SON AND STRANGER

Of Luke and Belle Milam's trip to England, after the war, to bring back the body of their only son killed in action, this is for them a painful process of enlightenment as well as they learn how little they had known Matthew, of his deliberate determination to escape the pattern they had established for him. For Luke, an overmaterialistic businessman, and Belle, querulous, proprietary, had never realized their limitations as parents until they find- in England- that Matthew had left behind him the girl he loved- and had planned to marry- and a baby. Seeing a second chance, for themselves, in the baby, and an answer to their loneliness, Luke and Belle try every means to persuade the girl to give them his child, fail, but at the close gain in insight and compassion. Some sentimental moments, this has its realism too and is an altogether human story of common conflicts.