History Film / IAccuseMyParents

* Hypocrite: Jimmy spends the entire movie opining about how his parents' neglect has brought him to the point where he's on trial for manslaughter and being an accessory to racketeering. But, when the judge rules that he be remanded into the custody of his parents during his sentence, his reaction is to elatedly embrace them as if he hadn't just spent an hour scapegoating them for his own life choices (surely if his parents are as bad as he claims, he would at least offer some kind of vague protest asking for another form of punishment).

''I Accuse My Parents'' is an American film from 1944 about youth {{delinquen|t}}cy, directed by Creator/SamNewfield, and starring Creator/RobertLowell and Creator/MaryBethHughes.

James "Jimmy" Wilson (Lowell) is an all-American [[strike:25 year old man]] teenage boy living in typical 1940s suburbia. He's a nice kid and even won the big essay contest at school... oh, and his parents like to drink, party, and gamble.

This being a pseudo-propaganda film in the 40s, this pretty much ensures Jimmy will fall into a pit of debauchery and crime, and indeed he does in short order. Almost immediately upon meeting a pretty lounge singer named Kitty Reed (Hughes), Jimmy gets hired by her boyfriend, mobster kingpin Charlie Blake. After running a few errands for Blake, stupidly never suspecting that his boss -- a "money man" who asks him to deliver vaguely defined "packages" at odd hours while insisting that he doesn't tell anyone else about it -- is a criminal (or that he's even Kitty's boyfriend, as Jimmy starts dating her) Jimmy eventually figures out the truth and goes on the run, then later accidentally kills Blake in a scuffle.

* AbusiveParents: Unintentionally downplayed. Jimmy's mother drinks, his father gambles and also drinks, and they're both constantly fighting in front of their son. [[ParentalNeglect And they are also neglectful to Jimmy most of the time due to rarely being home.]] But when they actually are around to interact with Jimmy, they are always unfailingly nice to him. They never hit him or yell at him, and they make sure he's provided for, even if they do tend to ignore him a lot. Even their worst fights with each other never manage to go beyond harsh words. It's certainly not an ideal family but there's still plenty of real-life victims of parental abuse who would gladly trade their parents for Jimmy's.

* TheFreelanceShameSquad: Jimmy's classmates after his mother shows up drunk to his school's parents day.

** The last act of the film wouldn't have happened if Jimmy had just gone to the police earlier, as they'd likely be glad to trade immunity for a low-grade courier in exchange for testimony to put two high-level mob members who'd just committed murder away and possibly get their boss as well. Also, the fight in which Jimmy accidentally killed Blake wouldn't have happened if he'd just stayed away and let the police do their jobs instead of confronting him personally. Most of Jimmy's mistakes are the result of being oblivious to what's actually going on, but these are just simple stupidity.

* ItsAllMyFault: A scene cut from the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode has Kitty blaming herself for Jimmy's problems, as she foolishly introduced him to Blake.
* LadyDrunk: Jimmy's mother

* OnlySaneMan: Again Al the diner cook, who convinces Jimmy to turn himself in and talk with Kitty.

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Jimmy gets served one when he's at the restaurant (equal to nearly $1300 in 2022 money, which is three week's salary at his day job). Luckily for him, Blake agrees to let Jimmy pay him back while he works for him.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Both of Jimmy's parents barely pay any attention to him, but his father especially. Jimmy's father does congratulate him for winning the essay contest... but in a way that's so casual it comes across as more dismissive than congratulatory. Notably, Jimmy's dad doesn't even give his son time to ''explain what he's being congratulated for'' before simply telling him "that's swell", giving him some money, and taking off.

James "Jimmy" Wilson (Lowell) is an all-American [[strike:25 year old man]] teenage boy living in typical 1940's suburbia. He's a nice kid and even won the big essay contest at school... oh, and his parents like to drink, party, and gamble.

This being a pseudo-propaganda film in the 40's, this pretty much ensures Jimmy will fall into a pit of debauchery and crime, and indeed he does in short order. Almost immediately upon meeting a pretty lounge singer named Kitty Reed (Hughes), Jimmy gets hired by her boyfriend, mobster kingpin Charlie Blake. After running a few errands for Blake, stupidly never suspecting that his boss -- a "money man" who asks him to deliver vaguely defined "packages" at odd hours while insisting that he doesn't tell anyone else about it -- is a criminal (or that he's even Kitty's boyfriend, as Jimmy starts dating her) Jimmy eventually figures out the truth and goes on the run, then later accidentally kills Blake in a scuffle.

* AbusiveParents: Unintentionally downplayed. Jimmy's mother drinks, his father gambles and also drinks, and they're both constantly fighting in front of their son. [[ParentalNeglect And they are also neglectful to Jimmy most of the time due to rarely being home.]] But when they actually are around to interact with Jimmy, they are always unfailingly nice to him. They never hit him or yell at him, and they make sure he's provided for, even if they do tend to ignore him a lot. Even their worst fights with each other never manage to go beyond harsh words. It's certainly not an ideal family but there's still plenty of real life victims of parental abuse who would gladly trade their parents for Jimmy's.

