A Woman's Picture -- So Noble, So Self-Sacrificing, So Overdone!

Is it me, or was this story done over and over again in the Thirties? It's way too many times to care about the heroine or her baby/love child/out-of-wedlock tyke. The movie tries to get you to bawl over the soapy situations, but all I could do is watch in astonishment that people took this stuff seriously. Once again, Henry Fonda plays a total fool, and it's hard to care for his rich lover boy character, and Bette Davis plays the self-sacrificing saint who is victimized by Henry's rich daddy and the world. The little boy was played by a young actor who was smart and decided it was time to retire from movies. I guess women in 1937 loved these stories, but now they seem so ludicrously contrived.