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20 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Unrealistic at times, but a rewarding melodrama nonetheless, 28 April 2005

Author: FilmOtaku (ssampon@hotmail.com) from Milwaukee, WI

I have discovered as I have gotten older and have watched hundreds of classic film that for those of us who mock the people who watch soap operas or read romance novels, we have the classic melodrama to fall back on. More meaty but nevertheless still over the top, melodramas feed a craving for escapism without having to resort to bodice-ripper books or films or worse, the Lifetime Movie Network. "Mr. Skeffington", directed by Vincent Sherman and starring the incomparable Bette Davis and the always-charming Claude Rains, is one of those good, solid melodramas.

With a setting that begins during the inception of World War I and ends after World War II, "Mr. Skeffington" introduces us first to Fanny Trellis (Davis), the most sought-after debutante in New York who has so many suitors that she routinely has at least four men wooing her and proposing at a time. On the night of a big party she and her brother Trippy are hosting, a man named Job Skeffington (Rains) comes to the door asking to speak with Trippy. Trippy is an employee at Skeffington's bank, and after he refuses to see him, Fanny and her cousin George (Abel) arrange to talk to him. It turns out that Trippy has been swindling Skeffington, who is planning on talking to the District Attorney regarding the matter. George and Fanny convince him to wait, and Fanny, ever confident, avers that she will be receiving flowers from him the very next day. When no flowers arrive, curious, she goes to visit Skeffington at the office, and over the next several months a romance develops. When they suddenly marry, she breaks the hearts of her suitors as well as Trippy, who sees Skeffington as a constant reminder of what a mess he has made of his life, so he enlists in the army and goes off to the war in Europe. Over the next couple of decades, through various scenarios, we see the intense love that Skeffington has for Fanny, and the complete ambivalence she has for him, particularly when she gives birth to their only child, a daughter also named Fanny. The couple lives together but live their separate lives and have their flings until Fanny decides to sue Skeffington for divorce on grounds of adultery. He decides to take his daughter and travel to Europe where WWII has not yet begun, and in the meantime, Fanny is jet setting and dating men half her age because she has managed to keep her beauty. When the war begins and her now grown daughter comes home because of the persecution of Jews, Fanny's world begins to crumble. She develops diphtheria and while she comes out of it, the disease has wreaked havoc on her appearance and she now doesn't look 20 years younger than her real age, but more like 10 years older, a fact that shocks everyone who knows her. When she decides to try to gain her confidence back by hosting a party and inviting her former suitors, she is saddened when she realizes that they are all recoiling in horror when they see her, and has to endure the cattiness of their wives. The final blow to her ego comes when her daughter announces that she is marrying the young man that Fanny was seeing before she became ill, and is moving across the country. Fanny, realizing that she is alone, becomes despondent, until George shows up at her house, telling her that Skeffington is back from Europe and waiting for her. It is only then that she realizes that she does have a purpose in life, and that she always did love him, it just took a swift kick in the bustle to realize it.

"Mr. Skeffington" clocks in at two and a half hours, and the summary is only part of the entire storyline. There is a lot of plot to digest in that period of time, but Davis and Rains are the perfect choices for their roles. The film was made in 1944, when Davis was in her mid-30's, but she still looked stunning, as opposed to the makeup job they did on her for the later years (they made 50 years old look like 75) which was an eerie premonition of her role 20 years later in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" I always chuckle when someone is deemed to be "the most beautiful woman" or "the most wanted woman" because in reality you're kind of wondering what you're not seeing there, but with melodrama you do have to give a little leeway. Okay, in this case, a lot leeway. Claude Rains, one of my very favorite actors of all time, gave another fantastic performance as the cuckolded and heartbroken Skeffington. He always gives an element of reality with a touch of elegance that makes him very endearing. As stated earlier, the film is a bit long, but there were not a lot of pacing issues because the film carried itself from segment to segment relatively seamlessly.

Another in a long list of wonderful melodramas, "Mr. Skeffington" is a very good classic film that I fear has been forgotten throughout the years. Its performances and adequately compelling story are enough to recommend it to classic film lovers, particularly those who are fans of Bette Davis or Claude Rains. Since I fit into all three of those categories, I give the film a firm 7/10.

--Shelly

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20 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Davis and Rains make magic once again!, 23 May 1999

Author: anonymous

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is a great movie. Bette Davis and Claude Rains are magnificent together, just as they were in "Now, Voyager" two years before. Bette Davis stars as Fanny Skeffington, whose self-absorption leads to the destruction of her devoted husband, Job (Claude Rains). Fanny continues to entertain her beaux, despite her marriage to Job. After a few years, Job decides to leave, knowing that Fanny only married him for his money. This is a true act of love on his part. So Fanny floats through life without a care in the world, and her admirers left and right.

