moonspinner55
Yankee poetess meets Slick Novak...and only God can come between them! Absurd sudser from Warner Bros. stars Bette Davis as an independent spinster and poetry writer in Manhattan who is thrown together on a double date with a celebrated war hero: a tall, broad-shouldered Naval Lieutenant who appears to bring out the worst in the not-so-old Old Maid. Jack Warner probably took one look at this material, adapted from a book by Ethel Vance, and instantly thought of Davis for the lead...but what else was there to this story which caused Warner to want to film it? The picture is distinctly without distinction, and Ms. Davis, puffing away on one cigarette after another, is forced to repeat herself (her performance is like a greatest hits collection). James Davis, playing the conflicted Slick Novak, towers over his co-star and is obviously not in her acting league, however there's enough professionalism on both sides of the camera to nearly pull off this odd romantic pairing. The wordy screenplay is colorless, and Max Steiner's melodramatic music cues are of no help, yet romance-buffs might get caught up in the story, nonsensical though it may be. ** from ****
Michael O'Keefe
Every star must have at least one piece of work that absolutely stinks. Miss Bette and WINTER MEETING is a bore from the beginning. Susan Grieve(Davis)is a depressed poet that falls in love with a war hero(Jim Davis). The events of WW11 makes this soldier want to be a priest. Shared secrets over a nightcap is just not a remedy for the doldrums. A very wordy script and dour atmosphere throughout. Just little over an hour running time is a relief.The efforts of Jim Davis as the moody hero Slick Novak outshines Miss Davis. Also in the cast: Janis Paige, Walter Baldwin, Florence Bates and John Hoyt. If anything is redeeming its the score by Max Steiner.
Scoval71
1940's period piece about a woman who falls in love with a man who loves her back, but loves God more. It is hard to go into detail about this movie. Not horrible, not wonderful, nothing terribly exciting, nothing terribly dull. I thought Bette Davis gave a splendid and realistic performance. James (Jim) Davis has been blasted on this message board about his delivering a wooden performance. Well, maybe it was. But, for this particular role, his emotions needed to be hidden and wooden because of his inner conflict. The conflict is his secret ambition since he was a child to become a priest. The music somehow interferes with the plot as the music in these old time movies often did, but, all in all, it is a definite period piece. The title is not too imaginative---just like the movie.
whpratt1
A story about a female and male searching for real love, both with very strong convictions and also very bad hang ups about where they are going in life. Betty Davis,(Susan Grieve),"Wicked Stepmother",'89 sort of gave up on marriage and ran into Jim Davis,(Slick Novak), and began to fall head over heels in love with him. There is a scene where Susan and Jim confront each other about each others faults and Susan wonders why Jim is not able to just plain get on one knee and propose marriage. Also, the fact that he has never attempted to make love to her, but only an occasional kiss or two. The actors gave great performances and you have to take into account that it was produced in 1948. This is truly a great Betty Davis Classic Film!@
AD
