In This Our Life (1942)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Ellen Glasgow (novel)
Howard Koch (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 May 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young woman (Stanley Timberlake) dumps her fiancée (Craig Fleming) and runs off with her sister's (Roy Timberlake) husband (Peter Kingsmill)...

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Law Office | Hit And Run | Suicide | Dancing

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Stanley Timberlake
Olivia de Havilland	...	Roy Timberlake
George Brent	...	Craig Fleming
Dennis Morgan	...	Peter Kingsmill
Charles Coburn	...	William Fitzroy
Frank Craven	...	Asa Timberlake
Billie Burke	...	Lavinia Timberlake
Hattie McDaniel	...	Minerva Clay
Lee Patrick	...	Betty Wilmoth
Mary Servoss	...	Charlotte Fitzroy
Ernest Anderson	...	Parry Clay
William B. Davidson	...	Jim Purdy
Edward Fielding	...	Dr. Buchanan
John Hamilton	...	Inspector
William Forrest	...	Forest Ranger

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #7856)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

A modern source includes Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Ward Bond, Barton MacLane and Elisha Cook Jr. as patrons of the Southside Tavern, where director John Huston's famous actor/father Walter Huston was a bartender in a cameo role. There were only six other men at the bar, none of whom remotely looking like any of these actors. There were no women in the tavern except for Bette Davis. These actors were just not in the film.

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

How Do I Know It's Sunday?

Bad Bette! Bad, bad Bette!

Holy Toledo - Bette Davis has played some really bad women in her life, but the part of Stanley tops it! Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Dennis Morgan, Charles Coburn, and George Brent star in "In This Our Life," an odd film from 1942.

Davis and de Havilland play Stanley and Roy (guess dad wanted boys). Stanley is dating Craig (Brent) and Roy is married to Peter, a doctor (Morgan). The film no sooner begins than Stanley and Peter run away together. It doesn't take long before Stanley becomes dissatisfied with Peter's lack of money as a young surgeon and his hospital hours. After Peter's suicide (I wonder), the good Roy comes and brings her sister back home. Meanwhile, Roy has started to see Craig. Stanley hates being home and prevails upon her lecherous uncle (Coburn) to give her money so she can go away. Meanwhile, I swear she's trying to kill him by plying him with booze. It goes from there, with Stanley becoming more and more horrid with each passing frame of film. Her best line is "YOU'RE AN OLD MAN! WHO CARES IF YOU DIE? I'M YOUNG. I'VE GOT MY WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF ME." Totally outrageous.

One comment asks if it's Davis or the script that wrecks this film. I blame the script. You have the too good sister, so good she's saintly -I mean, her sister stole her husband and she doesn't slap her silly - and then you have the bad sister, so bad she's absurd. Then there's the treatment of black people which is offensive - though that is acknowledged in the film. Plus, Sidney's relationship with Uncle William will give rise to a lot of speculation.

At one point, Olivia de Havilland looks at a portrait of an ugly relation and says, "I'm not as pretty as she is." Well, if that were going to be the case, someone should have done a better job on the painting. De Havilland is absolutely beautiful and gives a very good, sober, well-grounded performance - in juxtaposition to Davis batting her eyes, pouting, and sashaying. Huston obviously didn't know how to handle her. Davis was capable of brilliant performances but she had to be in sync with her director. She wasn't.

Morgan and Brent are the mild types of leading men Warners usually cast opposite strong women. Morgan is very handsome and believable as the put-upon Peter - and if he did kill himself, you can't really blame him. Brent does a good job as the attorney who turns his attentions to Roy. As the young black man whose future is threatened by darling Stanley, Ernest Anderson gives a wonderful performance, giving his character the appropriate likability, intelligence, and lack of aggression. Always an excellent emotional actress, Hattie McDaniel scores as his mother.

This thing is one big potboiler, complete with an overwhelming score by Max Steinberg that is really a bit much. So is the movie. And guess what, I still recommend it. Even an overdone Bette is better than no Bette at all.