After many years, Fanny contracts diphtheria and is on the brink of death. She recovers, but begins to look not only her age, but many years older. In a desperate attempt to reassure herself of her youth and beauty, Fanny invites all of her old boyfriends to a party at her house. They all, as she puts it, "recoil" from her, because she is no longer beautiful. Fanny feels abandoned and lonely.

But then, fate lends its hand. Fanny's cousin, George, tells her that Job has returned. He has been in a concentration camp, and is not in good shape. He wants to see Fanny. Fanny however, doesn't want Job to see what's become of her. But with much pleading from George, she agrees to see him. When she reaches Job, she discovers that he is blind. So no matter how she looks, Job will always love her, and remember her for the beauty she had. But Fanny realizes that looks are not important, because of what Job said many years before: "A woman is beautiful only when she is loved".

"Mr. Skeffington" is a classic. It can be a little long at some parts, but it's worthwhile to see. It also features excellent performances by Walter Abel, George Coulouris, and Marjorie Riordan. I gave this movie a 9/10.

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16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
The Patience of Job, 17 March 2005

Author: theowinthrop from United States

"Mr. Skeffington" is one of Bette Davis' best performances, and the best of the four teaming with Claude Rains ("Now Voyager" does not have as many sequences with both of them sharing scenes as "Skeffington"). It is the story of a silly, vain woman who marries a man for his money, and to protect her brother. She fails to protect her brother, but she does find that the man she married is a better man than she deserves.

It is also an over-the-years tale, beginning about 1914, and involving World War I, prohibition, the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism, and ending in World War II. Job Skeffington is a successful stock dealer and banker on Wall Street, and he is a rarity: he's Jewish. Somehow he hires Fanny Trellis's brother Trippy, who returns the favor by embezzling some funds. As Fanny and Trippy are socialites they are used to their friends covering up for their errors. But Job can't simply allow this, because the money doesn't belong to him but to his customers. When he approaches Fanny (gently - he just wants Trippy to return the money) Fanny pulls out her stops to entice him. It works and they marry. Job puts the money back himself. But Trippy is an anti-Semite, and is furious that Fanny sold herself to that Jew. He leaves in high anger. Later Fanny hopes that he will return after he gets it out of his system, but Trippy is killed in the war. Although it is not Job's fault, Fanny does not quite forgive him for that.

She becomes more and more outspokenly unfaithful, much to Job's chagrin and pain. Eventually it leads to a divorce. They have a young daughter who lives mostly with Job, and only joins Fanny later. But that is after a shock hits Fanny's self-image...and sets the stage for a final reconciliation with Job.

All the performances in the film, Davis, Rains, Richard Waring, Walter Abel, Jerome Cowan, are excellent. But one of my favorites is the unexpected comic turn of George Coulouris as the popular psychologist, Dr. Byles. Coulouris usually was a humorless schemer in movies and television, but could rise to the occasion in comedy (witness his progressively increasing irritation as Walter Parkes Thatcher in "Citizen Kane"). Here he is ready to leave on a long planned, much needed vacation, when Fanny barges in to unload her misery and woe without so much as a scheduled appointment. By only showing the clock in the background to show the length she takes away from the boiling Dr. Byles, one is ready for the inevitable conclusion - when the good Doctor tells her off. And he is the first person to do so in the movie.

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13 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Misplaced Values, 27 November 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Bette Davis and Richard Waring are the Trellis siblings, an old name and dwindling money. They also have the snobbery that comes from having a name that goes back to the 17th century in terms of residence on the North American continent. Both their lives get forever intertwined with that of Claude Rains, Mr. Skeffington.

Fanny Trellis Skeffington is one of Bette Davis's best screen performances. She's a shallow woman who is a great beauty and enjoys all the flattery that a stream of men give her. Waring to keep up with his lifestyle goes to work for investment banker Skeffington and winds up embezzling a considerable sum of money.

Rains is ready to prosecute, but Davis intercedes and marries Rains who is as entranced as everyone else is with her beauty. They have one rocky marriage that produces a daughter, Majorie Riordan, but little else in the way of happiness for either.

If Mr. Skeffington has a fault it's that Rains is sometimes just to good to be true. For what he put up with, if he were a Christian, he'd be a candidate for sainthood.

Another thing I like about Mr. Skeffington is that it does tackle the issue of anti-Semitism head-on. Waring is a Jew hater as are many of Davis's upper crust admirers. Rains keeps a cheerful look on his face, but because he's that brilliant an actor, you can see the pain registering.

Mr. Skeffington was nominated for two Academy Awards. Bette Davis got one of her nominations for Best Actress, but lost to Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight. And Rains was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way.

Warner Brothers gave Davis a great group of supporting players and among the ones I like are Dorothy Peterson as her loyal maid, George Coulouris as a psychiatrist who gave her some words of wisdom like a Dutch Uncle, and Walter Abel as her wise cousin who is the catalyst for some positive change in her in the end.

