Bette Davis sags under the weight of Perc Westmore's eyebrows, but Paul Henreid comes along with two cigarettes, thereby changing smoking fashion (at least for the moment)*. Casey Robinson has adapted a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, and Claude Rains is perhaps the most sympathetic doctor ever. The wonderful Max Steiner tells us what to feel, but we don't care, bathed in Sol Polito's light. The horrendous mother is Gladys Cooper, and it's a true five hankie number.
Rapper, not known for much in this household, lived until 101. (Friday 1 August 2014).
Loved Rapper's direction - the camera is always moving, usually tracking in on great acting, but otherwise Sol Polito's just sweeping around in a way people (except Marty) seem to have forgotten how to do. His angles keep changing too. Great acting by Bette Davis, her best performance (?), in eyebrows from Carry On Screaming. Claude Rains an actor you'll always welcome, here both tender and tough. Gladys Cooper doesn't give an inch of sympathy.
Olive Higgins Prouty wrote 'Stella Dallas' in 1922 and this in 1941, the middle of five novels about the Vale family of Boston. She herself suffered from prolonged nervous breakdowns making the subject matter rather personal. It's superbly adapted by Casey Robinson (also Kings Row).
But it would be an altogether different film without Max Steiner's superb score running throughout.
The way Henreid lights two cigarettes is touchingly intimate. And the moment when Janis Wilson asks Henreid her father 'Do you really like me?' would make a goat cry.
Montages by Don Siegel, nippy editing by Warren Low. Featuring Franklin Pangborn. (Sunday 4 September 2016).
It looks fabulous on Criterion's Blu-Ray. I was thinking while watching the beginning that if you turned the sound down it would be a great lesson is seeing how great films were made then - a study in shot sizes, editing and camera movement.
Unusually the Q remained stone-hearted throughout.
"What are you looking at, Dr. Owl?" In a 1971 Dick Cavett interview, Bette says in her head the actual ending after the film is over is that she ends up with the doctor. In the same interview, Bette describes Gladys Cooper as 'beautiful' and exceptionally talented.
With: Bonita Granville, John Loder, Ilka Chase, Mary Wickes, Ian Wolfe.
*Apparently George Brent has done the lighting two cigarettes thing before in 1932's The Rich Are Always With Us, co-starring Bette Davis. Thanks, Alexander Walker - 'Bette Davis: A Celebration'.
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