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Poster for Tomorrow's Children (1934)

Tomorrow's Children (1934)

1934 · Feature film · 52 min · dir. Crane Wilbur

The most daring, sensational drama ever filmed!

  • Drama
Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

Young Alice Mason wishes to start a family, but because her own has been deemed "defective" by the state health authorities—her parents are lazy alcoholics who continue breeding, and her siblings are disabled, have mental problems or are imprisoned—she is ordered by a court to undergo sterilization so that her family's "defective genes" won't be passed on to any further. Her boyfriend Jim and a kindly priest search desperately for a way to stop the forced surgery before it's too late.

Synopsis from TMDb

Details

Director
Crane Wilbur
Writer
Wallace Thurman
Cinematography
William C. Thompson
Studio
Bryan Foy Productions
Released
1934-07-02
Running time
52 minutes

Cast & crew

Reviews on the Internet Archive

★★★★ · American Eugenics · The Beekeeper · 2011-09-24

This film is very chilling. A rare window into the American Eugenics movement. At the time it was made, eugenics was accepted by much of America. Both the liberals and the conservatives found it appealing. Many Ivy League Colleges taught eugenics, while many industrialists funded it. Eugenics even found support in the church. What is disturbing is that this is not known. After Hitler a collective amnesia fell over the country. As result we have not learned from our mistakes and are likely to repeat them.

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