Sam Newfield's I Accuse My Parents is one of the better social delinquency films to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. It is still incredibly heavy-handed in its message, but I find that the actual plot and the main character are strong enough to carry the film without collapsing under the weight of moralistic melodrama. Here's what you need to know: a young man named Jimmy with neglectful parents accidentally gets drawn into the world of organized crime while trying to impress his night-club singer girlfriend. But unlike a lot of other protagonists in these films, Jimmy's parents are so warped and destructive that you actually sympathize with him. These are parents who literally don't pay any attention to him, are constantly drunk, endlessly fight, and abandon him on his birthday to go party at the beach. So we can understand why Jimmy has such extreme psychological hang-ups, unlike, say, the murderous gang in Ed Wood's The Sinister Urge (1961). Plus, the kindly diner-keeper who finally gives him a break when he's on the run was a refreshing breath of air in an otherwise gloomy film. I usually can't stand these films...but if I was forced at gunpoint to watch one...I would choose I Accuse My Parents.
5/10
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