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The Old Maid (1939)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
2 September 1939 (USA)
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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...
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NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Best Films - 1939
(From Alternative Film Guide. 10 May 2009, 1:26 AM, PDT)
Jane Bryan
(From Alternative Film Guide. 11 April 2009, 7:12 PM, PDT)
(From Alternative Film Guide. 10 May 2009, 1:26 AM, PDT)
Jane Bryan
(From Alternative Film Guide. 11 April 2009, 7:12 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Bette is wonderful in period soap opera from Edith Wharton novel...
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Cast
(Complete credited 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) |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
95 min
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Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Victor System)
Certification:
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Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
To get the effects of aging, Bette Davis didn't wear any eye makeup or lipstick, and makeup artist Perc Westmore used a pale, ashen base on her face.
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Quotes:
Charlotte Lovell:
She thinks I can't understand her. She considers me an old maid.
Delia Lovell Ralston: My dear.
Charlotte Lovell: A ridiculous, narrow-minded old maid. What else can she ever think of me?
Delia Lovell Ralston: Poor Charlotte.
Charlotte Lovell: Oh, but you needn't pity me. Because she's really mine. If she considers me an old maid, it's because I've deliberately made myself one in her eyes. I've done it from the beginning so she wouldn't have the least suspicion. I've practised everything I've ever had to say to her, if it was important, so that I'd sound like an old maid aunt talking. Not her mother.
[...]
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Delia Lovell Ralston: My dear.
Charlotte Lovell: A ridiculous, narrow-minded old maid. What else can she ever think of me?
Delia Lovell Ralston: Poor Charlotte.
Charlotte Lovell: Oh, but you needn't pity me. Because she's really mine. If she considers me an old maid, it's because I've deliberately made myself one in her eyes. I've done it from the beginning so she wouldn't have the least suspicion. I've practised everything I've ever had to say to her, if it was important, so that I'd sound like an old maid aunt talking. Not her mother.
[...]
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Movie Connections:
Featured in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) (TV)
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Soundtrack:
Battle Hymn of the Republic
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Bette Davis vies with Miriam Hopkins for the affection of George Brent in this film version of Edith Wharton's 'The Old Maid'. As hard as Hopkins tries, she can't steal the film from Bette -- nor Bette's daughter (Jane Bryan), the love child being brought up by Delia (Hopkins). Basically the story of Bette being unable to tell her daughter that she's her real mother.
There are some odd peculiarities about the film itself. George Brent makes a few brief appearances early in the film and then is suddenly killed off after going to fight in the Civil War. A montage shows the passage of time and suddenly we're given an abrupt change of scene and events before still another time transition. The continuity is choppy and leaves an unsatisfying impression of the film as a whole. It's as if events that should have been shown are compressed because of time constraints.
Bette Davis gives one of her more restrained portrayals, aging rather realistically, showing the loneliness of the embittered woman who is cheated out of marrying another man when her cousin Delia (Miriam Hopkins) discovers that she bore Brent's child.
The soap suds are pretty thick, all of them backed by a nice Max Steiner score and handsome sets and period costumes. Miriam Hopkins plays the selfish bitch with her customary skill and makes Davis seem even more sympathetic by comparison. I have seen this movie praised to the skies by some who consider it a work of art--but there are too many flaws, including a false and abrupt ending involving Bette Davis and daughter Jane Bryan, and time changes that seem more like a case of bad editing.
There are fine performances in supporting roles by Donald Crisp, James Stephenson, William Lundigan and Jerome Cowan under Edmund Goulding's tasteful direction.
A tear-jerker, 1930s style--but one that doesn't date too well.