Spoilers ahead.
Near the end of the movie, Sandra threatens to take the baby and Pete tells her that we can't stop you. I don't understand. Maggie had given her a lot of money and "made all the arrangements." Certainly, the arrangements included legally adopting the baby.
If someone as well known as Sandra were to come forward and reveal what happened, it would have been a shadow over Pete and Maggie and the child, even if not formally 'believed.' It certainly would have created a scandal.
Plus back then, adoptions could easily be very informal. Maybe Maggie didn't want legal papers which a grown little Pete would find years later and be devastated.
@pierrotlunaire0.
Yes, of course, they'd want to avoid a scandal and maybe Maggie didn't formally adopt.
In the movie "To Each His Own," Jody shows Corrine the birth papers showing that she (Olivia) is the birth mother. But Corrine tells her that she has suspected all along that she was the birth mother and has officially adopted the child. This was a 1946 movie.
I assumed there was no adoption, that's why they went away in Arizona, so they would register the birth informally as Maggie's.
shareAs I see it, the only person who knew that the baby was Sandra's and not Maggie's was the Arizona doctor who delivered it. The two women were away for months, and no one back home had any idea that the baby was not born to Maggie. My assumption is that Sandra, when she still planned to take the baby, was going to enlist that doctor's aid in a legal battle. This is long before the days of DNA evidence, or her job would be easier.
Fortunately, none of this happened, since she changed her mind.