Mr. Skeffington is Bette Davis at her best and always finds a place in the top 10 of her screen roles.

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Love is blind, 19 June 2005

Author: jotix100 from New York

Watching "Mr. Skeffington" again, after not having seen the film for a while, one thing comes perfectly clear, the adage about love being blind never made more sense than what we witness Job Skeffington feel for his wife Fanny. His was a love like no other one; knowing she did not love him, he spent a lifetime to love her unconditionally until he loses his vision and can't see her dear face, which by that time is not the same as the young beauty he fell in love with and married.

Vincent Sherman's direction of this film, based on Elizabeth Von Armin's novel, makes it a classic that endures the passing of time. Sure, it's pure melodrama, but as a film, "Mr. Skeffington" makes perfect sense because of its timeless story. It helps too that the black and white cinematography by Ernest Haller is in pristine condition. The music score one hears in the background by Franz Waxman enhances the movie.

Bette Davis and Claude Rains had an easy way to compliment one another's work. It comes as no surprise these two actors made a tremendous contribution to the finished product as they are the only reason for watching the film. Bette Davis, with her enormous and expressive eyes is at the center of the story; a society beauty that was much in demand in her youth, sees her good looks fade as she ages in front of our eyes.

Claude Rains is the generous man who falls in love with Fanny, even though her brother has swindled money from his firm in order to keep living in the style the Trellis family has been used to. Mr. Skeffington being Jewish has to endure all the prejudice directed at him.

The supporting cast is excellent. Walter Abel, Marjorie Riordan, John Alexander, and the rest do a good ensemble job backing the principals.

"Mr. Skeffington" will delight all viewers.

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12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Very, very worthwhile, 21 March 2007

Author: axsmashcrushallthree

This truly lavish melodrama really knocked me out. I simply did not find any significant weaknesses to this film, at least none of which others have alluded. Films of this type can easily become maudlin, insignificant, and flat. However, "Mr. Skeffington" is the result of a set of elements that are incorporated vibrantly. The film simply has a grand sweep to it, lifting it high above many others of this genre.

The staging and sets (in conjunction with Ory-Kelly's costumes) are as good as any movie that I've seen, along the lines of "Gone With the Wind", "Citizen Kane", "Gigi", or "Long Day's Journey into Night". The use of silence and spaciousness, along with noise and density, is brilliantly carried out and is extremely well-balanced by the characters' non-verbal responses to each other. It's hard to describe without providing details of given scenes - I would suggest that you watch it with this perspective and see what you think.

Speaking of scenes, length is the common enemy of films of this type, but not here - each scene plays out like a shining entity that still provides momentum and underpinning for the entire story. I counted at least 12 very memorable scenes. Humor is added strategically to most scenes to balance the starkness of the story and is nicely understated to avoid a sense of camp. Director Vincent Sherman has polished each scene like a diamond, and the effect is very powerful. The scenes really do stand on their own almost like a set of montages.

Bette Davis' performance is decidedly affected as she plays Fanny as a young girl, but the pure talent and visual power of this actress makes one believe that she is truly the beauty that she is supposed to be. Notice how her movements and responsiveness reinforce the sense of someone almost 15 years younger than herself. While others have complained about the makeup of the older Fanny in portraying her change in age, I found that the makeup perfectly embodied the older Fanny because Davis plays the character so consistently to her advanced age. I would place this performance in Bette Davis' top tier, along with "Now, Voyager", "The Little Foxes", and "All About Eve".

Claude Rains plays the title character with restraint, integrity, and great love for Fanny, but the sense of pathos that he communicates really helps to give the movie a lot of power. The other acting performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Walter Abel as Cousin George. Without the strength of Abel's characterization, this would have been a far weaker movie.

Franz Waxman's score has been criticized by some as being extravagant and overly dramatic to the point of being startling. I really enjoyed it - Waxman incorporates a lush late romantic style that has a stronger "classical-music" feel than other scores for movies of this type, which tend to emphasize strings as accompaniment. The result is a feeling of complexity which shades the story along with the other elements.

This is easily Vincent Sherman's best work, one of Ernest Haller's best, and one of the best melodramas that I have seen. 10 out of 10.

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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Elizabeth's novel comes to the screen, 25 November 2004
Author: didi-5 from United Kingdom

'Mr Skeffington', by Elizabeth, came to the screen in 1944 with Claude Rains in the title role, Bette Davis as Fanny, Richard Waring as Trippy, Jerome Cowan as Edward, and others.

An absorbing and entertaining novel could only be buoyed up by the playing of Bette Davis as the self-absorbed Miss Trellis, who has no knowledge of the real world as it affects her friends and her family. Trippy's money problems mean as little to her as the attentions of her tribe of young men. Fanny losing her beauty would be her greatest calamity ...

