May 28 - Million Dollar Babies

Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on May 28. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

MILLION DOLLAR BABIES       

The poor Dionne family lives in rural Ontario, Canada. The mother, Elzire collapses and goes into what everyone thinks is premature labor. Even though they have no money the husband, Oliva races to get a doctor. Early on the morning of May 28, 1934 she gives birth to five daughters. [03:50 to 20:58]   The quints birth soon causes a media frenzy. Helena Reid, an American  radio personality arrives on the scene. Oliva and the other children leave in order to save the quints from infections. After Americans take the lead in providing for the quints, the Ontario government finally starts to provide some assistance. Oliva signs a deal to have the quints displayed at the Chicago World’s fair and he is attacked for this by Helena Reid.  The Canadian government moves to take the kids and they all develop high fevers, but are pulled through by Dr. Dafoe. The Ontario government declares the quints wards of the state and Dr. Dafoe is named their guardian. The kids are taken away and placed in a house built just for them across the road. Dr. Dafoe starts to profit from the kids, including taking them on tour. They kids are put on display and the area acquires a circus-like atmosphere. Finally, the parents are only allowed to visit with Dr. Dafoe’s permission.  The Dionne parents try to tell their story and in response the government extends the guardianship until the quints are 18. Dr. Dafoe makes tons of cash in endorsement deals for the quints. The Dionnes have a baby boy. The quints are kept on a strict schedule isolated from everyone else and put on display for mobs of tourists, but only one of their nurses disapproves of this and is fired. The parents finally find a lawyer to help them get the girls back. He takes the tack that the quints were only taken away only because the parents were French-Canadians. They get French nurses and teachers hired. The parents get better access. The government finally gets ticked off at Dr. Dafoe excesses and removes him as guardian. Oliva finds out that the quints are paying for all their expenses out of their funds. Helena Reid returns and now sides with the Dionnes. It all comes to a head in a dramatic confrontation when Emilie goes to Dr. Dafoe instead of her mother. Ms. Reid gets Dr. Alfred Adler to condemn the regime that the children are living under. The quints and their parents meet the King and Queen. The guardianship is dissolved and the girls are returned to their parents. 

An interesting film. You can’t help but feel sympathy for the parents who were accused of exploiting the girls, so they were removed from them and actually exploited for years. The girls were eventually returned, but as the film’s final minutes hint, the damage had already been done.  

   

In The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama by Pierre Berton (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1978) at page 11 we are told that “[o]n May 28, 1934, between the hours of three and six in the morning, there were born ….. five identical girl babies” .Date is also given in film at 3:55.

Director - Christian Duguay

Producer - Bernard Zukerman

Screenplay - Suzette Couture, Stuart Foxman and John Nihmey

Released - November 20, 1994

Runtime – 3 hours

        

Starring -

Beau Bridges as Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe

Roy Dupuis as   Oliva Dionne

Céline Bonnier as   Elzire Dionne

Sean McCann as Premier Mitch Hepburn

Ginette Reno as  Madame Legros

Domini Blythe as Nurse Lena de Keyzer

Kate Nelligan as Helena Reid

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.