In This Our Life (1942) User Reviews

Driving under the influence

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 6 April 2005]

"In This Our Life" dared to point out some issues not discussed by the Hollywood of the 40s. It shows a great director, John Huston, working at the top of his craft on the interesting adaptation by Howard Koch.

Stanley, the girl at the center of the story has it all. She is the favorite niece of the man who was responsible for ruining her father, a gentle soul beaten by the Great Depression. Stanley is a spoiled woman who couldn't care less who she hurt, let alone that is her own sister the one that will suffer because of her actions.

On the other hand, Roy, the good sister, is all kindness; she is just the opposite of Stanley. When Stanley decides she wants Peter, Roy's husband, she doesn't hesitate one second. She takes him and runs away to a life that proves not to be all what she imagined it would be.

Life intervenes in Stanley's life in tragic ways. First with Peter, the man he shouldn't have taken away from her sister, and then when trying to get back with Craig, she causes the death of a young girl when driving under the influence. This would have been a sobering experience for anyone, but Stanley is beyond repentance. Stanley, is a coward who will do anything to get away with murder.

Stanley was a role tailor made for Bette Davis. Her take on this impudent girl is perfect. Ms. Davis shows how good she is in small details that convey her understanding of her character. Ms. Davis reflects all the emotions Stanley is going through with her expressive eyes. One look at her and we know what this woman is capable of.

Olivia de Havilland makes an impression by playing the good sister, Roy. Ms. de Havilland is an actress that always played convincingly in everything she did, as is the case here. Her inner strength is her best asset. Roy is loyal to the point of sacrificing her own happiness and lets her sister take what she loves most.

The strong cast behind the principals is equally excellent. Dennis Morgan is Peter, the man blinded by Stanley. He will leave his adoring wife for a woman he ends up detesting. George Brent, is the kind Craig, the man jilted by Stanley who finally finds love again with Roy. Charles Coburn plays Uncle William with his usual panache. Frank Craven is Asa, the man cheated out of his fortune. Ernest Anderson makes an impression as Parry, the young black man with ambitions to improve himself. Hattie McDaniel only has a couple of key scenes where she shines. Billie Burke and Lee Patrick are seen in minor roles.

The musical score by Alfred Newman enhances the film. Ultimately it's John Huston who shows a clear understanding for the material and who gets excellent performances out of everyone.

How Stanley got to be the way she is...

[RanchoTuVu · 8/10 · 7 June 2010]

The family patriarch (Frank Craven), who has long since lost control of the business he himself started, and winds up only being an employee at, raises two distinctly different daughters. One (played by Bette Davis) is corrupted by her own personality defects and the attentions of her uncle (Charles Coburn), who has plenty of ability in business (it is revealed that he swooped in and took over the business that Craven started at an opportune time), but has a childless and cold marriage and presumably for that reason, showers money, gifts, and attention on his niece, foolishly believing he can buy her love and his happiness. This turns out to be probably Stanley's (Bette Davis) most formative relationship. Why De Havilland's Roy is so different we can only assume was because she came more under the influence of her father (Craven). That involved background story is actually more interesting than the story that is presented in the foreground, of Davis and sister Olivia De Havilland and their relationships with George Brent and Dennis Morgan. Nonetheless, Davis' relationship with Uncle William (Coburn) reaches a climactic point that ties in beautifully with the climax of the film.

Well worth your time!

[hennystruijk · 8/10 · 15 December 2018]

Wonderful performances by all concerned. And one of the very few films from the 40's that shows a black man who is actually not lazy or stupid--but just a man! Very interesting plot also. I would recommend!!

Daring melodrama from the 1940's

[Mankin · 24 May 1999]

A critical and commercial flop when first released, I've always thought "In This Our Life" (***1/2 out of ****) one of the most daring and powerful melodramas to come out of a major Hollywood studio in the 40's. In his autobiography director, John Huston commented: "There is something elemental about Bette (Davis)-a demon within her which threatens to break out and eat everybody, beginning with their ears-I let the demon go." This famously volatile actress is at her gutsy best as a headstrong vixen who steals her sister's husband and drives him to suicide. She then attempts to steal her sister's new betrothed out of jealousy and then goes on to try to pin a hit and run accident on an innocent black youth. Amazingly, Davis manages to evoke a weird kind of sympathy for this anti-heroine (a special talent of hers). This picture was ahead of its time in several respects. It was one of the first to portray a young black man who was intelligent and ambitious, rather than in the usual servile role. Davis and Charles Coburn as her lecherous old uncle achieve a wickedly funny rapport in their scenes together that dare to suggest an incestuous attraction, at least on his side. Olivia De Havilland manages to give the role of Davis' put-upon older sister a great deal of dignity and backbone. She excelled at giving substance to "good woman" roles. (Oddly enough, the sisters are named "Stanley" and "Roy" in the script.) This speedily-paced film runs for 98 minutes and every one of them is packed with interest and excitement. As if this weren't enough, there is one of Max Steiner's most sophisticated and highly charged scores to drive it all along. Highly recommended.

Melodrama at its best, with classy stars.

