Are Passions Inherited? answered its own question in raw, melodramatic fashion. When his criminal father is imprisoned, a young boy is put in the care of a widow (Dot Farley) with a questionable past. Despite the widow's efforts to provide a loving and nurturing environment, the boy (played as an adult by William Conklin) begins evincing some of his father's worst character traits. Meanwhile, the widow suffers a series of devastating personal setbacks, forcing her to seek work as a dance-hall girl in a rowdy Western town. By film's end, however, both the widow and her foster son have forsaken the more sordid aspects of their past and are able to achieve what would later be designated as "inner peace." The only interesting aspect of this forgotten film was that it was one of the very first Warner Bros. productions.
by Hal Erickson
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