The Old Maid (1939) User Reviews

Superb melodrama

[sdave7596 · 8/10 · 4 November 2012]

Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins shine in this Warner Bros. melodrama, "The Old Maid" released in 1939, a banner year for Davis at the studio. This was one of four very fine films she did that year, making her the reigning queen of the studio. In this one, Davis and Hopkins are cousins in the 1800's. Hopkins rejects her beau (George Brent) to marry into a wealthy family, the Ralstons. Davis has the hots for Brent (one of her frequent co-stars during this period) and gets pregnant with his baby. However, he goes off to fight the Civil War and is killed. At a time when being an unwed mother was not an option, Davis agrees to move in with Hopkins, now a widow with two children of her own. The child, Tina (Jane Bryan) grows up knowing she is a foundling, but always calls Hopkins "mummy." Davis does not let on she is Tina's mother, but rather an aunt; this fills her with resentment, and into a bitter old maid, hence the title of the picture.

The movie is pure soap opera, for sure, but the interplay between Davis and Hopkins is fascinating to watch. Davis has the showier part, but Hopkins more than holds her own. Off screen, Davis had an affair with Hopkin's husband, director Anatole Litvak, and now the two had to star together in a film! One can only imagine what went on between them on the set of this, but both give fine performances. Even Davis herself, much later in life, stated Hopkins was a superb actress and she always had to be on her toes as her co-star. There are some fine supporting performances, notably from Jane Bryan as Tina and the always under-rated Donald Crisp as a friend of the family and doctor. But this is Hopkins and Davis' show, and they do not disappoint.

My darling Clementina

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 19 May 2006]

A lie prevents Charlotte Lovell from getting married to a decent man, Joseph Ralston. Delia, her scheming cousin, can't forgive Charlotte how she was able to get her old flame, Clem, even though she had refused to have anything to do with him when he returns home on her wedding day to the rich Jim Ralston.

Charlotte, who is seen years later running a place for orphans of the Civil War, dotes on little Clementina, or Tina, as she calls her. One realizes it's not just an interest she shows, it's a mother love she displays. Fate intervenes again in bringing Charlotte and Tina to live with Delia, who loses her husband. Tina loves her new palatial surroundings and starts resenting Charlotte's discipline.

When Tina falls for the handsome Lanning Halsey, she overhears his parents remarking that the young lady is an orphan and below their expectations for their son. Delia intervenes one more time in suggesting she will adopt Tina to give her a Ralston name and position. Charlotte wants Delia to tell Tina the truth and who the real mother is, but at the last moment has a change of heart when she looks at the radiant Tina as she is preparing to marry the man of her dreams.

Bette Davis made a valuable contribution to the film. Her Charlotte is at the start an eager young woman who changes into a bitter person as she gets to know her cousin's betrayal and her daughter's cold treatment. Miriam Hopkins plays Delia, a selfish woman, with conviction. George Brent is only seen at the beginning of the film. He plays Clem, who goes to war, never to come back. Jane Bryan is Tina, the young lady unaware who her real mother is. Jerome Cowan, Donald Crisp, William Lundigan and the rest of the supporting cast do an excellent job.

Edmund Goulding directed with an eye to the details in this adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel, which had been turned into a play for the New York stage. Max Steiner's music plays well against the background of the Civil War. Tony Gaudio's elegant cinematography is notable as it captures the essence of the story in vivid images.

Although not one of Bette Davis' best films, it's a must for all fans of the actress' work. The best achievement is how we see her age in front of our eyes into a convincing old woman.

A Warner Major Feature

[harry-76 · 8/10 · 1 April 1999]

With Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner himself in charge of the production, "The Old Maid" is a fine example of what that studio's "stock company" was able to produce in the late '30s and early '40s. Here is Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, assisted by George Brent and Donald Crisp acting up a storm a very soapy piece of melodrama, and making it all very engrossing. Based on Zoe Akins' Pulitzer Prize play and Edith Wharton's novel, this drama of sacrifice, deception, and raging emotions is given a superlative treatment by this impressive company. The film even has the services of Max Steiner's score, underlying every scene with original and adapted source material. Edmund Goulding's direction is sure-footed and he has managed to curb histrionic accesses of the two stars nicely; their acting is quite restrained, yet powerful. Whatever sparks flew between the two ladies off-screen may be justified by what on-screen legacy is left for all to appreciate. Further, the drama depicts the limited and restrictive social/class mores of the period, undoubtedly imported from strict European values.