[dougandwin · 9/10 · 6 July 2004]

I am not certain Ellen Glasgow's book is faithfully reproduced in this movie, but John Huston has brought to the screen an excellent melodrama, featuring two of Hollywood's greatest actresses (both dual Oscar winners) in Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. The story of the two sisters' relationships with each other, and their men played by two very boring actors George Brent and Dennis Morgan is very well told, with Davis having a great final scene with her uncle as depicted by Charles Coburn. The young Afro-American actor Anderson played his role extremely sensitively and possibly was the first of his race to be cast in a movie in this light. Character actors such as Lee Patrick and Hattie McDaniel certainly added to the charm of this film. I do feel that the character Roy (de Havilland) could have been better developed by the script, but as usual, she carried it off brilliantly. Billie Burke was featured in a most unusual role for her, and she did it well.

A Film Slightly Ahead Of It's Time About Race Relations and Incest

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 30 March 2008]

IN THIS OUR LIFE is like the forgotten serious drama in Bette Davis' best years at Warner Brothers. Reputedly she did not care for it, but I find that hard to believe. In here half-autobiography, MADAM GODDAMN, Bette mentions that she liked the positive image of Ernest Anderson's character of Parry Clay. For this is the first film I know of where an African-American character is a bright young man who plans to attend law school and become a lawyer. That was (by itself) quite a jump.

Actually it has more to it than that plot development. Davis and Olivia de Haviland are sisters Stanley and Roy Timberlake, children of Asa and Lavinia Timberlake (Frank Craven and Billie Burke). Craven is an industrious ant, but he's never had the push that his over-bearing brother-in-law William Fitzroy (Charles Coburn) has shown over the years (and pushed down Craven's polite throat). Coburn's Fitzroy is interesting for another reason. Before he got his Oscar for his comic turn in THE MORE THE MERRIER, Coburn was cast in all types of role, like the cynical medical investigator Carlos Finley in YELLOW JACK or Lord Dyce, the opponent to Henry Stanley (Spencer Tracy) in STANLEY AND LIVINGSTON, or the German scientist working on a cancer cure in IDIOT'S DELIGHT. Here he had one of his villains. Fitzroy has little time for his decent but (in his opinion) lightweight brother in law Timberlake. But he loves being with his niece Stanley (which she is fully aware of). The scenes of Coburn and Davis are quite nicely subtle, with his touchy-feely actions obviously meaning more than that of an uncle to his niece.

The plot deals with how Roy has been dating with Craig Fleming (George Brent), while Stanley has been pursued by Peter Kingsmill (Dennis Morgan). But Stanley, alluring and totally amoral, is determined to steal Fleming (who has better future opportunities than Kingsmill) from her sister. The movie concentrates on the sibling rivalry, which for most of the film Davis's Stanley is winning. But towards the conclusion things begin to unravel for her, and she is involved in a car accident (a hit and run) which causes a fatality. Opportunistically, Stanley points the finger of blame at young Parry Clay.

The performances and direction (by John Huston in his second feature) are actually good. Set in the state of Virginia, Huston actually makes more of the material than perhaps was expected in 1942 Hollywood. When Parry is arrested for the hit and run charge, he is visited by Fleming as his attorney - and for the first time (again) that I recall in a Hollywood film we hear a disgusted African-American explain why he has no faith in the system that snatches him up on suspicion (one thinks today of the issue of racial profiling by police forces - problems have not changed much in sixty years). And as things blow up in Stanley's face, she finds that her last chance for escape (her uncle, Fitzroy) is a far weaker reed than she or her uncle ever expected.

It lacks the pizazz of OF HUMAN BONDAGE, DARK VICTORY, MR. SKEFFINGTON, THE LETTER, JEZEBEL, and THE LITTLE FOXES especially with it's soap opera plot. But Davis does good work as the selfish Stanley, supported by a good cast led by de Haviland as her sister and rival. Not a "10" perhaps, but certainly an "8" is thoroughly deserved - especially in a film changing racial images and displaying unwholesome family sexual desires.

George Brent pulls the stops out.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 7/10 · 22 May 2007]

The film 'In This Our Life' is adapted from the novel of the same name by Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945), whose novels had healthy sales figures during her lifetime, yet who is now almost totally forgotten. Her own life was extremely unhappy, largely due to unpleasant memories of her abusive father. (In her will, Glasgow stipulated that she was not to be buried in the same cemetery as her father.) If she is remembered at all nowadays, she is classified as both a 'Southern' author and a feminist. A life-long Virginian, Glasgow typically set her stories in that state.

This is the second film directed by John Huston, following his impressive debut with 'The Maltese Falcon'. Considering how far removed the subject matter is from Huston's usual territory, he does an impressive job here. More about Huston a bit later.

Here we have Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters, and there are no prizes for guessing which is the bad sister and which is the good 'un. The sisters are named Stanley and Roy, but there's no sexual subtext for those male names. The bad sister, having dumped her boring fiancé (George Brent), sets her cap for the good sister's handsome husband (Dennis Morgan).