** The opening scene has the judge chide Jimmy for not speaking in his defense, and threaten him with a guilty verdict unless he does so. In reality, it's perfectly normal for the accused to maintain their right to remain silent throughout a trial, and doing so is not considered to imply their guilt. Any testimony that Jimmy offered after being threatened by the judge would be considered to have been given under duress, and therefore grounds for any guilty verdict to be overturned. Given what we see in the ending, the judge may have thought that Jimmy was clearly innocent and been indirectly chiding him for wasting the court's time by not offering up testimony that would exonerate himself, but if the state's case were really that weak, it would likely have simply been dismissed.

* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Kitty cruelly breaks up with Jimmy to try and protect him from Blake... who is hiding in the closet in the same room, and told her outright that he would murder Jimmy if she didn't.

** The dedication at the end says that the movie was made to entertain the UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks overseas (it was [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1944]]). Let's see: a film where a kid goes completely off the rails due to his parent's absence is shown to a large group of young forced-to-be-absent fathers, some of whom might never come home. Brilliant!

* FelonyMisdemeanor: Jimmy gets a ''lot'' of money from his Dad. His mother's public drunkenness is actually kind of mild.

** The last act of the film wouldn't have happened if Jimmy had just gone to the police earlier, as they'd likely be glad to trade immunity for a low-grade courier in exchange for testimony to put two high-level mob members who'd just committed murder away and possibly get their boss as well. Also, the fight in which Jimmy accidentally killed Blake wouldn't have happened if he'd just stayed away and let the police do their jobs instead of confronting him personally. Most of Jimmy's mistakes are the result of being oblivious to what's actually going on, these are just simple stupidity.

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Jimmy gets served one when he's at the restaurant (equal to three week's salary at his day job). Luckily for him, Blake agrees to let Jimmy pay him back while he works for him.

* WhosWatchingTheStore: Jimmy and the Cafe owner - the entire known staff of the cafe - drop everything to take Jimmy back home. If the TravelMontage is to be trusted it's quite a ways, too.

-->''"We were going this way, that way, this way\\
Then love took us by the hand\\
Helped us right along, showed us the '''kiss-way'''\\

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The ending seemingly implies that Jimmy is ruled innocent of manslaughter on the grounds that his parents weren't very nice to him. Presumably this is just the result of sloppy writing, and the actual intention was that Jimmy's account gave the judge enough evidence to conclude that Blake's death was an act of justifiable self-defense... although even that's shaky at best, considering the fight would never have happened to begin with if Jimmy hadn't needlessly confronted him.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Remember when all checks were completely blank, and you had to put in your ''own'' name and information, not just the recipient?

* BigFancyHouse: Jimmy's house.

''I Accuse My Parents'' is an American film from 1944 about youth {{delinquen|t}}cy, directed by Sam Newfield, and starring Robert Lowell and Mary Beth Hughes.

** It takes Jimmy a worryingly long time to realize that the guy paying him an unsually high salary to deliver unspecified "packages", mostly late at night, while insisting he keeps these courier activities a secret, might be up to something illegal. The penny first drops once Blake makes Jimmy the getaway driver for a robbery, and then it is only because the robbery ends up going wrong and Jimmy happens to hear the shootout between Blake's goons and the watchman.

* BrokenAesop:
** No one in the film cares that Jimmy is a 16-year-old high school student who drinks, and even admits he's been "hitting the stuff kinda hard lately." (Some states did have a drinking age of 18 in the 1940s, but it's still odd that he has no problem ordering numerous cocktails at a nightclub.) Thanks to the age of the actor they might have just all thought he was 30.
** After getting off of his crimes with only probation, Jimmy is remanded into the custody of his parents despite the whole point of the movie being the fact that his parents were too busy seeking their own pleasures or arguing with each other to raise him.

** As usual, the Church will solve all your problems - even if you're not Christian.

** It takes Jimmy a worrying long time to realize that the guy playing him a unsually high salary to deliver unspecified "packages", mostly late at night, while insisting he keeps these courier activities a secret, might be up to something illegal. The penny first drops once Blake makes Jimmy the getaway driver for a robbery, and then it is only because the robbery ends up going wrong and Jimmy happens to hear the shootout between Blake's goons and the watchman.

* IdiotBall: The last act of the film wouldn't have happened if Jimmy had just gone to the police earlier, as they'd likely be glad to trade immunity for a low-grade courier in exchange for testimony to put two high-level mob members who'd just committed murder away and possibly get their boss as well. Also, the fight in which Jimmy accidentally killed Blake wouldn't have happened if he'd just stayed away and let the police do their jobs instead of confronting him personally. Most of Jimmy's mistakes are the result of being oblivious to what's actually going on, these are just simple stupidity.

* AbusiveParents: Unintentionally downplayed. His mother drinks, his father gambles and also drinks, and they're both constantly fighting in front of their son. [[ParentalNeglect And they are also neglectful to Jimmy most of the time due to rarely being home.]] But when they actually are around to interact with Jimmy, they are always unfailingly nice to him. They never hit him or yell at him, and they make sure he's provided for, even if they do tend to ignore him a lot. Even their worst fights with each other never manage to go beyond harsh words. It's certainly not an ideal family but there's still plenty of real life victims of parental abuse who would gladly trade their parents for Jimmy's.

''I Accuse My Parents'' is an American ExploitationFilm from 1944 about youth {{delinquen|t}}cy, directed by Sam Newfield, and starring Robert Lowell and Mary Beth Hughes.