Cynthia (1947)

A young couple meet in college and find they have the same dream ... to go to Vienna. She (Mary Astor) to study music and he (George Murphy) to study medicine. But after they get married, she immediately gets pregnant and their dreams are put on the back burner when their child is born sickly and susceptible to illnesses and allergies. Jump 15 years later and their daughter (Elizabeth Taylor) is still a sickly young thing. On the surface, CYNTHIA appears to be a typical tale of coming of age angst about a girl who wants to fit in with the rest of the crowd and worries about being asked to the prom. But there's a darker underbelly to the film that is the most interesting thing about it: How parents sacrifice their own dreams for the sake of their children, is the child an invalid because she's really ill or because she's treated as an invalid, a husband without a backbone who lets his brother in law make important decisions in his life, a wife who's finally had enough and wants her life back. The film isn't always successful in balancing the teenage hijinks with the more serious stuff but it gives you more to chew on than your typical ANDY HARDY or A DATE WITH JUDY aimed by MGM at the teen market. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. With S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington, Gene Lockhart, Scotty Beckett, Kathleen Howard and Jimmy Lydon.