In her later years, Bette Davis occasionally gave informal talks at colleges in California. My future sister-in-law was present at one of these. During the Q&A, an eager fan breathlessly pointed out that Bette Davis had co-starred with Bogart, Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn and other great male stars ... so, who was her favourite? Without hesitation, Davis replied 'George Brent', leaving most of the audience to murmur 'Who?'. It's not hard to guess the reason for Bette's preference. Brent was a bland leading man who concentrated on making his leading ladies look good, never generating a screen presence with the wattage of Bogart or Cagney. Davis preferred working with Brent because -- unlike Bogart or Cagney -- she didn't have to compete with him.

Here, as Davis's jilted fiancé, Brent gives possibly the best performance of his career in a maudlin scene, getting drunk on a park bench. When I saw this scene, I burst out laughing: Brent overplays it ridiculously ... but this is perhaps the only time in his career when he didn't underplay.

A superlative performance is given here by a young African-American actor named Ernest Anderson -- no relation to the much older Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson -- as a black man unfairly arrested for a crime committed by Davis. (She's perfectly willing to let him take the rap, of course.) Anderson conveys intelligence and dignity, in an era when most roles for black actors consisted of 'Yassuh!' stereotypes. It's a shame that Anderson's career never prospered; few decent roles were given to black actors in his day. In this film, I was impressed with a scene in an all-negro cellblock, conveying that segregation persists even in prison. Also seen here, all too briefly, is a young black man named Ernest Morrison ... who, as a boy, had appeared in Hal Roach's silent comedy shorts as "Sunshine Sammy".

Now, about the director. John Huston's father Walter Huston was one of the few character actors who had attained first-rank stardom. To bring good luck to his son's first two films ('The Maltese Falcon' and 'In This Our Life'), Walter Huston played small unbilled roles in both. Here, he plays the bartender in a roadhouse where Davis tarries. The same scene introduces a character played by Lee Patrick. This actress was a Warners contract player at the time, but she's now remembered solely for playing Bogart's secretary in 'The Maltese Falcon' (and hilariously parodying that same character decades later, in 'The Black Bird'.) Because Walter Huston and Lee Patrick show up in the same scene in this movie, an annoying (and untrue) rumour has arisen, claiming that all the major cast members of 'The Maltese Falcon' make unbilled appearances in 'In This Our Life'. Bogart, Astor, Lorre, Greenstreet, Elisha Cook, Uncle Tom Cobley and the suicidal Munchkin from 'The Wizard of Oz' are all ostensibly hiding in this movie someplace. A nice story, but it's just not true. During the roadhouse sequence, bartender Huston keeps trying to have a conversation with some dimly-seen customers in the background while Davis is talking in the foreground ... but they're all just unidentified extras. They're definitely NOT the 'Falcon' cast. Adding to the confusion is the presence in this film of John Hamilton as a cop, after playing a D.A. in 'Falcon'.

There are excellent performances all round here; John Huston's prowess as an actors' director is under-rated. Even Hattie McDaniel has better material than usual. Max Steiner's scoring falls below his usual high standard, but even the worst Steiner score is better than almost anybody else's best. My rating: 7 out of 10. Rest in peace, Ellen Glasgow.

Fine Classic

[Buildman · 9/10 · 15 May 2008]

I loved this film, and it had me howling in several parts, such as the classically predictable ending. Such a great morality tale. I especially liked the portrayal of the developing and mature relationship between Olivia de Havilland and George Brent. This is the best Brent role in a Davis movie. I appreciate Davis not playing a more subtle character, such as in Mr. Skeffington, because the Stanley character is so boorish that she can't consider anything but her own whims and pleasures. She is not evil in the sense of making reasoned choices, but as a child, has no capacity for self denial. Delusionally, she actually thinks that Brent can be lured back under her spell after what she has done to him, and that a wealthy white woman's claim will alway be considered above a young black man's. Her world starts to crumble after she reels off the list of those who accepted her story over Parry's, when her sister, de Havilland says "I believe him." This is an emblematic tale of deliverance and hopeful new beginning. Bravo to all involved.

A Soaper with a Stellar Cast

[ElenaP-3 · 6/10 · 8 April 2005]

A story of sisterly emnity, if you will. Bette Davis portrays a she-devil - conniving, without a conscience, selfish and immature, while Olivia DeHavilland is the prettier, and kindlier sister, without any ulterior motives. Bette steals away w/Olivia's doctor husband, Dennis Morgan, without considering the consequences, of course. Olivia receives a decree of divorcement, and the other two marry - with dire results. In time, the wild Stanley (Ms Davis), is on the loose. On the way back from a nearby bar, she causes a hit and run accident, killing a little girl and severely injuring her mother. (Look closely, and you'll see that the bartender is none other than Walter Huston. Not the first time his director son, John, cast him in an uncredited role. He did the same in "The Maltese Falcon", as the mortally wounded "Captain Jacoby") Naturally, she denies any wrongdoing, and tries to pass blame to Parry, a young black man who aspires to practice law. Justice prevails. Generally, I have no qualms with Bette Davis, in fact, she's one of my all-time favorite actresses in a class of her own. But I do believe that she does overact here in order to compensate the miscasting of a woman who is supposed to be playing someone at least 10 years younger! Olivia DeHavilland is always a pleasure - low-key, professional, and charming in a thankless role. And of course, there is Charles Coburn, as their uncle, Billie Burke and Frank Craven as their parents, Hattie McDaniel as the mother of the innocent Parry in a heartfelt, but small, role, and Ernest Anderson, who portrays a young black man with dignity and intelligence, (which was rare in those times), Dennis Morgan, and George Brent, as the man Stanley scorns, who later falls in love with her sister. This soaper had no easy answers, and a lot of melodrama, and I don't think it was one of the actresses' best works, but it makes for interesting viewing -- if only to see the wicked Bette get her just reward! (An interesting note: How refreshing it was to see the tables turned as these two wonderful actresses were re-teamed in "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" twenty-odd years later, and Olivia DeHavilland was the EVIL one who made poor Bette's life miserable!)

