Moral Qualms
(originally posted on IMDb 30 January 2010)

Lois Weber primarily made message, sermonizing, or social-problem films, and of the few films of hers in circulation today, "Where Are My Children?" is the most polemic. It remains potentially objectionable and morally and politically interesting today, as it was upon its initial release, but the majorities on the issues and degrees of the controversies has changed since 1916. Birth control is now largely accepted, at least in liberal and developed nations. Abortion is likely more controversial today in the sense that probably most moralists viewed abortion as wrong in 1916, whereas people are now more split on the issue. In other words, legal and moral acceptance of birth control and abortion has expanded since the time of this film. On the other hand, eugenics, which then was in vogue and appears to have been considered the least lamentable in 1916 of the three subjects addressed, is now mostly dismissed as racist and classist pseudoscience, especially after its adoption by Nazi Germany.

The film's story centers on a married couple: a district attorney, who wants children and supports eugenics, and his wife, who is concealing her past abortions from him. The district attorney pleads for a birth control advocate in one trial (inspired by the then recent trial of Margaret Sanger) and then in a later case argues against an abortion doctor. Both of these issues serve the film's underlying promotion of eugenics for reproductive control; that is, contraceptives are desired to aid the non rich and white people in having fewer children, and abortion is decried for its use by rich white women, who supposedly have an obligation to have offspring. (Never mind that wealthier women, in reality, probably had the better access to contraceptives, whereas the poor more often resorted to potentially dangerous abortions.) The images of children's souls waiting at heaven's gate and the picture's final ghostly scenes also frame the film within Weber's Christian, spiritual beliefs. "Where Are My Children?" is a deplorably classist, racist, patriarchal and generally bigoted motion picture, and I wonder where people's minds are at when they see this film's main or only controversies as abortion or birth control.

Having already made such films as "Hypocrites" (1915), which contentiously featured nudity, Weber was, reportedly, the highest paid director in Hollywood. Apparently, the controversy from "Where Are My Children?" in particular, which was for a time not approved by the National Board of Review and was banned in Pennsylvania, convinced her to tone down the subjects in subsequent projects, despite the box office rewards controversy ensured (this film is said to have made some $3 million worldwide). Nevertheless, Weber was one of the best and most intelligent filmmakers of her time, and, consequently, this is a well-made film. "Where Are My Children?" features some especially nice lighting, aided by the reproduced tinting. The editing is expertly done, including plenty of matching, crosscuts and angle shifts. Weber used the doubles theme (couples, two trials, etc.) throughout to simplify the moral lessons, which is something she did to even greater effect in "Too Wise Wives" (1921), which included its reinforcement via reflections.