maryettaggolden
This is one of the best classical movies I've seen! Bette Davis is my favorite movie star! Love her! Claude Raines is also exceptionally great! It is so true to life about women aging a accepting it gracefully, especially women that were once very beautiful. I guess I saw myself in it somewhat, but not as vain as Bette Davis' character. Interesting how Johnny Mitchell fell instantly in love with her daughter & had just been professing his love to Bette. Later her daughter kinda told her off for the way she treated her all of her life, but in a nice, firm, tactful way! Still I loved it. It earned my 10 stars
evening1
As much as I found this movie to be interesting, I was a little miffed to have to place it into that large group of films in which captains of industry are idiots when it comes to women.Claude Rains was nevertheless moving in the role of a sensitive banker who falls for a vain manipulator. But you had to wonder why he put up with all of Bette Davis's crap -- i.e., why didn't he complain when she did such outrageous things as refuse to speak with him once she had given birth? Sure, he used humor and rationalization -- i.e., he saved money on candy and flowers by allowing a parade of suitors to provide them -- but c'mon, man, wake up and smell the coffee!("Babies grow up and everybody expects you to grow up with them!" Fannie pouts. And Job only humors her. The examples add up ad infinitum...)There are several stellar scenes in this film, including the father-daughter dinner at a fancy restaurant, and Fannie's encounter with a psychoanalyst. "Go back to your husband," the latter yells, and who could have foreseen that she would? The happy ending in this film is a little too neat, but Rains's acting chops help pull to it off.(Does anyone else wonder why they didn't call this "Mr. AND MRS. Skeffington"?)
moonspinner55
Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein co-produced and co-adapted this fetching, moving, often wonderful study of a woman's life, based on the story by "Elizabeth" (née Elizabeth von Arnim). Bette Davis gives a high-wire act of a performance as Fanny Trellis, a flirtatious New Yorker in the early 1900s with no money in the bank, a brother to support, and potential suitors lined up at the foot of her staircase. She eventually marries a Jewish financier whom she doesn't love, but who adores her, yet never tires of her gentleman callers (whom she discards in much the same way as she does everybody else). This vain, frivolous beauty with the goosey good humor eventually gets her comeuppance however, and it's a bittersweet moment. Director Vincent Sherman allows this lengthy tale to unfold at a casual, jaunty pace, though he's exceptionally straightforward with the narrative and doesn't pussyfoot around. We see the years passing via newspaper headlines--a cliché--yet Sherman never loses his focus, and we understand where our non-sensible heroine is coming from emotionally at every exasperating turn. Davis never allows interest to wane in her characterization, and she's matched scene-for-scene by a charmingly low-keyed, non-threatening Claude Rains. Some of the supporting performances are overstated, as is Franz Waxman's hyperkinetic score, but the sheer professionalism of the production and some very funny lines help compensate for the film's minor deficiencies. *** from ****
JLRMovieReviews
Quite possibly my favorite Bette Davis film (and Now, Voyager, too), and that's saying something, 'cause I love 'em all, is this saga about Fanny Trellis and her family and how she meets Mr. Skeffington (played by Claude Rains.) She is a rich society young lady who is doted on by a flock of suitors, of whom she keeps all on a string. Her brother works for Mr. Skeffington and through some unfortunate conditions, Mr. Skeffington is swept into her world.If you loved "Gone with the Wind" with its southern epic style, then this is for you. There are some loopholes you'd have to forgive in order to enjoy the film, particularly near the beginning. If it played out any other way, there wouldn't be a movie. Just sit back and enjoy pure melodrama at its best. If you've never liked melodrama or haven't seen an example of it, then see this and you'll see masters of their craft doing what they do best, giving performances of a lifetime.
AD