A Tale Of Two Sisters

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 18 December 2008]

For the only time in his career, director John Huston does a film with the main protagonists being women, in this case two of Warner Brothers biggest stars. Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland play a couple of sisters named Timberlake, one good and one bad. I'll leave it to the veteran movie fans to tell who was who.

Although quite frankly both these women could have pulled off each other's roles in In This Our Life. They certainly proved over the course of their careers that they had the acting chops. The property seemed a natural for them as they play women of southern origin.

Olivia's good sister is not quite as Pollyannish as her Melanie Hamilton from Gone With The Wind. But almost to the very end she allows Bette and her whims and desires to run roughshod over her life.

The film does revolve around Bette and her character is an exponential version of Julie Marsden from Jezebel. She's a selfish willful flirt who thinks absolutely of nothing except herself and causes havoc to all around here.

As the story opens Bette is keeping company with lawyer George Brent and Olivia is getting married to young doctor Dennis Morgan. On an impulsive whim and maybe to prove she can do it, Bette takes Morgan away from Olivia and they run off and get married. But Bette doesn't want the honeymoon to end and poor Morgan can't keep up with her partying. Realizing what he did he kills himself.

But that's far from the end of things. Davis who loves to speed her car, causes a hit and run accident that kills a young girl and badly injures her mother. She casts blame on a young black kid Ernest Anderson who is working and clerking in George Brent's office and is the son of Timberlake maid Hattie McDaniel.

The story is set in Virginia, not the deep South, but deep enough so that despite Anderson's denials, the law will just take white woman Davis's word as a matter of course. If it were Alabama, probably Anderson would have been lynched given those times. She knows this and for a while exploits the racism in her society.

Ernest Anderson's role was an incredible milestone for its times, showing a black young man who aspired to a professional life. In This Our Life is quite the indictment of Southern society of the time.

Another role that got acclaim for a different reason was Charles Coburn as the uncle whose 'affection' for Davis can't be mistaken for anything else, but incestuous desire. He's the main employer in the town and pretty much makes the law around there. Davis's last scene with Coburn is one of the best in the film and reveals everything about both of these disreputable people.

John Huston even got his father Walter to play an unbilled small bit as a bartender. The bartender it turns out is the key to getting at the truth for the police authorities.

In This Our Life is one of Bette Davis's meatiest roles. Huston is a good enough director though to not let her pyrotechnics blot out the rest of the cast. For fans of Bette this one is a must.

A daring film for 1942

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 18 May 2011]

The daring nature of this film becomes evident in an early scene where we learn that old Uncle William (Charles Coburn) has the hots for his niece "Stanley" (Bette Davis), and she plays him for all she can get financially...shades of Lillian Hellman! Director John Huston handles it well, getting this past the censors...I imagine that some movie-goers didn't quite get the implication. But watch the faces of the other characters in the early scene in the parlor! Charles Coburn, one of my favorite character actors, is a totally unlikable character here...not only a lecher, but clearly a business cheat. But he's awfully good at it, partly because he plays the role with suitable restraint to make it believable! But, in the end, the old man is devastated when he learns he has only months to live. Justice is done for one evil-doer in the story.

Another actor playing against type is Dennis Morgan, who plays a non-singing, non-comedy role quite well as "Roy's" (Olivia deHavilland's) philandering husband...in love with Bette Davis (Olivia's sister), no less...who he runs away with and marries. Morgan has some atypically strong scenes in this film, but his character commits suicide as a result of depression because of the marriage. Justice is done again.

Apparently Bette Davis wanted to play the good sister, but that role went to Olivia deHavilland, mirroring her type-casting after GWTW just 3 years earlier (although she is neutrally good and practical here).

George Brent is fine playing the "good guy" married to Davis, the later dating the good sister, though this is not one of his more prominent roles, although he is featured more late in the film and the ultimate good guy lawyer who saves the young Black man.

Bette Davis and Dennis Morgan get married, but of course, Bette Davis turns out to be just as bad a wife to Morgan as she was to George Brent, who begins dating Olivia deHavilland. Ultimately, and I do mean ultimately, Davis is in a hit-and-run car accident which results in the death of a child, but she accuses a "colored boy" -- actually a man -- who worked for their family for years and is now studying to be a lawyer and working in George Brent's law office. It has been said that those who live by the sword die by the sword. In this case we can paraphrase and say that those who kill by their speeding auto will die by their own speeding auto. Justice is done once again.

Frank Craven is excellent as the father of Davis and DeHavilland. Ernest Anderson, as the young Black man is excellent, and though his role is relatively small, it is crucial to the plot. I would imagine Billie Burke was disappointed in her role as the invalided mother. Disappointingly, Hattie McDaniel's role here as not a maid but a mother is minor.