As Job Skeffington, Trippy's understanding boss, Claude Rains adds a touch of dryness and dignity to the role. The teaming between Rains and Davis gives plenty of zip to the film and makes the whole thing hugely enjoyable - there is a tragic undercurrent to this story that both actors could carry off completely.

'Mr Skeffington' is excellent and one of those great 1940s wallows they just don't make anymore [sigh].

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Excellent Warner Brothers meller!, 12 February 2005

Author: jgepperson from United States

"Mr. Skeffington" is one of the great Hollywood melodramas. Bette Davis has the showy role in this epic story of a troubled relationship, but it's Claude Rains as her Jewish husband who jerks the tears. Bette is all mannerisms and makeup - and there's nothing wrong with that! - but Rains gives a subtle, weighty performance that anchors the movie.

This is Warner Brothers at its most elegant. The Franz Waxman score is superb and the way he punctuates Bette's eye-blinking is hilarious.

The magnificent singer/actress Dolores Gray made her first film appearance in this film as a 1920s speakeasy chanteuse. Bette acknowledges what a beautiful voice she has in a moment that hasn't really anything to do with the scene, but the divine Dolores deserves the comment. In case you don't know who she is, check out her own film career 10 years later in her MGM films such as "It's Always Fair Weather."

Bette's aging makeup presages her work in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

You won't want to miss "Mr. Skeffington." Bette's flamboyance and Rains' gravitas make this film totally enjoyable.

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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A Woman is Beautiful Only When She is Loved, 15 October 2005

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In 1914, in New York, Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is a shallow futile selfish woman surrounded by suitors and without any other preoccupation but her beauty. Her brother Trippy Trellis (Richard Waring) wasted the fortune of the family. When he fakes business in stock market and embezzles US$ 24,000.00 commission from the Skeffington Bank, the wealthy Job Skeffington goes to Trellis' house to charge the amount back and meets Fanny. He falls in love for Fanny and she marries him to save Trippy. Fanny gets pregnant, but her selfishness destroys their marriage and they divorce. Many years later, when Fanny has diphtheria and loses her beauty, she realizes that a woman is beautiful only when she is loved.

"Mr. Skeffington" is a good melodramatic love story, silly and dated in many parts, but also very beautiful and touching. The story about a selfish woman that is only concerned with her beauty and does not learn how to grow-up and age has many memorable scenes, mostly because of the performance of Bette Davis and the make-up of the actors and actresses. In the present days, it can be clearly seem that the story shows also a quite incestuous relationship between Fanny and Trippy. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Vaidade" ("Vain")

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Vanity of Human Wishes, 30 September 2004
Author: jackie-107 from Lochawe, Scotland

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I saw Mr Skeffington again yesterday. I had not seen it for years. I remembered it mainly for Bette Davis's outlandish and melodramatic performance and Claude Rains's restrained and impeccable characterisation of Mr Skeffington. The film concentrates on Fanny's desperate wish to stay young and retain her youthful beauty (which of course, she doesn't) and, despite the film's age (1943) her vanity and self-absorption echoes down the years to today's young and beautiful women, all fashion and frivolity, without a notion or care of the political climate around them. The story has a perennial quality, while the film roots itself in the melodrama of the period, emphasised by the heavy set furniture and over-fussy interiors.

Fanny's lack of awareness of the Wall Street Crash, or impending war, or the horrors of Nazism, is carefully drawn, without unbalancing the dramatic intent of the film's focus on Fanny, enough for the audience to understand just how shallow Fanny is, and by which the change of heart at the end, when lonely and with her beauty gone, she can afford to think of someone other than herself, is all the more poignant.

The drama is almost totally set within Fanny's house (the short, other scenes only serve to show events or the passing of time) which enhances the self-centredness of Fanny's existence. The disasters which overtake her brother, Trippy, who is just like her, vain and silly, but without her beauty and advantage of not having to earn her own living, serve as a mirror-image of Fanny herself and the device of her catching diphtheria through silly vanity (going sailing at the age of 40 in flimsy clothing and nearly catching her death) is exactly right to end her life of the 'beauty'. The adroit shift in emotional weight when Mr Skeffington returns from Germany, having lost his sight in a German concentration camp, takes the film to a different level. How appropriate that silly Fanny should lose her beauty through disease, but Mr Skeffington lose his sight as a victim of Nazi Anti-Semitism. Age, feeling, sensitivity, emotion, finally catch up with Fanny and the sea-change is wonderfully portrayed by Davis and the coming back together of husband and wife is one of the most memorable endings of Bette Davis's films, far more effective than her death in Dark Victory, or even 'Don't ask for moon, we have the stars' ending of Now Voyager.

I was delighted to see this excellent film again and feel it should certainly be counted among Bette Davis's (and Claude Rains's) best.

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