gkeith_1 Spoilers ahead. Some observations. Bette one tough cookie. Miriam shrewish, selfish, spoiled. Grownup Tina charming, unselfish, unspoiled. How horrible to watch another woman raise one's child. How even more horrible to hear that other woman constantly remind of all the financial and emotional support for the child, while the biological mother has to sit in the background and constantly eat all of that crow. I'll get you, Miriam, someday I'll really get your sorry posterior. Or so we hope. What is good for the child? Her father is gone. She is the offspring of Miriam's rejected old flame. Bette did actually get that accomplished. If there had been birth control back then as we know it today, perhaps there would have been no story. But alas!!! The utter shame, back then, of illegitimacy. Now, it's all Baby Daddy and Baby Mama, which is happening a lot these days. George Brent was not able to say, "Whoops, Bette, gotta go to the pharmacy and get something to prevent making babies."Older Bette had too much white hair to be the believable mother of older Tina. The Old Maid look was certainly stereotyped in this film. 1939. Another American Civil War theme. GWTW, anyone? 10/10.

sdave7596 Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins shine in this Warner Bros. melodrama, "The Old Maid" released in 1939, a banner year for Davis at the studio. This was one of four very fine films she did that year, making her the reigning queen of the studio. In this one, Davis and Hopkins are cousins in the 1800's. Hopkins rejects her beau (George Brent) to marry into a wealthy family, the Ralstons. Davis has the hots for Brent (one of her frequent co-stars during this period) and gets pregnant with his baby. However, he goes off to fight the Civil War and is killed. At a time when being an unwed mother was not an option, Davis agrees to move in with Hopkins, now a widow with two children of her own. The child, Tina (Jane Bryan) grows up knowing she is a foundling, but always calls Hopkins "mummy." Davis does not let on she is Tina's mother, but rather an aunt; this fills her with resentment, and into a bitter old maid, hence the title of the picture.The movie is pure soap opera, for sure, but the interplay between Davis and Hopkins is fascinating to watch. Davis has the showier part, but Hopkins more than holds her own. Off screen, Davis had an affair with Hopkin's husband, director Anatole Litvak, and now the two had to star together in a film! One can only imagine what went on between them on the set of this, but both give fine performances. Even Davis herself, much later in life, stated Hopkins was a superb actress and she always had to be on her toes as her co-star. There are some fine supporting performances, notably from Jane Bryan as Tina and the always under-rated Donald Crisp as a friend of the family and doctor. But this is Hopkins and Davis' show, and they do not disappoint.

bkoganbing If anyone knows which of Edith Wharton's novels was made into a play by Zoe Atkins and then filmed by Warner Brothers let us all know on this board. I searched Wikipedia on Edith Wharton and couldn't figure out exactly which of her works this could be. The screen credit doesn't tell as you see and it certainly isn't The Age Of Innocence or Ethan Frome or any of her more well known works. My gut tells me its quite a bit different from what Wharton originally wrote. By the way the Internet Broadway Database doesn't tell you anything either.It does tell you that The Old Maid ran for 305 performances on Broadway in the 1935 season and starred Judith Anderson and Helen Menken in the roles that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins play here. Davis and Hopkins are cousins. Miriam's the bright and pretty one and apparently gets first crack at the men. One she had on a string for a while was George Brent who as the story opens arrives back in Philadelphia expecting to take up where he left off with Hopkins. But Hopkins has decided she wants wealth and security and marries solid Jerome Cowan instead.Davis who's had a thing for Brent volunteers to meet him at the station and break the news. Of course Brent insists on a confrontation just before the wedding, but being the gentleman he always is on the screen, backs off and congratulates the bride. And before he goes off to war Davis gives him a grand send off.But Brent leaves the film early, being killed in the siege at Vicksburg and leaves Davis something to remember him by. Something she can't explain in proper Philadelphia society. Kindly doctor Donald Crisp arranges for a trip out west for her health where she has a baby girl and later comes back and starts an orphan asylum, the idea to build a forest to hide her family tree.The rest of the story is pure soap opera, 19th century style with Hopkins eventually adopting the girl and Davis coming to live with her as 'Aunt Charlotte' to her own daughter played when she grows up by Jane Bryan. There's a lot of tension in the air and the fact that Davis and Hopkins hated each other in real life probably helps the performances. But these two women have put across a lot worse than The Old Maid.What this board could use is someone who knows Edith Wharton and her work and can tell the rest of us what the original story was and how close this was to the story. My gut just tells me that this soap opera was far from what Wharton intended.

Poseidon-3 The legendary, golden year of 1939 brought so many lasting and beloved films to the screen. Here is a lesser-known, but beautifully-mounted effort that paired its two female stars for the first of two occasions. Hopkins is all set to walk down the aisle with her fiancé when word arrives that her old flame Brent has returned to town and wants to see her. She sends her best pal Davis to the train, not knowing that Davis has feelings for him as well. When Hopkins insists on marrying her current beau, Davis allows Brent to turn to her for solace. Unfortunately, Davis becomes pregnant and Brent is lost at war! Davis creates a ruse to take the heat off, but eventually she turns the child over to Hopkins, remaining in the background as a sort of maiden aunt. She resents the relationship between her child and Hopkins, but is powerless to do anything about it (not to mention reluctant to spoil things at such a late juncture.) Davis suffers nobly not only from the loss of her daughter, but from the flighty and sometimes vindictive behavior of Hopkins' character. Her transformation from an earnest, but pretty, young lady into a plain, weary old bag is a bit severe and abrupt, but things tended to be more overstated in those times for dramatic effect (witness the downright scary looks she had in "Now, Voyager" in order to let her makeover be that much more stunning.) Hopkins is quite manic in her early scenes (as is Davis) in an attempt to show youthfulness. She and Davis (who loathed each other in real life) strike up notable chemistry together and are able to mask their dislike for each other and create several tender scenes between themselves. Brent's role is rather brief, leaving Crisp as a knowing and kindly doctor and Fazenda as a loyal maid to provide the bulk of the acting support. Bryan shows up late in the film as Davis' grown daughter and injects quite a bit of zest and energy to the film. Her performance is remarkably fresh, even 70 years later. This is an unmistakably old fashioned story and a tear-jerker, but it works. These ladies give their all in attempting to retain control of the playing space. Davis' and Hopkins' animosity sprang from the fact that Davis had indulged in an affair with Hopkins' husband Anatole Litvak prior to filming and also from Davis' inheriting Hopkins' stage role in "Jezebel" and winning an Oscar for the film version! Despite the palpable tension between them, they would be paired again in "Old Acquaintance" a few years later.