This short is a Danish public information film made for the Mothers Aid Institution. It's perfectly unremarkable apart from the fact that it was made by acclaimed director Carl Dreyer - and for a couple of unfortunate moments which I'll come to later.
Although it's billed as a documentary, it actually features a fictionalised account of a woman's experiences as the MAI helps her prepare for her initially unwanted child's birth and subsequent upbringing. The girl is quite plain - probably deliberately - and she is unmarried. The Institution gets money from the errant father and looks after mother and baby for three months after the birth at no expense to the mother - which is quite enlightened for the time when you think about it.
Those unfortunate moments? Bizarrely, one scene features the young mother being taught how to sing children's songs, and the song she is taught (complete with blackboard and teacher with a stick) is something about poor little Negro boy who is black from tip to toe. The second unfortunate moment is the ending where the word 'slut' is emblazoned across the screen. It's probably Danish for End, but you couldn't get a more inappropriate word at the end of a 1940s film about unmarried mothers...
Although it's billed as a documentary, it actually features a fictionalised account of a woman's experiences as the MAI helps her prepare for her initially unwanted child's birth and subsequent upbringing. The girl is quite plain - probably deliberately - and she is unmarried. The Institution gets money from the errant father and looks after mother and baby for three months after the birth at no expense to the mother - which is quite enlightened for the time when you think about it.
Those unfortunate moments? Bizarrely, one scene features the young mother being taught how to sing children's songs, and the song she is taught (complete with blackboard and teacher with a stick) is something about poor little Negro boy who is black from tip to toe. The second unfortunate moment is the ending where the word 'slut' is emblazoned across the screen. It's probably Danish for End, but you couldn't get a more inappropriate word at the end of a 1940s film about unmarried mothers...
