The Old Maid (1939)

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

Edith Wharton (novel)
Zoe Akins (play)

Release Date:

2 September 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Vividly, unforgettably, a woman's love starved soul is revealed. All those strange secrets she locks in her heart ... moments of rapture and of heartbreak ... longings that no man can fathom. Of these has the year's finest picture been woven!

Plot:

Delia marries Jim, not Joe After Delia breaks her engagement to Clem and marries Jim, Clem promises to marry Delia's cousin Charlotte...

Plot Keywords:

Single Mother | Unwed Pregnancy | American Civil War | Female Rivalry | Illegitimacy

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Charlotte Lovell
Miriam Hopkins	...	Delia Lovell Ralston
George Brent	...	Lt. Clem Spender
Donald Crisp	...	Dr. Lanskell
Jane Bryan	...	Clementina
Louise Fazenda	...	Dora
James Stephenson	...	Jim Ralston
Jerome Cowan	...	Joseph Ralston
William Lundigan	...	Lanning Halsey
Cecilia Loftus	...	Grandmother Henrietta Lovell
Rand Brooks	...	Jim Ralston Jr.
Janet Shaw	...	Dee Ralston Ward
William Hopper	...	John Ward (as DeWolf Hopper)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #5227) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play opened in New York City, New York, USA on 7 January 1935 and had 305 performance. The leads were played by Judith Anderson and Helen Menken. Ernst Lubitsch bought rights to the play, intending to star both Anderson and Menken in a Paramount production, but Warner Bros. bought the rights from him in January 1939.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Very Good Period Soap Opera

"The Old Maid" is a lovely and picturesque film, full of the tear-jerking elements that you may expect with the story, full of lies and love and illegitimate children. Bette Davis gives an admirably restrained performance, and Miriam Hopkins even manages to elicit a measure of sympathy toward the end. The only bad thing about the film was the casting of Jane Bryan as Bette's illegitimate daughter, an uncharismatic and unattractive actress whose bad acting is saved from ruining the film by Miss Davis and Miss Hopkins.