There are some other interesting appearances in the film. Walter Huston, the director's father, has a cameo as a bartender. John Hamilton -- Perry White in television's Superman plays a police inspector.

This is a good film with good acting by all concerned. And it's worth watching at least once. But it's not a pleasant film. Bette Davis' and Charles Coburn's characters are so unlikable that one cannot have any sympathy toward them. I enjoyed the film and think it was done well, and it's now on my DVD shelf. I enjoy it more since reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Selfish and Evil Woman

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 December 2016]

In Richmond, after the Great Depression, the industrialist Asa Timberlake (Frank Craven) is cheated by his brother-in-law and partner William Fitzroy (Charles Coburn) and loses his business to him. His spoiled daughter Stanley Timberlake (Bette Davis), who is the pride and joy of William, is going to marry the idealist lawyer Craig Fleming (George Brent). However, she flees to Baltimore with the surgeon Peter Kingsmill (Dennis Morgan), who is the husband of her sister Roy Timberlake (Olivia de Havilland). After a short period of happiness, Peter cannot afford to support the shopping of Stanley and commits suicide. Meanwhile Roy divorces from Peter and gets close to Craig that proposes to marry her. The black teenager Parry Clay (Ernest Anderson) that worked to Timberlake, dreams in becoming a lawyer, and Craig hires him to work in his office. Stanley returns home and unsuccessfully tries to seduce Craig, inviting him to have dinner with her in a tavern. However Craig does not show up and the upset Stanley drives back home at high speed. She hits and run a mother and her daughter and kills the girl. When the police comes to Asa's house, Stanly accuses Parry of driving her car and the youth is arrested and put in jail. What will happen to the innocent Parry?

"In This Our Life" is a film directed by John Huston about a selfish and evil woman. His tight direction saves the dramatic and tense story from becoming a melodramatic soap opera. Bette Davis steals the show with a fantastic performance. The rest of the cast is also magnificent. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Nascida para o Mal" ("Born to the Evil")

If it's good enough for the sinner, it's good enough for the saint.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 19 March 2013]

All sisters squabble. Just ask Olivia de Havilland. I'm referring to her and her fictional sister here, played by Bette Davis. This story of sibling rivalry involves the sisters switching men like they switch a new hat. When Davis runs off with De Havilland's husband (Dennis Morgan), she begins a friendship with the fiancée that Davis left behind (George Brent). Before they can break into a verse of the Irving Berlin song "Sisters" ("Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister"), the game goes into deadlock with a bored Davis wanting Brent back and involving their entire family in scandal.

This story also surrounds the sister's money troubled family, getting over business issues and dealing with the wealthy uncle (Charles Coburn) whose money seems to be keeping the family out of the poor house and appears to run the town they live in. Billie Burke drops the bird-like twittering as the bed ridden mother who is Coburn's sister. She is married to Frank Craven (who resembles Coburn so much they look like they could be brothers, not brothers-in-law) whose bad business failures financially destroyed the family. For some reason, Craven and Burke gave their daughters the male names of Stanley and Roy.

There is also a very socially relevant story in this multi-tiered plot, regarding Parry, the intelligent and soft-spoken son of the black housekeeper (Hattie McDaniel) who wants to be an attorney, and how that becomes threatened by Davis's irresponsibility. Davis is certainly excellent, but De Havilland should be more acclaimed for this than she has, especially in a scene where she offers the young man encouragement, not patronizing him, but with genuine sincerity. This was a reunion for De Havilland and Davis ("It's Love I'm After", "Elizabeth and Essex") as well as De Havilland and McDaniel ("Gone With the Wind", "They Died With Their Boots On"), and of course both stars with Brent (too many to mention). McDaniel is superb, bringing the viewer to tears in a scene where she pleads her son's innocence and gently reveals that Davis is lying.

What is evident in this complex "Little Foxes" type drama is that this will be praised by some for the reasons I list above and below, and by others for its melodramatic dual personality which is actually a metaphor for Davis's character. She's soft spoken and gentle one minute and calculating and dangerous the next, the sweetness of her personality more nefarious than other. I too used to see this as camp, but repeat viewings have shown a different side to this, its flesh and blood characters, even a few cardboard cut-outs that are revealed to be three dimensional once they are opened up. Only Morgan suffers, his character too weak to be memorable.

The relationship between Davis and her uncle (Coburn) runs the gamut between ire at her immoral behavior and his ultimate laughter at her ability to cheer him up (usually through tickling him to see if there's any money in his pocket). She's also the only one in the family who's really honest with him, and the only one whom she's really honest with period. This adds a level to Davis's character that makes her more likable. You wonder at times if he has lecherous feelings towards her, but I think he seems to see her as an equal compared to the weak people around him, especially the bird like woman he's married to. He knows she's only out for his money, but it obviously amuses him as to how far she'll go to get it.

