Bette Davis comes on like some junior league Regina Giddens from THE LITTLE FOXES/’41 in this one, an ambitious, win-at-all-costs, social climbing horror to her go-along lawyer/hubby Barry Sullivan. We start at the finish when he’s had 25 years of it and asks for a divorce, then dip in & out of the past to see the moral shortcuts that got them here. Davis plays the opening too hard, as if the film was traditionally structured, but it pays off soon enough; a cubist portrait. With one of her two daughters, Betty Lynn, a truly believable physical match, a smart, well-centered kid who knows how to get the best out of each parent. Director Curtis Bernhardt uses tricky stage-like transitions (lighting cues instead of dissolves) for the time shifts, but elsewhere tends to sit on scenes. Shot shortly after Davis left Warners, RKO head Howard Hughes’ habitual dithering paid off when ALL ABOUT EVE came out first to set this up commercially. Too bad he weakened the film with a reshot, soft-soap tag ending.
DOUBLE-BILL/ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: That’s stage giant Jane Cowl, in a rare film perf, playing a cautionary divorcée in this, her last role, living in sin with an effeminate poet she ‘supports.’ Obviously a fate worse than death! Earlier in her fabled B’way career, Cowl played the role Davis took against Miriam Hopkins in John Van Druten’s OLD ACQUAINTANCE/’43. Later updated & played by Jacqueline Bisset & Candice Bergen in George Cukor’s RICH AND FAMOUS/’81.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Look fast to catch a pregnant Davis with a mighty big baby bump. A rare sight in ‘51 when such frankness was still being censored on the big screen.
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