

72 minutes
8/31/1933
Dr. Eli Watt, a widower, comes to a small town, considering himself a failure in his attempt to have a meaningful career in New York. He raises his son Jimmy as well as Letty, a baby whose mother has died in childbirth and whose father blames Watt and abandons the child. Watt dreams of returning to do research studies, but always something gets in the way: an epidemic, his children's needs, or the needs of his generally ungrateful patients. Only with the passing years does he come to find that his future isn't over and his past isn't quite the failure he believed.

Lionel Barrymore
as Eli Watt

May Robson
as Sarah

Dorothy Jordan
as Letty McGinnis

Joel McCrea
as Jimmy Watt

Frances Dee
as Joan Stockton

David Landau
as McGinnis

Buster Phelps
as Jimmy Watt - Age 6
June Filmer
as May Radford

James Bush
as Bill Radford

Oscar Apfel
as John Radford

Samuel S. Hinds
as Dr. Babcock

Hale Hamilton
as Dr. Tillinghast

Colin Kenny
as Doctor at Banquet

Dave O'Brien
as Dance Extra (uncredited)