New Spin on an Old Maid

[genericmovielover · 10 February 2003]

This film would be just another period melodrama: over-scored,sugar-coated, and glossy-slick (especially for a Warners' film) -- except for two things: Bette Davis and Bette Davis.

Bette is truly a revelation in this film, which required her to age twenty years in the flesh but many more than that in spirit - as she turned from a fresh, extremely sympathetic young girl to an "old maid" of forty or so, a bitter, intimidating woman.

Her ability to integrate completely disparate human traits into one cohesive character is amazing - a must see.

Some men are better memories than they would ever be husbands...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 18 October 2016]

... and George Brent as Clem Spender is that kind of guy. We don't see much of Clem himself except at the beginning, but the film is pretty much about the aftershocks of him being the love of the lives of the two main characters, cousins Delia (Miriam Hopkins) and Charlotte (Bette Davis).

The time is the beginning of the Civil War, in the north, far enough away from the battlefields to the extent that if this war will ever touch the lives of the characters it will be through death on those battlefields. Clem has apparently gone off to make his fortune so he can marry Delia, whom he claims to love - heck I think he believes that himself. But Delia is practical. After waiting for two years she decides to marry "a Ralston" - Jim Ralston to be exact, good provider from a family of bankers, not hard on the eyes, and probably so predictable Delia will spend the rest of their mutual lives with her feet asleep.

Clem comes back on the wedding day, and Charlotte, who we are told is several years younger than Delia, goes down to the station to try to get Clem to stay away from the wedding, that Delia says it is too late. When Delia and Clem meet, at her house before the wedding, you understand she did not want to see Clem because she still loves him, she will always love him, although she doesn't say that. When an allegedly broken hearted Clem exits the house, Charlotte, also secretly in love with Clem goes after him. Now remember this is the production code era and so you see NOTHING in the way of passion between them. But they did have sex because suddenly Charlotte is going out west for her health, and when she returns she is running a home for war orphans, with her own child by that one night with Clem, Tina, hidden among the bunch.

Delia being told about the existence of the child, and that it was Clem's is the undoing of both cousins. Delia, in the jealousy that she cannot even admit to herself, sabotages Charlotte's wedding by telling a lie to the groom, gets Tina and Charlotte to move into her house after her husband dies, gets Charlotte to let her adopt Tina, and in the end the once vivacious beautiful young Charlotte turns into an "old maid", somebody that even her own daughter has no use for other than to pity her. The person she ultimately calls "mummy" is Delia.

Now Davis' acting here is raw, everything is out there. She IS that vivacious young woman at the beginning of the film, she IS that bitter spinster in the end - partly because she knows what Delia has taken from her and that Delia refuses to admit her own motivations. Hopkins plays her part more subdued, as though Delia cannot admit to herself that all of this has been about Clem, that it was he she has always loved, whose child she wanted and has managed to maneuver herself into a position where she gets her.

Now being an "old maid" was considered a horrible fate for a woman until about 1970, but these two women are living on the fumes of a memory, of the adventurous handsome but broke Clem as a young man. His death as a soldier in the Civil War freezes him in time in that state. They neither ever seem to get that had either of them got their wishes they would have ended up married to an emotionally ambiguous man, a man who just can't seem to succeed, and prolonged poverty never made anybody happy.

This is a great film even if it is full of overdoing the punishment of sin production code style for everybody involved. Case in point, Bette Davis' Charlotte ages to the point that she looks ten years older than the actual age of her character for the sin of one night of out of wedlock passion with somebody she tragically loved, while Miriam Hopkins' Delia has hardly aged a day over the film's course, even though all the while she's been taking a wrecking ball to her cousin's life.

