The Sisters (1938)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Anatole Litvak

Writers:

Milton Krims (screenplay)
Myron Brinig (novel)

Release Date:

14 October 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Three sisters attend a celebration of the inauguration of Teddy Roosevelt. Each will marry a man in attendance...

Plot Keywords:

Montana | Earthquake | Miscarriage | William Howard Taft | Department Store

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Frank Medlin
Bette Davis	...	Louise Elliott Medlin
Anita Louise	...	Helen Elliott Johnson
Ian Hunter	...	William Benson
Donald Crisp	...	Tim Hazelton
Beulah Bondi	...	Rose Elliott
Jane Bryan	...	Grace Elliott Knivel
Alan Hale	...	Sam Johnson
Dick Foran	...	Tom Knivel
Henry Travers	...	Ned Elliott
Patric Knowles	...	Norman French
Lee Patrick	...	Flora Gibbon
Laura Hope Crews	...	Flora's Mother
Janet Shaw	...	Stella Johnson
Harry Davenport	...	Doc Moore

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4407)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Several people are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names, if any): Edwin Brian (Newsboy), Rosella Towne, Susan Hayward, Paulette Evans and Frances Morris (Telephone Operators), John Harron, Lew Harvey, Richard Bond and Mira McKinney. The 4 telephone operators were possibly among a group seen only from the rear and are not recognizable.

Quotes:

Louise Elliott Medlin: Frank, I can't have you running off life this.
Frank Medlin: If you really love me, come with me to San Francisco tonight. Will you?
Louise Elliott Medlin: Yes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in All About Bette (1994) (TV)

Soundtrack:

He's My Pal

Errol and Bette, Take One

Errol Flynn had been in movies since 1935 in the U.S., and his films for Warner Brothers were mostly swashbucklers and adventure films. With his slightly British (actually Australian - Irish) accent, he fit so well into exciting period films. Occasionally he did modern films, like the comedy FOURS A CROWD, but these were considered secondary for his fans. They wanted more of Captain Peter Blood or Robin Hood.

Flynn himself wanted to have more regular roles, but found his requests met with limited success. Jack Warner knew that the key to it all was Flynn's box office, and that depended on adventure stories. So he was amazed by the offer from Warner to appear opposite Bette Davis in THE SISTERS. His role: a newspaper reporter who marries Bette, moves with her to San Francisco, and proves less good at domesticity than she wanted. It was a complete change for Flynn, and he would try to do the role justice. And he failed to do so.

I keep thinking Warner, a very cagey film producer, was doing two things in giving Flynn the role. First he was testing the waters to see if Flynn and Davis were good together as a film team. Warner had plans to make GONE WITH THE WIND, and wanted Davis to play Scarlett O'Hara, but he wanted Flynn to be Rhett Butler. Davis is on record as having told Warner (more or less) that she did not believe him (he apparently blurted out his plan to stop her when she left the studio in 1936 to fight her contract in England). But later, when she returned to the studio, she told Warner that she wanted someone who could act, and she did not think that Flynn was an actor.

The other reason was to give Flynn an opportunity to "get it all out of his system". Flynn wanted to be a serious actor - well here was his chance. It was like Daryl Zanuck and Tyrone Power, when the latter wanted to do a serious part. Zanuck gave Power NIGHTMARE ALLEY to "get it out of his system". The difference was that Zanuck did not pick NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Power did), and Power's performance was marvelous as a result (but the film did poorly at the box office). So Power got it out of his system, but showed what he could do. Flynn did not pick THE SISTERS, but was given it by Warner. So for all his determination to perform the part well, he lacked the excitement of playing a role he wanted.

The story begins in November 1904 when the citizens of a small town in Colorado are celebrating the election of President Theodore Roosevelt for a full term of his own over the Democratic Candidate (one of the two least recalled defeated candidates of the 20th Century: Justice Alton B.Parker of New York State's Court of Appeals). Davis and her two sisters (Anita Louise and Jane Bryant) are shown in their being courted by different men (Flynn, Alan Hale Sr., and Dick Foran), and how they all prosper or don't prosper. Davis and Flynn end up living in San Francisco, and Flynn's wanderlust keeps interfering with his duty as a breadwinner. Due to this and various circumstances, he is on a boat to China when the San Francisco Earthquake occurs (halfway through the film). Louise has a brief marriage to Hale, which leaves her very wealthy - and constantly squired around by men. Bryant and Foran seem to have a fairly routine marriage in comparison. The film ends with Flynn and Davis reunited (but will it last?) at the celebration of the election in November 1908 of William Howard Taft over William Jennings Bryan (paging Robert Culp in THE GREAT SCOUT AND CATFISH THURSDAY).

While not a bomb, THE SISTERS was no bell ringer at the box office. Davis got most of the critical acclaim (for a relatively quiet role for her - the loss of her baby was the best scene she had). Hale had a more interesting part as a millionaire drunk than Flynn did. Flynn did well - but no more than that. Davis' views of Flynn as a co-star hardened, and she fought (unsuccessfully) to keep him from being the Earl of Essex to her Queen Elizabeth I in ELIZABETH THE QUEEN within a year. But they never did make GONE WITH THE WIND together.