This is one of those women's films that you have to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy. The chemistry between the two female stars (Bette Davis and Mary Astor) is so powerful, and what is nice here is that the two stars got along famously; In fact, Davis handed the juice over to Astor (a veteran star since the 1920's) on a silver platter, and the result is so much more interesting than if Davis had played the scheming role and Astor the heroine. You know you're in for a good time when Astor offers Davis a cigarette and Davis declines, saying that she's just had one.
The storyline concerns government worker George Brent's drunken marriage to classic pianist Mary Astor that ends as quickly as it began because he finds out her previous divorce was not final. Brent should have been forewarned; One character describes Astor as quite striking; In fact, she is literally. She has no qualms in slapping her masseuse across the face for working on her sore arms too hard. Once sobered up, Brent decides he'd rather be with the kinder Davis, and they are wed, which sets Astor up for revenge. She vows she'll break them up, and announces to Davis while Brent is away on business that she is pregnant. But Brent is believed to be dead, and Davis steps in with a plan to give the baby a name. The only stipulation is that Davis will raise it, and Astor will make no claims. But like a bad penny, Brent turns up, and Davis fears all will be revealed, especially when Astor goes out of her way to bond with the now one year old child.
Fiery Astor is the entire show, and watching the battle of bitchy Mary and benevolent Bette, you are truly gripped. The silliness of Astor and Davis in the middle of a desert preparing for Astor to give birth is like Henry Fonda pushing Lucille Ball to Florida in a wheelchair in "The Big Street", but somehow, it all becomes palatable, and the ridiculousness of it actually makes it more fun. Toss in Astor beating out a beautiful classic tune on the piano (Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op. 23"), a sudden musical number sung by Hattie McDaniel and the servants on Davis's ranch and the scene where Astor goes crazy in the desert, practically destroying the shack the two are staying in, and you have one of the most memorable melodramas of the 1940's, a soap opera plot that has been repeated over and over on daytime television. Lucile Watson, Grant Mitchell and Thurston Hall offer amusing bit performances, while McDaniel seems to be playing the wife of her real-life brother, Sam McDaniel. This isn't a classic like "Now Voyager", but it's all unpretentious and fun, and that's what classic Hollywood cinema is all about.
The storyline concerns government worker George Brent's drunken marriage to classic pianist Mary Astor that ends as quickly as it began because he finds out her previous divorce was not final. Brent should have been forewarned; One character describes Astor as quite striking; In fact, she is literally. She has no qualms in slapping her masseuse across the face for working on her sore arms too hard. Once sobered up, Brent decides he'd rather be with the kinder Davis, and they are wed, which sets Astor up for revenge. She vows she'll break them up, and announces to Davis while Brent is away on business that she is pregnant. But Brent is believed to be dead, and Davis steps in with a plan to give the baby a name. The only stipulation is that Davis will raise it, and Astor will make no claims. But like a bad penny, Brent turns up, and Davis fears all will be revealed, especially when Astor goes out of her way to bond with the now one year old child.
Fiery Astor is the entire show, and watching the battle of bitchy Mary and benevolent Bette, you are truly gripped. The silliness of Astor and Davis in the middle of a desert preparing for Astor to give birth is like Henry Fonda pushing Lucille Ball to Florida in a wheelchair in "The Big Street", but somehow, it all becomes palatable, and the ridiculousness of it actually makes it more fun. Toss in Astor beating out a beautiful classic tune on the piano (Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op. 23"), a sudden musical number sung by Hattie McDaniel and the servants on Davis's ranch and the scene where Astor goes crazy in the desert, practically destroying the shack the two are staying in, and you have one of the most memorable melodramas of the 1940's, a soap opera plot that has been repeated over and over on daytime television. Lucile Watson, Grant Mitchell and Thurston Hall offer amusing bit performances, while McDaniel seems to be playing the wife of her real-life brother, Sam McDaniel. This isn't a classic like "Now Voyager", but it's all unpretentious and fun, and that's what classic Hollywood cinema is all about.