lover, and her, have done more that just date, ensuing that they’ve gone all the way. You can almost hear the combined gasps of a 1934 audience.
As emotional as this scene is for Bobby, it is when he overhears his Mother say that she “really didn’t want him”, that brings the boy to his fragile state of mind. Eventually he has to testify against his parents in divorce court.
Edward Arnold and Frankie Thomas
The result of the divorce is 4-months in the summer with his father, and the rest of the year with his mother. So we watch as bobby agonizes through the winter months with his mother and new step-father, but the summer with his father isn’t much happier when Bobby learns he is now second in his father’s life, after his new girlfriend.
Frankie Thomas as Bobby Phillips
The only solution seems to be to send the unhappy boy to military school. A place it seems where many divorce parents send their boys. On a parents visitation weekend we learn that the loving, affectionate little boy has now turned into a “keep your distance, yes sir” kind of kid.
Frankie Thomas in Wednesday's Child
As a trained stage actor Frankie over-mugs his role at times, but not enough to distract from the emotions and pain of the divorce we see on his face. Based on the stage play of the same name, Frankie Thomas was the only cast member hired for the film version based on his rave stage reviews. This little drama may be called a weeper, but illustrates, maybe over dramatically, the baggage a child can carry while trying to reach adulthood.
1934 RKO Radio Pictures, Based on the play by Leopold Atlas, Director John S. Robertson with Karen Morley, Edward Arnold and Frankie Thomas
