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Robert, growing older, also has trouble because of his faith. It is shaken when sickness prevents his winning the scholarship that might have made him a doctor. It is sorely pressed when his best friend, hurrying to console him, is killed by a train before his eyes. (Audiences may echo with equal perplexity his plea to God: "Why? Why?") It is destroyed when, despite prayer, his foster-mother dies. With faith gone, it is natural enough for Robert to reject the girl (Beverly Tyler) who wants to marry him: "I know my place" (in the boilerworks), he grates. And with faith rather inexplicably restored by great-grandfather's death, it comes easy enough for him to realize that when a popular novelist so wills it, there's a way even for poor boys like him to go to medical school.
To give the film its due: some elements—especially those which show the struggle of innocence against meanness—are sincerely felt and, in a lumbering, over-stacked way, sympathetically dramatized. There are some experienced performances, notably those of Messrs. Cronyn and Coburn. There are some pleasant appearances: bashful Tom Drake and Beverly Tyler, a good-looking newcomer with a sweet soprano, and eyes a trifle too tricky for her role. The Solemn High Mass and First Communion will move many—and suggest to others that if cinema carries this sort of thing much farther, theaters will have to be consecrated.