Excellent early Bette Davis film

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 25 July 2003]

Superb soap opera takes place from the 1860s to the 1880s. Miriam Hopkins spurns long-time fiancee George Brent to marry another man. Her cousin, Bette Davis, also loves Brent and "comforts" him before he goes off to war. He dies in the war and leaves her pregnant. She secretly has the baby and tells nobody except Hopkins. Hopkins, now a rich widow, convinces Davis to let her adopt the child so she will have a name. She does and watches her child grow up treating Hopkins like her mother and Davis with contempt as an old maid.

The story is very sudsy but the script has wonderful, literate dialogue and the picture is very elaborately made. But what really puts the picture across is the superb acting by Hopkins and Davis. They both hated each other passionately off screen but you'd never know it on screen. The scenes when they're friends or rivals are just great--every single line rings true and they play their roles to the hilt. A real surprise is seeing Hopkins play a sweet woman at the end--she certainly wasn't like that in real life! And the very last scene in the movie will bring a tear to your eye--just Bette Davis' reaction to something really hits.

A great film--don't miss it! A must if you're a Bette Davis fan.

I UNDERSTAND SACRIFICE BUT REALLY...?

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 8 April 2019]

A soap opera from 1939 starring Bette Davis & Miriam Hopkins. In the lead up to the Civil War, one of a pair female cousins is about to marry when her old beau shows up. Davis, the loyal one (who also carries a torch for the jilted suitor), rushes to the train station to break the bad news to him. When the war breaks out, Davis feeling the now available man is fair game starts to see him & as he leaves to the war & tragically dies there, we find out she was pregnant by him & decides to mask the potentially scandalous offspring among a throng of war orphans which she is in charge of. Hopkins, the other cousin, discovers this & fearing her kin may become a social pariah decides to take her daughter as her own to raise along w/her brood (her husband has passed on since the end of the war) making her think Davis is an aunt rather than her own mother. Davis, ever the selfless one (I guess self crucifixion was considered taboo in those days), agrees to the ruse & has to bite her tongue as she has to see her child raised by her scheming cousin only letting out the occasion outburst when she finds any fault in her 'niece's' deportment. There's a lot of suffering for suffering's sake occurring when all Davis had to do was probably move away w/her child rather than endure such an unspeakable act of betrayal but she agreed to it & to a certain extent, we the audience have as well as we swallow this foulness whole all for the sake of shedding some precious tears.

Irresistible Tosh

[MOscarbradley · 8/10 · 11 December 2005]

One of Bette Davis' best films and a great weepie; an unashamed Victorian melodrama but made with great panache and played with all the stops out. When Miriam Hopkins jilts her financee George Brent, cousin Bette gives herself to him and gets pregnant. When Brent goes off and gets himself killed Davis disappears out West so she can have the baby, raise her as an orphan and save what vestige of honour she has left. Years later, when Hopkins discovers the truth, she takes the child to be raised as her own while Davis lurks on the sidelines as old maid Aunt Charlotte. (This is the movie in which Davis gets to utter the immortal lines on her daughter's wedding night, 'Tonight she belongs to me. Tonight I want her to call ME mother!'). The film has a good pedigree. The original play won the Pulitzer Prize and was based in turn on an Edith Wharton novel. Tosh it may well be, but it is irresistible.

Breathless histrionics...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 25 July 2009]

Civil War-era cousins Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins seem to have a close relationship while living with their wealthy grandmother in Philadelphia, but Davis is hiding a secret: she conceived a child out of wedlock with Hopkins' ex-fiancé and went West to have the baby. Upon her return, Davis opens a school for war orphans--her own daughter included!--which now infringes upon her wedding to the brother of Miriam's husband. Edith Wharton's book became a Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Zoe Akins before Warner Bros. got hold of it and turned the whole enterprise into a glossy stew for the ladies. It moves along at a fast clip, yet doesn't quite give Davis a strong enough showcase (she was never very good interacting with children, and the character of Charlotte is a bit of a puzzle). Hopkins, the unofficial queen of knuckle-biting, knows nothing of subtlety, though her fluttery dramatics goose the narrative and give the picture some camp appeal. The men are stiff and colorless, however the production is handsome and director Edmund Goulding sorts out the overly-involved plotting for us in a satisfactory manner. **1/2 from ****

