Here we have Bette Davis as we all know and love her--as the evil, conniving, self-centered tart she played so well throughout her career! Although she was wonderful playing nice people in Now, Voyager and All This And Heaven Too, the bitchy character is the one we mostly attribute to Ms. Davis.
In this movie, Bette does everything she can to ruin her sister's life--not because there is any malice, but just because she doesn't care. First, she steals her kind sister's fiancé but then she shows hardly any remorse or decency for the rest of the picture. Olivia de Havilland plays the all-too-patient sister, and you'll probably find yourself rooting for her to punch Davis in the mouth (or worse). This is a 1940s Warner Brothers soap opera at its best. On top of this, is has one of the better endings you'll see--giving both Davis and Coburn's characters a wonderful "comeuppance".
By the way, for those interested in psychology, Ms. Davis' character is a wonderful example of a Borderline Personality. Similar to this diagnosis, her character displays no empathy or regard for others, an amazing ability to lie, a total inability to cope with boredom, a need to screw up her life, drinking to excess, extreme dependence on her enabling family members, histrionic behavior and shallowness and explosiveness in relationships with the opposite sex. Her "beloved" uncle, played by Charles Coburn is a great example of an Antisocial Personality who has learned to channel his evil into legal but highly unethical behavior.
By the way, if you watched the film, too, didn't you think there were indications that the relationship between Coburn and Davis was incestuous or nearly so?! Pretty creepy if you ask me!
In this movie, Bette does everything she can to ruin her sister's life--not because there is any malice, but just because she doesn't care. First, she steals her kind sister's fiancé but then she shows hardly any remorse or decency for the rest of the picture. Olivia de Havilland plays the all-too-patient sister, and you'll probably find yourself rooting for her to punch Davis in the mouth (or worse). This is a 1940s Warner Brothers soap opera at its best. On top of this, is has one of the better endings you'll see--giving both Davis and Coburn's characters a wonderful "comeuppance".
By the way, for those interested in psychology, Ms. Davis' character is a wonderful example of a Borderline Personality. Similar to this diagnosis, her character displays no empathy or regard for others, an amazing ability to lie, a total inability to cope with boredom, a need to screw up her life, drinking to excess, extreme dependence on her enabling family members, histrionic behavior and shallowness and explosiveness in relationships with the opposite sex. Her "beloved" uncle, played by Charles Coburn is a great example of an Antisocial Personality who has learned to channel his evil into legal but highly unethical behavior.
By the way, if you watched the film, too, didn't you think there were indications that the relationship between Coburn and Davis was incestuous or nearly so?! Pretty creepy if you ask me!