An unusually adult and interesting film from Warners, addressing Jewishness, racism and the concentration camps of WW2. It's also - at two hours 20 - uncommonly long. The Epsteins wrote it (and produced) from Elizabeth von Arnim's story.
Society beauty Bette Davis has so many suitors at her beck and call, but her useless brother Richard Waring gets the family into shame and debt. Claude Rains' Mr. Skeffington can bail them out, but Bette has to marry him even though she never loves him.
Bette's as good as ever and in choosing to appear later so aged decrepit was a brave move - Perc Westmore ages her beautifully (horribly). And Franz Waxman's score, and its orchestral arrangement by Leonid Raab, is fantastic.
With Walter Abel as her faithful cousin, Marjorie Riordan as the daughter, a strangely high-billed George Coulouris, considering he's only in one (good) scene, Robert Shayne, John Alexander, Halliwell Hobbes (uncredited as the butler; Gaslight, To Be Or Not To Be, Casanova Brown).
Photographed by Ernie Haller. Bette's husband Arthur Farnsworth died suddenly before shooting began; this may have contributed to problems on set with the star, leading to overruns in schedule and budget. According to Alexander Walker the film was a flop; the Warner Bros. Story reports that audiences were delighted (not the first time we've had that contradiction).
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