'Civil' War Soaper

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 27 October 2015]

It's well documented that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins were far from enamoured of each other off screen for a variety of reasons not least Davis' affair with Hopkins' husband, Anatole Litvak. Nonetheless they contrived to play opposite each other in both Old Acquaintance and this one, in which Davis takes on the eponymous role. Knocked up by George Brent who then thoughtfully gets himself killed in the War Between The States (the American Civil War if you're British) before the child is born, Davis contrives to open an orphanage in which she conceals her own illegitimate daughter, who grows up to be Jane Bryan, a prototype of Ann Blythe's Vida to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce - anything Davis has Crawford must have too. By now cousin Miriam Hopkins has persuaded Davis to allow her, Hopkins, to adopt the child thus relegating Davis to 'old maid' status in which persona she is cruelly taunted by Bryan. As soaps go this produces a fine, luxurious lather with Davis, again playing opposite a strong actress, close to her best, which is saying something.

Edith Wharton By Zoe Atkins Out Of Warner Brothers

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 19 January 2009]

If anyone knows which of Edith Wharton's novels was made into a play by Zoe Atkins and then filmed by Warner Brothers let us all know on this board. I searched Wikipedia on Edith Wharton and couldn't figure out exactly which of her works this could be. The screen credit doesn't tell as you see and it certainly isn't The Age Of Innocence or Ethan Frome or any of her more well known works. My gut tells me its quite a bit different from what Wharton originally wrote. By the way the Internet Broadway Database doesn't tell you anything either.

It does tell you that The Old Maid ran for 305 performances on Broadway in the 1935 season and starred Judith Anderson and Helen Menken in the roles that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins play here. Davis and Hopkins are cousins. Miriam's the bright and pretty one and apparently gets first crack at the men. One she had on a string for a while was George Brent who as the story opens arrives back in Philadelphia expecting to take up where he left off with Hopkins. But Hopkins has decided she wants wealth and security and marries solid Jerome Cowan instead.

Davis who's had a thing for Brent volunteers to meet him at the station and break the news. Of course Brent insists on a confrontation just before the wedding, but being the gentleman he always is on the screen, backs off and congratulates the bride. And before he goes off to war Davis gives him a grand send off.

But Brent leaves the film early, being killed in the siege at Vicksburg and leaves Davis something to remember him by. Something she can't explain in proper Philadelphia society. Kindly doctor Donald Crisp arranges for a trip out west for her health where she has a baby girl and later comes back and starts an orphan asylum, the idea to build a forest to hide her family tree.

The rest of the story is pure soap opera, 19th century style with Hopkins eventually adopting the girl and Davis coming to live with her as 'Aunt Charlotte' to her own daughter played when she grows up by Jane Bryan. There's a lot of tension in the air and the fact that Davis and Hopkins hated each other in real life probably helps the performances. But these two women have put across a lot worse than The Old Maid.

What this board could use is someone who knows Edith Wharton and her work and can tell the rest of us what the original story was and how close this was to the story. My gut just tells me that this soap opera was far from what Wharton intended.

Not Really Hers But Theirs...

[marcin_kukuczka · 9/10 · 11 March 2012]

Do things in life get so complicated that all seems to be a chain of desperate movements within a spider's web of confusion? Can human relations turn out to be so intensely complex and unendurable? Can pretense culminate through years in order to burst out at last or make the heart still for good? Something quite rare in real life, perhaps, but quite frequent on the screen.

