The Great Lie (1941 Edmund Goulding)

Lenore Coffee screenplay from Polan Banks novel has Bette Davis bringing up child of love rival Mary Astor following George Brent's supposed demise. Meanwhile Max Steiner riffs on Tchaikovsky and various other piano concertos.

Davis urged the producers to employ her friend Astor and she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She was an accomplished pianist. The two re-wrote much of the soapiness out of the screenplay. Astor ended up almost exclusively on TV from the beginning of the fifties.

"I'm not one of your anaemic creatures that can get nourishment out of a lettuce leaf. I'm a musician! I'm an artist!"

Hattie McDaniel is a sympathetic support, along with brother Sam. Plus Lucile Watson, Grant Mitchell. Shot by Tony Gaudio.

Mojave Desert standing in for Arizona