I Accuse My Parents (1944) on Netflix

Plot summary

James Wilson stands before a judge, charged with manslaughter, and when he is asked to speak he blames his parents. The story goes back to his school days: an essay he wrote about the home he wished he had wins a prize, but the house he returns to is full of empty bottles while his mother and father argue. His mother turns up drunk at the graduation committee, and his father hands him money instead of spending his birthday with him. Jimmy takes an after-school job in a shoe store, meets the torch singer Kitty Reed, and is drawn into the circle of Charles Blake, a gangster who fences stolen jewelry. Blake pays Jimmy well for delivering packages and messages, and Jimmy does not ask what is inside them.