Saturday's Children

This third version of Maxwell Anderson's play in less than 12 years indicates how much producers and audiences were willing to buy its smug middlebrow social conscience. Adapted by the Casablanca brothers Julius and Philip Epstein, it follows the struggling young couple Garfield and Shirley as they try to cope with poverty and unemployment in the tough urban arena of New York City. Rains steals the movie as her dear old dad, who's willing to commit suicide so they can cash in on the insurance, but it's po-faced stuff.