The racism is presented really subtly, one of the first films to do this with Davis's uncaring attitude towards Perry's plight so blatant, like "Who would care if this colored boy goes to jail?", an even worse example of racism than using a slur to someone's face. Ernest Anderson is excellent as Parry, giving a wonderfully subtle performance as he gives up without a fight because he knows in the 1941 South, "Nobody would believe a colored boy". Director John Huston makes you care about all of these characters and throws in some historical value by casting his father Walter Huston in a cameo as the bartender who curses Davis for interrupting the fight he's listening to with other customers by playing music on the jukebox so loud he can't hear it.

Quaint Hollywood Entertainment

[Abby-9 · 5/10 · 21 March 2002]

When I recuperate from this hectic emotional brawl, I'll check out Glasgow's novel and see what sort of story she meant to tell. The manipulative, predatory female role of Stanley (Bette Davis) is so blatantly drawn that the story is spoiled. There is no balance in the cinematic telling. Quite simply, this girl Godzilla wants what she wants, and gets it at any price. The final scene between Uncle William (Charles Coburn) and Stanley is sort of like T-Rex in Jurassic Park coming upon a fear-frozen victim. The overall effect of dripping self-pity in two styles--the doormat sister(Olivia de Haviland as Roy) and the manipulative one (our Stanley): what a cheery way to spend an hour and a half. Bring two hankies. Certainly distracting from the headlines and real personal tragedies of 1942.

Good Entertainment

[thguru · 8/10 · 3 June 2010]

I remember, in my former life, a long, long time ago, when a college professor told me that something that is created by another human being that gets your attention and stirs something inside you, and gets your visual attention, and captivates you, maybe is art.

Well, this motion picture got my attention. Yes, it captivated me. The story, the actors and the moral was superb. Many times when I see these movies of an older era, I try to imagine in my mind, what the adult audience was thinking then, as they saw the story, the emotion, the characters. All the actors did a excellent job. Bettie Davis did it to me again. Her character made me hate her, and feel pity for her at the same time.

I still don't understand why I still have a crush on her. Maybe it's that old false thinking that the right man, could change her, me! Through the years, the more I see her, the more I love her.

All too often, many reviewers pick a motion picture or the actors apart on some of the most insignificant and minuet details. The director should have done this or it wasn't true to the book, or she or he could have acted a little better, blah, blah, blah. Even I have done that-- more than once. But, if things are done "reasonably" well and it holds your attention... Well, that's entertainment. That is what you pay the ticket at the box office window for. If I had paid for a ticket at the old box office for this movie, I could say that I got more than my monies worth in entertainment. And, I am still thinking about it after the movie is over.

one of Bete Davis' best

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 3 August 2005]

Here we have Bette Davis as we all know and love her--as the evil, conniving, self-centered tart she played so well throughout her career! Although she was wonderful playing nice people in Now, Voyager and All This And Heaven Too, the bitchy character is the one we mostly attribute to Ms. Davis.

In this movie, Bette does everything she can to ruin her sister's life--not because there is any malice, but just because she doesn't care. First, she steals her kind sister's fiancé but then she shows hardly any remorse or decency for the rest of the picture. Olivia de Havilland plays the all-too-patient sister, and you'll probably find yourself rooting for her to punch Davis in the mouth (or worse). This is a 1940s Warner Brothers soap opera at its best. On top of this, is has one of the better endings you'll see--giving both Davis and Coburn's characters a wonderful "comeuppance".

By the way, for those interested in psychology, Ms. Davis' character is a wonderful example of a Borderline Personality. Similar to this diagnosis, her character displays no empathy or regard for others, an amazing ability to lie, a total inability to cope with boredom, a need to screw up her life, drinking to excess, extreme dependence on her enabling family members, histrionic behavior and shallowness and explosiveness in relationships with the opposite sex. Her "beloved" uncle, played by Charles Coburn is a great example of an Antisocial Personality who has learned to channel his evil into legal but highly unethical behavior.

By the way, if you watched the film, too, didn't you think there were indications that the relationship between Coburn and Davis was incestuous or nearly so?! Pretty creepy if you ask me!

Badder than Ever

[nycritic · 7/10 · 25 May 2006]

If ever Lavinia Timberlake were interviewed about her eldest daughter Stanley, I could see her talking to the camera and plaintively chirping: "I know that Stanley can be a little difficult sometimes, but it's not like she's done anything wrong! Well... I mean... she did leave her boyfriend to run off with Roy's husband who later died under mysterious circumstances (but it wasn't her, I promise); she's been accused of running over a mother and her sweet little girl who was still clutching pink flowers in her little hand, and she tried to get that lovely Parry Clay into confessing against himself so she could live a happy life but it's all in good nature, you know. She's such a sweet girl, if you only knew her, really, she is...." And that basically sums it up. Slam-bam. We're done. (Picture Stanley sneaking up behind Lavinia with a crazy expression on her face and a gun aimed right at her cerebellum, ready to blow her brains to bits as Lavinia peeps away like a fluttery bird about how immaculate Stanley is. Now that's comedy.)

Bette Davis must have seen something in this role, named after a man, because she plays it for all its worth, with those wide eyes, the high-pitched voice, and that tiny little mouth, coming across a little girl herself -- the Bad Seed grown up. Early on she is good in her role and manages to keep a straight face while being a havoc magnet to everyone around her, but if only the ridiculous story had been filmed as a parody instead of straight, it would have worked better. The material, the direction, and the acting isn't bad -- it's that Bette is so unrelentingly bad, and Olivia de Haviland is so noble, that at times it's asking a bit much to believe some of the things that take place here without smirking.