One of classic representatives of a drama where so much is being felt yet so much being left unsaid is a play by Zoe Akins which inspired screenwriter Casey Robinson and director Edmund Goulding to adapt it to the screen in 1939. Initially, it had been a project by Lubitsch within the Paramount studio with the leading roles planned for Judith Anderson and Helen Menken. That, however, had not materialized. Instead, this Warner Bros production stands out as one of the key entertainments of its time. Goulding's subtle direction can be analyzed as a model from different points; Robinson proved to be faithful to the theatrical source making only some little alternations for the moral requirements of the Code; Tony Gaudio's cinematography boasts of some outstanding moments with striking undertones of images...but those important aspects are not where the movie's true strength lies. It does lie in the cast who make a rather 'unattractive' (for today's viewers) content highly interesting.

BETTE DAVIS and MIRIAM HOPKINS in the roles of 'Mrs Stubborn' and 'Mrs Serious,' as the two sisters nickname each other, have equal screen time as female co-stars. That makes THE OLD MAID not merely a vehicle for the Warner Bros star (Davis) but a highly unique, sometimes extremely controversial collaboration of the two. The treasure of skill and movie's major merit is not really hers (Davis's) but theirs...It is impossible to say whose performance is better; that would never be an idea of looking at the film. It is enough to state that the two prove unusual talents and extraordinarily generous acting. The lives of the two actresses crossed at the moment, faced conflicts. Consequently, those emotions are excellently put into all the effect they achieve together on the screen. While Davis was an important star of Warner studios at the time, Hopkins, unfortunately, remained underrated though she already had some great roles behind her. As far as Bette Davis is concerned, I totally agree with New York Times reviewer Frank S Nugent who observed: "Miss Davis has given a poignant and wise performance, hard and austere of surface; yet communicating through it the deep tenderness, the hidden anguish of the heart broken mother." Her portrayal, with the time span of one generation, is supplied with undeniably broad emotions and torments that she pays seeing herself in her own daughter - the girl who was hers only when being very little and who, as a teenager, can call her nothing else than 'aunt Charlotte.' She is a very sympathetic character and easily identified with by various female viewers – there lies the heart of a temperamental maid and a broken mother. Meanwhile, Miriam Hopkins, 'the least desirable companion on a desert island' as the Harvard Lampoon labeled her, proves to be a top notch talent here depicting various tricks of emotional crush with ease. Her Delia is a sort of 'forever young'... a woman of sophisticated appeal and harsh inaccessibility desirable for the kind of role she portrays. But the tensions reach climax when the two women are together. Among many scenes, I would mention the Christmas scene when the time comes for bitter words...though everyone's supposed to be jolly...

In between them, as an object of their jealous love, comes Jane Bryan as a young, vibrant, temperamental 'foundling' CLEMenTINA. 'When she talks, she laughs; when she walks, she dances,' as Dr Lanskell (Donald Crisp) nicely defines her. Miss Bryan, though given a considerably limited but significant screen time, gives a lively performance and steals one or two moments of attention from others. Being very memorable here, we can say that she is, in a way, the third female top notch performer. Her movements before the camera, her vibrant gestures, her acting in general call the attention even of the most 'pretentious' viewers. In the supporting roles, a mention should be made of a mainstay of old Hollywood classic (especially in Bette Davis film), Donald Crisp as Dr Lanskell. His remarks are cutting at moments and his presence filled with positive portrayal of an elderly, experienced guy. George Brent, given the role thanks to Bette Davis (the first choice was Humphrey Bogart), has his few moments of good acting as Clem though the role is quite marginal.

Finally, I would like to address the appealing psychology of the film. It accurately depicts the culmination of feelings within the wretched scapegoating of other people, sometimes even those who have more rights to something or somebody than we do. Mind you that many scenes take place on staircase that marks the undertone of higher and lower status within favoritism. Charlotte is the scapegoat of the events and yet...there is some hope for her, too... when a great day comes. The finale is so touching because of its simplicity at a relatively satisfactory pace. THE OLD MAID reminds us of universal laws that govern human relations where one loving deed redresses many bitter ones.

