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Square Shoulders (1929), directed by J. Mason Hopper, starring Frank Coghlan Jr.

Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his father, Slag, is actually a thief and a derelict. Slag robs a factory in order to get the money to send Tad to military school, then gets a job at the academy's horse stables to be close to his son, who doesn't know he's alive.

A poignant, critically praised late silent family drama that unites two of the most expressive child stars of the late 1920s. Junior Coghlan gives a powerhouse performance as Tad, a young boy living at a newsboys' home who idolizes his supposedly deceased war-hero father, completely unaware that a broken, criminal "bum" working at his military academy's stables is actually his real father trying desperately to fund his education without ruining the boy's idealized image of him. -- This late-silent/early-sound production brings together two of the most prominent juvenile performers of the late 1920s. Coghlan plays Tad, while De Lacy plays Eddie. Their pairing is particularly revealing because the film belongs to the moment when established child stars were being carried directly into the new sound era. A silent version and a sound version were both released.