The Old Maid (1939)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

Edith Wharton (novel)
Zoe Akins (play)

Release Date:

2 September 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Vividly, unforgettably, a woman's love starved soul is revealed. All those strange secrets she locks in her heart ... moments of rapture and of heartbreak ... longings that no man can fathom. Of these has the year's finest picture been woven!

Plot:

Delia marries Jim, not Joe After Delia breaks her engagement to Clem and marries Jim, Clem promises to marry Delia's cousin Charlotte...

Plot Keywords:

Cousin | Battle | Brother | Wedding | Nursery

US TV Schedule:

Fri. July 24

4:15 AM

TCM

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Charlotte Lovell
Miriam Hopkins	...	Delia Lovell Ralston
George Brent	...	Lt. Clem Spender
Donald Crisp	...	Dr. Lanskell
Jane Bryan	...	Clementina
Louise Fazenda	...	Dora
James Stephenson	...	Jim Ralston
Jerome Cowan	...	Joseph Ralston
William Lundigan	...	Lanning Halsey
Cecilia Loftus	...	Grandmother Henrietta Lovell
Rand Brooks	...	Jim Ralston Jr.
Janet Shaw	...	Dee Ralston Ward
William Hopper	...	John Ward (as DeWolf Hopper)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #5227) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The 1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play opened at the Empire Theatre in New York on Jan. 7, 1935 and ran for 305 performances. The leads were played by Judith Anderson and Helen Menken. Marjorie Lord, who later gained fame as the wife of Danny Thomas on TV's "Make Room for Daddy" (1953), was a replacement cast member in a supporting role. Producer-Director Ernst Lubitsch bought the rights to the play, intending to star both Judith Anderson and Helen Menken in a Paramount production, but he sold the rights to Warner Bros. in Jan. 1939.

Quotes:

Charlotte Lovell: She thinks I can't understand her. She considers me an old maid.
Delia Lovell Ralston: My dear.
Charlotte Lovell: A ridiculous, narrow-minded old maid. What else can she ever think of me?
Delia Lovell Ralston: Poor Charlotte.
Charlotte Lovell: Oh, but you needn't pity me. Because she's really mine. If she considers me an old maid, it's because I've deliberately made myself one in her eyes. I've done it from the beginning so she wouldn't have the least suspicion. I've practised everything I've ever had to say to her, if it was important, so that I'd sound like an old maid aunt talking. Not her mother.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

A Lovely Old Maid

Based on the novel by Edith Wharton THE OLD MAID (1939) is one of the great Bette Davis Warner Bros. classics and besides "Jezebel" (1938) is my favorite Bette Davis movie! From a cracker of a screenplay by Casey Robinson it was splendidly directed with a deft hand by Edmund Goulding. Davis gives one of her finest performances as Charlotte the prim and proper old maid who years before was left pregnant when her suitor (George Brent in what must be his smallest role) is killed in the civil war. The child - a girl - is born and some years later Charlotte allows her widowed cousin (Miriam Hopkins) to raise the girl as her own which causes much resentment in Charlotte and the alienation of her daughter who doesn't know who her real mother is.

It is an absorbing highly charged piece of drama in a duel between two fine actresses in which Davis is clearly the victor. Helen Menken and Judith Anderson played the roles on stage in 1935 and it's hard to think of Menken being anywhere near as good as Davis playing Charlotte. Here in the movie you simply cannot take your eyes of Davis as she brilliantly conveys the consummate artistry of her craft to an audience. Also giving splendid support in the picture is the always reliable Donald Crisp plus Jerome Cowan, James Stephenson and a young William Lundigan.

In a much better second half of the picture the daughter - now a vivacious young lady - is played by an actress called Jane Bryan. Born in 1918 Bryan had an appealing screen presence and at the time was getting a build-up from Warners. But in 1940 she abruptly retired, married a business tycoon and never returned to the screen. Something of a loss I would opine! She died in April 2009 at the age of 91.

Beautifully photographed in glorious black & white by the gifted Tony Gaudio the picture also boasts a lush score by the great Max Steiner which has a lovely central waltz theme. The music for "The Old Maid" was one of 18 scores the composer wrote for Bette Davis' films which included such gems as "Dark Victory", "Jezebel", "All This & Heaven Too" "Beyond The Forest" and most memorably "Now Voyager" in 1942 for which Steiner won the second of his three Acadamy Awards. The great actress once remarked of the composer "At Warner Bros. Max knew more about drama than any of us".

"The Old Maid" is quite a wonderful movie! It has lost none of its charm or impact over the years and hasn't dated one iota. Collectors will cherish and relish "The Old Maid"!