The nicest thing I can say about this sad melodrama is that Errol Flynn and Bette Davis were gorgeous! In fact, Errol Flynn is so good looking in this film that I would go so far as to say he was prettier than Bette Davis! His character however was the opposite of pretty. He selfishly elopes with the eldest of three daughters of a small town Montana pharmacists, dragging her to his hometown of San Francisco under the promise of writing the "great American novel". He gave no thought as to how he was going to take care of himself let alone a wife on his meager sports columnists salary. Bette's character, Louise, is a trooper and is not only willing to make due with very little, but willing to be the cheerleader and prop up her miserable husband who would rather drink away his troubles. Unfortunately the stress and strain of doing so causes her to loose their first baby. Louise doesn't let it get her down and in her usual determined way she goes to work after her husband looses the one paying job he had in a fit of temper. In the end he can't handle the shame of his wife working and supporting his sorry self, so he abandons her by hopping on board a ship to the south seas. While he is out to sea, San Francisco and Louise suffer through the "great quake" and fires. Louise takes it on the chin, rises up from the ashes and goes back to work where she is thriving...and sadly still waiting for her husband's return two years later. Her husband does return with some "mystery" illness that he is dying of, I like to think it was syphilis! He sees her again at the same small town Montana election ball that he met her in four years earlier for a Roosevelt's election...but this time it is President Taft's turn. They make a sweet reunion, him knowing he is sick and dying and presumably say their goodbyes on a high note. The assumption is she will eventually marry and have a life with her way too kind, patient and sweet boss.
On to the middle sister, who was supposedly the pretty one. She marries a rich old man from her small town, both knowing she didn't love him and being ok with the relationship being about the freedoms and experiences that his money could provide for her. She has to endure his same age daughter's barbs about her being a gold digger and he eventually dies within a couple of years. By that time he dies she is already carrying on with some young man who is her age...she marries this fool who seems to love her, but with whom again she doesn't seem to love. They live a life of luxury in New York, but just for a few years...because surprise when she comes back to help the youngest sister with her domestic dispute and attend the Taft election ball back in Silver Bow, Montana...some new guy shows up (she is not even divorced from husband #2 yet) and she introduces him as her fiancé!
On to the third and youngest of the three sisters, she is the only one to stay in their small Montana town. Sadly she ends up marrying the sweetheart of her eldest sister who had been jilted when Louise ran off to San Francisco. In a parallel story, they have a baby Tom Jr. just when Louise looses her baby. But then around the time Tom jr is celebrating his second birthday, the poor naive youngest sister finds out that her husband Tom has been stepping out in her with the town floozie! This is the domestic dispute that brings home all of the sister. Best scene of the whole film is when the three sisters convince three "upstanding" males in their small town that for the betterment of the town and these "mystery" gentlemen who have taken up with her's marriages it is their duty to return n the floozy out of town.
Then the movie culminates with the pharmacist and his family attending the election ball for Taft and each dancing with their men-for Louise that is her boss, the middle sister soon to be husband three, and the youngest her now chagrined husband Tom. Queue the credits...
I don't know if this qualifies as one of the weepies back in the day, but it should have!
On to the middle sister, who was supposedly the pretty one. She marries a rich old man from her small town, both knowing she didn't love him and being ok with the relationship being about the freedoms and experiences that his money could provide for her. She has to endure his same age daughter's barbs about her being a gold digger and he eventually dies within a couple of years. By that time he dies she is already carrying on with some young man who is her age...she marries this fool who seems to love her, but with whom again she doesn't seem to love. They live a life of luxury in New York, but just for a few years...because surprise when she comes back to help the youngest sister with her domestic dispute and attend the Taft election ball back in Silver Bow, Montana...some new guy shows up (she is not even divorced from husband #2 yet) and she introduces him as her fiancé!
On to the third and youngest of the three sisters, she is the only one to stay in their small Montana town. Sadly she ends up marrying the sweetheart of her eldest sister who had been jilted when Louise ran off to San Francisco. In a parallel story, they have a baby Tom Jr. just when Louise looses her baby. But then around the time Tom jr is celebrating his second birthday, the poor naive youngest sister finds out that her husband Tom has been stepping out in her with the town floozie! This is the domestic dispute that brings home all of the sister. Best scene of the whole film is when the three sisters convince three "upstanding" males in their small town that for the betterment of the town and these "mystery" gentlemen who have taken up with her's marriages it is their duty to return n the floozy out of town.
Then the movie culminates with the pharmacist and his family attending the election ball for Taft and each dancing with their men-for Louise that is her boss, the middle sister soon to be husband three, and the youngest her now chagrined husband Tom. Queue the credits...
I don't know if this qualifies as one of the weepies back in the day, but it should have!