If the movie seems a little more modern than its Southern Gothic allows it's in the appearance of a Black man who is on his way to be a lawyer. At a time when Blacks were relegated into the background and only made appearances as waiters, servants of all types, or jazz musicians, it was a novel thing to have Ernest Anderson play the role of Parry Clay, and for all the hamming up Davis and occasionally Billie Burke do, he creates a solid presence with a quiet performance. I found his to be quite similar to that of Charles F. Dutton in COOKIE'S FORTUNE, Robert Altman's 1999's Southern Gothic that featured a similar situation in which an extremely evil woman played by Glenn Close accused Dutton of a crime he did not commit and tried to wrest a false confession from him as he sat in jail, awaiting his verdict to come through.

This was John Huston's second film as he came off his success with THE MALTESE FALCON. It's a much lesser film than the previous film which practically lay the blueprints for film noir as a genre, and it looks like it was done in a hurry. There's little of the style that the previous film had, which is too bad -- the story has enough lurid aspects to take advantage and blend it into noir, and Davis is evil enough to have been turned into one of the great femme fatales, but as it is, it stands as one of the lesser essentials in Davis' collection of performances as she was better used in Irving Rapper's NOW VOYAGER.

Bette Davis Ires

[aldo-49527 · 10/10 · 1 July 2021]

My recent inspection of Bette Davis revealed this absolutely fabulous performance. This is not a film noir, but Davis is certainly the epitome of a Femme Fatale as she seduces her sister's husband, drives him to suicide because of her erratic behavior and commits crimes to get her way.

In this picture, Davis owns this role and the Femme Fatale archetype.

But, In This Our Life isn't all about Davis' sensational performance. It's also offers a daring (for its time!) social commentary on how black people were treated. Ernest Anderson plays an ambitious black man, studying to be a lawyer, who Davis frames for a crime she commits.

Leave it to John Huston to handle the material impeccably. (Howard Koch scripted based on Ellen Glasgow's debut novel.) This was Huston's second directorial effort, the first was The Maltese Falcon. What a great start to a great career.

Another reason to watch is Olivia de Havilland. It's well reported that she immediately fell in love with the married Huston. Watching how Huston, and his distinguished cinematographer, Ernest Haller, photographed de Havilland is fascinating. The entire picture is superbly shot, but there's something extra special about de Havilland's shots.

This is a great film that is rarely talked about and deserves any lover of cinema's attention.

Bad Bette! Bad, bad Bette!

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 12 December 2006]

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 Steiner 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.

Bette being ruthless (as always)

[nickenchuggets · 8/10 · 29 August 2021]

Throughout her career, Bette Davis gained a reputation for playing some really despicable and cruel roles, and this film from John Huston attests to that. Being one of only 6 movies Davis made with Olivia de Havilland, one would expect this movie to be amazing. It is not as memorable as something like Jezebel or All About Eve, but is still worth watching because it perfectly shows how unforgiving Bette could be. The movie is about two girls who for some reason have masculine names, Roy (de Havilland) and Stanley (Davis). One day, Stanley steals Peter (Roy's husband) for herself, which leads to her sister Roy divorcing him. Meanwhile, Craig, the guy who Davis was engaged to, starts to date Roy instead: a complete reversal of relationships. After this, William, Stanley's uncle, is used to spoiling her with free money and other goodies, but is now having second thoughts after learning that she stole her sister's boyfriend. Roy and Craig get married soon after. Eventually, Stanley realizes she made a mistake by marrying Peter, since all he seems to do is drink. This is probably because he's trying to run away from some serious problem that is affecting him rather than facing it, and sure enough, he commits suicide later. Stanley is now convinced she must get back into her relationship with Craig, but that's now impossible considering he's married to her sister. While driving to talk things over with her former boyfriend, she accidentally hits and kills a young kid with her vehicle. Confused, tired, and now wanted by the police, Stanley decides she must travel as far away as possible, but she's interrogated before she can escape. Bette manages to persuade the cops to look the other way just this once and blames Parry Clay, a black law student, for the vehicular fatality. The cops believe her because she is white and has quite a lot of money. Clay is imprisoned, but Stanley promises to secure his release after she can prove it wasn't him. Her story by this point is so dishonest and full of lies that she's just digging herself a hole. None of it makes sense, and the cops eventually realize this and pursue Stanley to her uncle William's house. Stanley believes if anyone can help her out of this mess, it's him. He tells her he has a fatal illness and his time is running out. Stanley, too panic stricken to care, wishes him dead and tells him he already lived his life. After trying to escape the cops one last time in her car, she crashes it and is killed. Strangely, Bette Davis actually wanted to play Roy in this movie, the sister who stays out of trouble. It's safe to say nobody ever accused Bette of playing an abundance of friendly characters. The movie's production process was also delayed by the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, and Davis herself felt the movie was not the best. In my view, one of the most minor characters ends up having the most interesting connotations. In this case I'm referring to Parry Clay, the black law student who is framed by Davis after she crashes her car into the child. Many people (even back then) didn't like how helpless he was portrayed in the movie, since it kind of demonstrated how an african american's testimony is almost guaranteed to be ignored if it's made against a white person. Even though Davis does try to free him from jail knowing he didn't do anything wrong, it doesn't make it less reprehensible. To be clear, In This Our Life is essentially one of those movies that is not appreciated in its own time and finds fame later on. It's true that Davis starred in much better movies than this, but this is a solid showcase of how ruthless her characters could be.

