Edmund Goulding | Scott's Film Reviews-1,450 + Reviews posted!!! COMING SOON-MY NEW TOP 250 FILMS!!

The Great Lie-1941

Director Edmund Goulding

Starring Bette Davis, Mary Astor

Scott’s Review #891

Reviewed April 28, 2019

Grade: B+

Breezing into her heyday of films at this point, Hollywood starlet Bette Davis had become an expert at portraying tarts and bitches in most of her films. Desiring to turn left of center and play a more sympathetic character the actress jumped at the chance to play an ingenue.

The Great Lie (1941) is the perfect showcase for her talents in a gripping, dramatic film that is purely predictable soap opera, but lovely escapism did well.

Maggie Patterson (Davis) is a demure and sensitive southern socialite vying for the affections of former beau, aviator Peter Van Allen (George Brent). Peter has impulsively married sophisticated concert pianist Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor) and both are startled to learn their marriage is invalid.

Confused, Peter decides to marry Maggie and is quickly sent off to Brazil on business when his airplane crashes into the jungle leaving him presumed dead.

When Sandra realizes she is pregnant, Maggie proposes she is allowed to raise the child as her own in exchange for taking care of Sandra financially. The two women go to Arizona to await the birth, and Sandra delivers a boy named after his father.

The women face a quandary when Peter shows up alive and well and Sandra bitterly announces to Maggie that she intends to ride off into the sunset with Peter and her son. The women scratch and claw at each other metaphorically speaking, for the remainder of the picture.

The storyline, despite being perfectly melodramatic and stellar for an afternoon daytime drama, is rather engaging throughout, never suffering from too much contrivance.

Both Maggie and Sandra have appeal and both women are likable- or at least the film does its best not to make one woman the clear villain. Sandra, dripping with gorgeous fashion and a sturdy poise is confident, pairing well with Maggie’s southern charm and sensibilities- to say nothing of her wealth. Peter would do well with either woman and I found my allegiances shifting throughout the film.

Nearly upstaging Davis is Mary Astor giving a terrific performance as Sandra. The women are the reason for The Great Lie’s grit and gusto. They play the hell out of their roles and according to legend, both hated the script and vowed together to turn the project into gold.

They nearly succeed as the best sequence is when the women travel to deserted Arizona to spend the remainder of Sandra’s pregnancy. Cooped up together, how delicious to see Davis’s Maggie play caretaker to a whiny and spoiled Sandra- typically Davis would play the Sandra character, so the scenes are a treat.

Suspension of disbelief must be achieved as the major plot of the film is jarring in incomprehension. Maggie offers to provide Sandra with a large sum of money to ensure her security. I did not buy this point as Sandra appears to be well-off, touring the world with incredible success and living a lavish lifestyle including a staff of servants and a gorgeous apartment in New York City.

The character hardly appears to need a handout despite the incorporated dialogue of Sandra’s success predicted to wane as she ages.

Another oddity is the location of Maggie’s estate. Set in Maryland, hardly a southern mecca, the location has all the trimmings of the deep south, perhaps Mississippi. With an all-black staff, magnolia trees, and southern-style cuisine, the Maryland backdrop is quite perplexing and a misfire.

More relevant would have been if the location were Mississippi, Louisiana, or Alabama. Finally, remiss would it be not to mention appearances by Hattie McDaniel and brother Sam as Violet and Jefferson, employed by Maggie, always a treat.

With high drama and terrific acting, The Great Lie (1941) offers tremendous chemistry between the female leads resulting in a deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Astor.

The dialogue may be silly and superfluous with plot gimmicks and obvious setups, but the film does work. Viewers can let loose and enjoy a sudsy drama with enjoyable trimmings.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Supporting Actress-Mary Astor (won)

The Old Maid-1939

Director Edmund Goulding

Starring Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins

Scott’s Review #883

Reviewed April 3, 2019

Grade: B-

Not one to dare criticize the legendary Bette Davis (would there be much to criticize anyway?), her starring turn in The Old Maid (1939) is not one of her best-remembered films through no fault of her own.

With compelling characters and a nice flow to a short one-hour and thirty-five-minute experience, the films suffer from too much melodrama and soap opera style overacting to warrant a sturdy recommendation.

The overwrought drama may have been riveting at the time of release, but now feels dated and dusty.

Davis portrays Charlotte, a modestly attractive young woman living in Philadelphia during the Civil War era. When her cousin Delia (Miriam Hopkins) discards her beau Clem Spender (George Brent) in favor of marrying another well-to-do man, Charlotte and Clem begin an affair that results in the birth of baby Tina.

When Clem is killed in battle, Charlotte opens a home for orphans as a way of hiding Tina’s illegitimacy.

As the years go by, Delia’s scheming results in Tina not knowing her birth mother, and Charlotte suffers away like an old maid yearning to confess the truth to Tina before the young woman marries.

The film’s highlight naturally is Ms. Davis, as she makes her character’s plight emotional and sympathetic.

Especially in 1939, the character is written as a strong and intelligent female with a will of her own. Davis portrays all qualities with passion and gusto, only adding to the perplexing, wishy-washy indecisiveness of the character.

Why does Charlotte go year after year, living under the same roof with her daughter but under the constant guise of only being her aunt and allowing Delia the title of the mother?

Charlotte is supposed to ensure that Tina receives a proper, upper-middle-class, respectable upbringing while being a part of her life.

The film does wonders to portray the roles of aunt and mother as opposites. As a teenager, Tina praises Delia while considering Charlotte matronly and dull as dishwater due to her overbearing and militant respect for rigidity.

Regardless, many facets of the story seem like plot setups to create drama and story points leading to vendettas and reoccurring conflict between Delia and Charlotte.

The fact that Charlotte is so strong and stoic on the surface is also a detraction as the audience is left frustrated over and over at the cousin’s decision not to tell the truth to Tina until the final scene when she is marrying a rich boy and even then, the scene is a disappointment.

The decision for Delia to adopt Tina at the age of twenty to finally allow her respectability and her fiancee’s parents’ approval is weak and story-dictated. The filmmaker attempts never to enable Charlotte any happiness or satisfaction, which is depressing, especially given Davis’s brash personality.

Despite the story issues, The Old Maid has some positives, including a well-dressed set and gorgeous costumes, as wedding after wedding occurs over the film’s twenty-year run.

The aging of the characters is also successfully done, specifically with Davis, as she goes from an impressionable youngster to graying and haggard over the years with good lighting and camera angles.

The Old Maid (1939) is a film of moderate interest as it includes some well-developed characters and a subject matter that might have been daring for the time.

The film, decades later, has a conventional slant and too many story plot setups better served for daytime television. The overall result is a too soapy style for much enjoyment but is saved by the graceful and powerful acting of Bette Davis, easily the best thing about the film.