DAVEY MY SON aka PAULA Original Daybill Movie Poster Loretta Young

Paula (1952)

Directed by Rudolph Maté.

With Loretta Young, Kent Smith, Alexander Knox, Tommy Rettig

Distraught after her second miscarriage & learning definitively she could never have children Paula, while driving at night, accidentally injures a child. Confused and due to her commitment to attend a function that honors her husband she doesn't follow the child to the hospital as she thought she would. She attempts to tell her husband about the incident but has trouble finding the right time. Later, overcome with remorse, she looks to get close to this child and becomes a helper at the hospital. The child is an orphan with limited health care available. The doctor recognizes Paula's need to be useful and asks if she would become his speech therapist and guardian. She finds meaning and purpose in her life as she engages the little boy in intensive therapy necessary to recover his ability to speak. Will she be caught and punished, when the boy is able to speak, will he implicate her?