Let me quote Frank S Nugent who observed something quintessential about this old Hollywood classic: "Scenically, it is a trifle on the static side, which could not be avoided altogether. But dramatically, it is vital, engrossing and a little terrifying." Indeed, its drama has not dated and, though a sweet tearjerker at certain moments, it may wonderfully absorb the viewers of today. Who makes it 'vital, engrossing, little terrifying' if not the PERFORMERS? Thank you Bette, Miriam and Jane! Thank you all!

Terrible people getting a pass: the movie

[shoobe01-1 · 6/10 · 4 July 2021]

Well done, but it is hard to like a film where everyone is so relentlessly terrible. Delia is straight up evil to Charlotte for 20 year, ruining her chance of marriage, stealing her chld (even legally! Adopted her!) so why do I care? How does Doc Lanskell not know if it was bad and talk about what /delia/ sacrificed with here presumed, but never shown, guilt? Why is this a "tear-jerker"? I wanted it to be a revenge tale instead of watching horrible families be horrible.

Bette and Miriam! Go girls go!

[earlytalkie · 22 August 2011]

Here is a classic film which I have never seen. According to lore, Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins detested each other during the filming of this. Both actresses were forces of nature to be reckoned with, and, if anything, Miriam was even more of an upstager than Bette was. Both actresses however overcome their dislike for each other to turn in thoroughly terrific performances. Bette Davis is marvelous as the initially lovely and later repressed woman with a secret. Bette never turned in a bad performance, so it's natural to expect and get one here. Miriam Hopkins is, these days little-known to contemporary audiences and that's a shame, since she was really a terrific actress. The two stars spar subtly and not so subtly like two dogs circling each other for a fight. There is a satisfying ending which will bring a tear to your eye. The glossy Warner Bros. production has a marvelous Max Steiner score which dosn't hurt one bit. Two great actresses for the price of one, 23 years before "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

The biggest tearjerker next to 'Stella Dallas'

[HotToastyRag · 9/10 · 2 July 2021]

Get out your handkerchiefs! Bette Davis, the queen of black-and-white tearjerkers, outdoes herself in The Old Maid. I dare anyone to make it through this classic without bawling. Bette Davis starts the movie in love with her cousin's fiancé, George Brent. Her frivolous cousin, Miriam Hopkins, got tired of waiting for George to come home from the war, so she marries someone else. When George comes back and finds out, he's devastated but gets comforted by Bette. He was her favorite leading man, after all.

Years later, George has died in battle and Bette never remarried. She runs an orphanage for children whose fathers died in the war, in order to hide her own illegitimate daughter from George. When Miriam, now a widow as well, comes with her own little girl and lives with Bette, a bedroom ritual starts. Miriam's daughter says, "Goodnight Mummy. Goodnight Aunt Charlotte," to Bette. Bette's daughter starts saying it, too. It pains Bette terribly to hear her child call Miriam "Mummy", let alone to be called "Aunt Charlotte." I'm sure you can imagine the tearjerker scenes that follow.

I always said it was a tragedy that Bette didn't win her Oscar for this movie. At the Hot Toasty Rag, she was the one and only person to gain a triple nomination in the same category. In 1939, she was nominated for Dark Victory, The Old Maid, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, winning the Rag for the latter. While she absolutely deserved a Rag for playing Aunt Charlotte, her performance as Queen Elizabeth was remarkable.

If you like sacrificing mother stories like Stella Dallas, you'll love this one. You'll get to see some beautiful costumes, great age makeup on the leading ladies as the story travels through the decades, and you'll go through at least one box of Kleenexes as Bette tears up your heart. And if you like the dynamic of Bette and Miriam fighting over the same man, check out their follow-up Old Acquaintance.

Sisters of Dysfunction

[nycritic · 10/10 · 17 May 2006]

Edith Wharton never found a story with a non-ending she didn't like, and her short novel "The Old Maid," made into an excellent period drama starring Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, and Jane Bryan is no exception to the rule.

The story of two sisters living in rivalry as one of them -- the crueler one -- flourishes, while the second one -- the good one -- languishes in a destroyed life, couldn't have been better suited to the two actresses who couldn't have disliked each other more.

