A Feather in Her Hat

A Feather in Her Hat is a 1935 melodrama film starring Pauline Lord as a workingclass woman with ambitions for her son. It is based on the novel of the same name by I. A. R. Wylie.

Ten years later, on Richards twentyfirst birthday, Clarissa makes a startling announcement. She is not his mother, but was merely hired to raise him for his upperclass parents. She gives him a bank passbook with a balance of 1000 as arranged with his real mother and asks him to move out on his own. Richard Louis Hayward and Courtney are both stunned. Emily Judson Nydia Westman, with whom Richard has grown up, is distressed as well she had hoped to marry him, but now feels he is out of her reach.From Clarissas private papers and what she had said, Courtney guesses that Richards mother is Julia Trent Anders Billie Burke, a former star actress. Wouldbe playwright Richard, seeking to get to know her, becomes a lodger in her mansion, where he also meets her absentminded scientist husband Paul Victor Varconi and her beautiful stepdaughter Pauline Wendy Barrie. Richard and Pauline are attracted to each other, much to the annoyance of rival suitor Leo Cartwright David Niven. Pauline becomes aware of Emilys prior claim, however, and desists. ........

Source: Wikipedia