The Breaking Point

This powerful drama, taken from Mary Lerner's story The Living Dead, finds a concerned mother willing to risk everything for her child's welfare. Ruth Marshall (Bessie Barriscale) is married to an unfaithful and abusive alcoholic. She gives birth to a daughter, but the husband kicks her out after five years. The daughter is given to the man's sleazy mistress who tries to make the little girl drink champagne. At a social gala before a society play, the drunken father tries to take the child from the nursery. Ruth saves the child from harm and kills the abusive husband. After Ruth explains what happened, her mother-in law intervenes on Ruth's behalf and tells the doctor to list the death as accidental in this disturbing drama.