Bette Davis up until then had not shared considerable screen time with an actress of mettle until Miriam Hopkins took the role of Delia Lovell Ralston. She'd always had her share of leading men, whether she liked them or not, and in SO BIG! she had no scenes with Barbara Stanwyck. Being on screen with a female who could either out-act her or steal her scenes was something Davis reacted to with a brittle sense of aggression -- that is, unless they were on friendly terms, as when she and Mary Astor shared screen time together in THE GREAT LIE or when she, later in life, allowed pal Olivia de Havilland to mentally abuse her in HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE. Even when acting aside Anne Baxter -- also part of Davis' circle of friends -- neither sought to obliterate the other, and in that film, Baxter played a supreme bitch to Bette's exaggerated but vulnerable Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE.

However, one only had to see how she acted and reacted to women who somehow, she viewed as professional rivals, she thought little of, or felt that their glamor somehow would eclipse her presence. Of them all, it's widely agreed to that with (Joan) Crawford she was on the least friendly of terms, and crew members expected an explosion to take place at any given moment on the set of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? However, Davis is also reputed to have stated that despite their "rivalry", despite that Crawford and she had never been "simpatico", there was no feud... although if filming had been extended to three months instead of three weeks, well -- that was another story. The end result, however, while not the best of films -- in fact it has exploitation moments -- was a fascinating study of Hollywood sisters living in hatred of each other, joined in a battle of wills to survive.

There was a lot feeding the flames of animosity between Davis and Hopkins. While filming THE SISTERS, Davis was reported to have sustained a romantic affair with her director (and Hopkins' husband at the time), Anatole Litvak, even when he gave co-star Errol Flynn most of the close-ups. Hopkins had starred in the theatre production of JEZEBEL, a role she felt entitled to, so she felt that Davis had also stole that character away from her (and quite possibly her chances of winning an Oscar). Davis states that Hopkins tried to make her very ill at ease, even walking at one point onto the set dressed as Julie Marsden. Even so, Davis refused to give in to Hopkins' antics, instead of focusing on her own performance. Because of the animosity between the sisters, it was probably best for them that neither actress have good feelings towards each other. Because both women have a great many scenes together (and even hold hands in that emotional, closing scene), their relationship together seems and feels real.

Nowadays actors can only put out one movie a year. Bette Davis was able to produce four of them, all top material, major productions, in 1939 alone. THE OLD MAID could have given her an acting nomination the same way DARK VICTORY did -- as Charlotte Lovell she is restrained, resigned, selfless, and internally strong. She ages well, too. Miriam Hopkins is also pretty sharp in conveying icy manipulation and there is a moment where a moment of catharsis should take place, but in Wharton's novels of manners, that never happens. It does help to have the story stick to its pessimistic yet hopeful ending -- again, a trademark of Wharton's storytelling -- and made me think that Hollywood could do a movie without having to force a "satisfying" ending to the movie going public.

Hello, melodrama calling....

[FilmOtaku · 6/10 · 26 July 2003]

Bette Davis has such a brilliant range that she can play the martyr as well as she can play the bitch. (Although watching her play the bitch is so much more fun.) She plays the martyr in The Old Maid to the point where you want to take her by the shoulders and shake her, until you realize what era these characters are in.

The Old Maid is the tale of Charlotte, a woman who falls in love with Clem, who has just been jilted by Delia, her cousin. Clem goes off to battle soon after, but not before trysting with Charlotte, producing a child out of wedlock. (Gasp!) Charlotte opens an orphanage and deposits their child in it so she can look after her, but later moves in with her newly widowed cousin after she founds out the true identity of the child, Tina. Tina is later adopted by Delia, and Charlotte is forced to watch her grow up under the pretense that she is Tina's aunt.

Davis is good at what she does – this is a part that could have been played by anyone, but she did a great job portraying the long-suffering Charlotte. The Old Maid is a good piece of melodrama, if not typical of the genre.

--Shel

Whatever Happened to Aunt Charlotte?

