Square Shoulders
(1929)

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Synopsis

Tad is a young boy living at a newsboys' home who wants to go to military school so that he can grow up to be a great soldier, like his father, who was a decorated war hero. Tad hasn't seen his father since he was a very small boy, and his mother, just before she died, gave Tad his father's Distinguished Service Cross (with his father's initials on the reverse side), whilst telling him that his father was dead. What Tad's mother concealed from him was that his father in fact survived the Great War - only to become a bum and a thief going by the name of 'Slag', who had been in and out of prison. Meeting his son by chance (who doesn't recognise him) Slag vows to do everything he can for the lad. At the same time he conceals his true identity because he doesn't want to destroy Tad's image of his father as a war hero. After robbing a factory, he uses the money to send Tad to a military academy, and he himself takes on a job at the academy's stables so that he can be close to his boy. Over time, Slag's love and affection for his son grows, and this affection is very much reciprocated by the boy. But how long will it be before Slag's criminal past catches up with him, and will Tad ever discover the truth about his father? One of the most moving cinematic tributes ever to the love between father and son.