I Accuse My Parents

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I Accuse My Parents is a 1945 film starring James Lowell as Jim Wilson, a product of neglectful alcoholic parents who leave him to his own devices to graduate high school, get a job, date, and fall in with gangsters. It was produced by PRC as a film to teach morals, specifically that parents should take an interest in their children's lives.

The film also stars Mary Beth Hughes as his nightclub singing girlfriend, who is also the girlfriend of Charles Blake, who is played by George Meeker. John Miljean and Vivian Osbourne play Jim's hard-partying parents.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mild-mannered Jim Wilson appears before a judge in court, apparently being tried for serious felonies. When asked to speak in his own defense, Jim pauses and reflects to say, "I accuse my parents" for not giving him the home life he should have had.

The film flashes back to Jim's high school during an assembly when he was given an award for an essay contest describing the ideal home he supposedly has. Eager to tell his parents, he goes home to an house full of empty alcohol bottles and parents distracted by arguing with each other. Jim is embarrassed when his mother shows up drunk to the graduation planning committee. Later, his father gives him money instead of celebrating his birthday with him.

Jim gets a job selling shoes and meets Kitty Reed as a customer. He delivers a pair of shoes to her house and then meets her later at a nightclub where she performs that night. But he doesn't know she also sometimes dates Charles Blake, who is up to some shady dealings, but recruits Jim to run errands for him. Jim gets paid highly for his errands, which he never questions but works diligently at, so is able to buy Kitty gifts.

But when Blake overhears Jim half-jokingly suggest he might propose to Kitty over the phone, he forces Kitty to break up with Jim. And during an errand where Jim drives two of Blake's assistants, a night watchman is shot during a robbery that Jim witnesses. Distraught, Jim goes to his father who ignores him. So he confronts Blake himself, and is slapped around by Blake and threatened, but told to run one more errand that night, when he is beat up by a couple of Blake's hired goons. Jim then flees town and ends up at an undisclosed town, with only a suitcase at night. Seeing a late-night diner, he decides to rob it, but is talked out of the robbery by Al the cook, who invited Jim to live with him until he gets on his feet again.

Some time passes during which Kitty sings about how wrong she was, and Jim's guilt about the night watchman pushes him to ask Al to go home with him to confess what he knows. They go right to Kitty's apartment, where she confesses she was forced to break up with Jim, and spurred on by Kitty's admission, Jim goes to confront Blake once more. The confrontation turns into a scuffle and Blake pulls a gun, and after a struggle, the gun goes off and Blake dies.

Flashforward to court again, it becomes clear why Jim accuses his parents, as he finishes his sad tale. The judge finds Jim innocent of Blake's death but sentences him to probation, and warns the audience in general to make sure they know what is going on in their children's lives or this story could happen to you.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode

I Accuse My Parents was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 along with the short "The Truck Farmer". According to the tv.com summary, this is MST3K creator Joel Hodgson's favorite episode.