Louise was born out of wedlock?
From what I could tell, it appears that Louise was born out of wedlock. Is this the case, or did I miss something?
shareYes, Apple Annie said as much. This was made before the production code was enforced starting the next year, which would have kept that from being said.
shareYes, she is illegitimate, a horrible shame in those days. It would have completely ended any chance of Louise marrying the Count's son. It was a very serious thing. This is why Annie sent her away as a baby to be raised in a convent, so that she would never know about her origins.
Of course, Annie's downfall was to write to Louise and pretend to be something she wasn't.
Has anyone ever wondered what happened next in the story, regarding Annie? Since the movie ends with her saying goodbye to her daughter, that is all left up in the air. Dave quotes the doctor as saying that Annie's kidneys are ruined by the drink, so it may be that she will die in a year or two of cirrhosis of the liver or something, and Louise will get a letter from Dave telling her of her mother's death.
Another thing that interested me was the tiny lady that sold flowers saying that she remembered Annie when she looked like she did at the dock all the time, which seems to indicate that she was higher up in the world until something happened to reduce her to beggary. I would love to read a backstory on that. Who the father was and why she was abandoned and everything.
It has been a while since I've seen this film, but I did find online a radio version of the movie in which May Robson recreated her role as Annie. (This was not uncommon in the 1930s and 1940s. There were several radio series in which popular Hollywood films were recreated, many times with their original stars, in one hour or half hour versions.)
According to the radio version, which as I said was based on the movie, Annie, while waiting for the "guests" to arrive to meet the Count, confesses her past to the Judge Blake. She says that she once was a real lady. She and Louise's father went to Europe and lived the good life. After Louise's birth, her father died, and Annie realized she was broke. It wouldn't be an easy life for Louise in New York, illegitimate and poor, so she placed Louise in the Spanish convent, returned to New York, and worked all those years to support Louise.
To answer your other question: I don't remember if this came from the radio version or from the inferior "Pocketful of Miracles," but I remember Annie asking the Judge, in his role as "Judge Manville," Louise's stepfather, to write a letter in a few weeks telling Louise that her mother had died. That way there would be no reason for Louise to return to the United States and no chance of her learning the truth.
Just in case, you haven't rewatched the movie since your post...
In the '33 version, Annie has just read the letter sent by her daughter stating she was coming to visit with her fiancee' and future father-in-law. Annie is so distraught, she faints on the streets. When she comes to, she goes back to the hotel (after telling the manager she was receiving letters there, despite not being a guest) and begged the manager to tell her daughter she is dead and her newly acquired (non-existent) grieving husband decided to take a trip around the world to get over his grief. The manager, having had enough, has her thrown out of the hotel.