Custard Cup on AllMovie

Mary Carr has her usual role as a maternal, self-sacrificing type in this melodrama, which was based on the novel by Florence B. Livingston. But this time around, Carr also adds a touch of her more spirited, real-life persona. Mrs. Penfield, better known as Penzie (Carr), is one of the inhabitants of a tenement neighborhood known as "the Custard Cup" because of its oval shape. Penzie is a widow who lost both her husband and son in the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919. She has found fulfillment by taking in three orphans (Miriam Batista, Jerry Devine, and Ernest McKay). One of the Custard Cup's other residents is a counterfeiter, and when the police are too hot on his trail, he leaves a package with Penzie and sets a boat aflame when he tries to destroy some phony bills. When the gang is rounded up, Penzie -- who has been looking for one of her adopted children -- is found at the hideout and arrested. An old friend from long ago, who turns out to be a secret service man, saves Penzie. A romance blossoms between them and they marry.