Melodrama that breaks racial boundaries

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 2 January 2021]

There are lots of similarly titled melodramas from the mid-1940s, and I often get them confused. In This Our Life, To Each His Own, Hold Back the Dawn - don't they all sound like the same movie? The former in that list stars both Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, so you can imagine the competition in scenes as to who can be more dramatic.

Bette and Olivia play sisters, and as is often the case in Bette Davis movies, one of them runs off with the other's man. No, this isn't The Old Maid, and this isn't Old Acquaintance. See what I mean; they all run together! In this one, Bette is impulsive and selfish, and even though she's engaged to her favorite leading man, George Brent, she steals Olivia's husband, Dennis Morgan. Olivia and George are left to pick up the pieces, along with parents Billie Burke and Frank Craven. Charles Coburn, the uncle, is particularly devastated, because Bette was always his favorite niece and he indulged her behavior more than once.

This movie marks the only time Hattie McDaniel was given an opportunity to show off some dramatic acting. I'm not discounting the couple of tearful scenes from Gone With the Wind, but for the majority of that movie, she's the same sassy maid she was to Mae West in 1933. In this movie, she still plays a maid, but her son, Ernest Anderson, is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and seeks help from George Brent, a lawyer. In This Our Life features a rare, sympathetic portrayal of African-American characters. Ernest is accused by a rich, white woman, and it's seen as unjust - not what audiences were used to seeing in 1942. It's no surprise Bette Davis, a racial pioneer in real life, wanted to be in this movie. Both she and Hattie McDaniel entertained the troops (of all colors) during this time, so I'm sure this movie meant a lot to them.

I've seen this one a couple of times, and while it's not my favorite classic, it's always enjoyable. Check out this black-and-white melodrama if you haven't yet seen it. You won't like Bette Davis, though, so have a movie on hand where she's more likable, like Dark Victory.

Amazing Guily Pleasure With A Creepy Uncle!

[DennisHinSF · 10/10 · 12 March 2018]

Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but this is one of my all time favorite Bette Davis films from her Warner Bros glory years. Southern decadence at its finest! Bette steals her sisters' husband then drives him to suicide, dances just out of reach of her old rich lecherous Uncle who always brings her gifts - "It's in my pocket, you have to reach for it!" Her rich and repulsive uncle got rich by tricking her father into overextending himself in the depression, then taking the whole business over, all but cutting him out. All this and more in the 1st 20 minutes! Bette is the spoiled southern tart who doesn't give a fig about anybody but herself; The kind of fatale the Bette could do with perfection. She plays her confrontation scenes at 110% intensity; I feel it's PERFECT for her character, not overacted! She is simply rotten to the core! Go, Bette, Go! Bette and her sister, played here by Olivia De Havilland, have terrific chemistry. And as a special treat, we get Billie Burke (Glinda the good witch) playing their neurotic, bed-ridden, chemically addicted mother. See it, See it, and for God's sake, SEE IT!

Entertainingly trashy melodrama

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 29 March 2018]

John Huston's second film, "In This Our Life" may have been just a job of work for him and nothing more than a trashy melodrama but it's undeniably entertaining with a very classy cast even if it does have one of Bette Davis' worst performances, (she's still the bitch but her acting is pinched as if her heart wasn't in it, as if she knows what a crock she's landed herself in). She's the bad sister who steals her good sister's husband and drives him to suicide. Olivia De Havilland is the good sister who finds her backbone after she's been dumped. It was quite daring for its day, even touching on the subject of incest, (Bette has a randy old uncle who has the hots for her and is played with lip-smacking relish by Charles Coburn). The men in their lives are George Brent, (who else?), and Dennis Morgan and there's a nice supporting turn from the young African-American actor Ernest Anderson, (whatever happened to him?) as the boy Bette tries to incriminate in a hit-and-run. Unfortunately poor Hattie McDaniel, only a couple of years after winning an Oscar, is back to playing Mammy and Billie Burke is wasted as the mother who never seems to get out of bed. Huston's heart may not have been in it any more than Bette's but he keeps it moving along at quite a gallop nevertheless.

Good Sister-Bad Sister potboiler from John Huston

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 27 May 2006]

Sisters from a wealthy family (named Stanley and Roy!) become estranged when rascally Stanley runs off with Roy's surgeon husband; Roy rebounds after meeting a smitten attorney, but Stanley's erratic behavior spells doom. John Huston-directed yarn seems to be a cautionary tale about playing with fire, and it isn't a whole lot of fun. 'Bad' Bette Davis bats her eyes and prisses her mouth, but can't really come up with a convincing character; Olivia de Havilland is much more attuned to this soapy material, and she has a funny exchange with Hattie McDaniel near the beginning. Disappointing film hasn't held up, is interesting solely for its cast and their director, doing decent but simple work. ** from ****