[lugonian · 10/10 · 19 June 2021]

THE OLD MAID (Warner Brothers, 1939), directed by Edmund Goulding, teams Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins (in Warner Brothers debut) for the first time. Being strong-willed women playing strong-willed women, they work against each other with equal standing. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Zoe Atkins, and novel by Edith Wharton, THE OLD MAID is definitely prime Bette Davis drama. Of her four top-releases of 1939, with DARK VICTORY being her most admired (even by Davis herself), THE OLD MAID is a superb production that, in later years has become one of her least televised and revived. George Brent, Davis's most frequent co-star, working together for the ninth time, has only a few scenes during its opening passages, while comedienne, Louise Fazenda, attempts dramatic fare here for what proved to be her final movie role. Being the first movie for which Davis' character is named Charlotte, a name she would use again in NOW, VOYAGER (1942) and HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964), THE OLD MAID is Davis' Charlotte at classic best.

Set during the Civil War, the story opens in 1861 with the wedding of Delia Lobell (Miriam Hopkins) to Jim Ralston (James Stephenson). Two years prior, her fiance, Clem Spender, has left her before returning to her and become a proper husband. Not wanting to wait for his return and become an old maid, Delia breaks off her engagement to marry another. The very day of her wedding, a telegram arrives of Clem's arrival. Feeling it would be of bad taste for Clem to show up on Delia's wedding day, Charlotte (Bette Davis), Delia's cousin who also loves Clem, meets him at the train station with the news, which upsets Clem. He comes to a showdown with Delia, who refuses his love, and leaves. During the wedding ceremony, Charlotte follows Clem to comfort him. Clem later enlists in the war promising to return to Charlotte. After Clem is killed in the war in 1864, Charlotte opens a daycare nursery in 1866 for war orphans, taking a special interest in Clemtina (Marlene Burnett), known only to the family Doctor, Lanksell (Donald Crisp), to be Charlotte's daughter. With Charlotte's plans to marry Jim's brother, Joe (Jerome Cowan), she reveals to Delia that Clemtina to be her out of wedlock daughter with Clem being the father. Both surprised and angered, Delia talks Joe into releasing Charlotte from her marriage. After Delia's husband dies, she arranges for Charlotte and Clemtina to move in with her and her two children for companionship. With this arrangement, and Charlotte unable to reveal Clemtina's past, lets it be known Charlotte to be the Clemtina's spinster aunt with Delia passed off as her mother. Years later in 1884, the now adult Tina (Jane Bryan), having developed her love and compassion towards Delia, resents her "Aunt" Charlotte, who, in her eyes, has become a spiteful old maid, unaware of how her sacrifice is really hurting her. Others in the cast include William Lundigan (Lanning Halsey), Cecilia Loftus (Grandma Henrietta); Rand Brooks (Jim) and DeWolf Hopper (John Ward).

THE OLD MAID is further evidence of being perfect movie material that could never be remade with equal standing. Davis is believable first as a carefree youth with transformation to a bitterly spinster aunt. Fortunately, her aging, as well as Hopkins, do not go overboard with heavy wrinkles from the make-up department. Miriam Hopkins proves her worth in being just as good in a secondary role than she is in the lead. Her performance as the conniving cousin with good-hearted intentions makes this worth viewing. Jane Bryan, in her fourth and last opposite Davis, is delightful in posture as a free-spirited girl who resents her "aunt's" criticism for her actions. Her closing segment in the story is truly heart rendering.

Unseen on television since the 1960s, THE OLD MAID came out of mothballs in the 1980s with cable broadcasts on Cinemax, Showtime and Turner Network Television before becoming a permanent fixture on Turner Classic Movies. Formerly distributed on video cassette in the 1980s, it's currently available on DVD, assuring rediscovery to a movie that deserves further recognition than it deserves. Next and final Davis and Hopkins teaming, OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943) is also worthy recommendation as well. (****)

melodrama

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 23 December 2019]

Civil War breaks out. Jim Ralston is getting married to Delia Lovell (Miriam Hopkins). Charlotte Lovell (Bette Davis) is her unmarried cousin. Delia's former love Clem Spender is coming after a two year absence and Charlotte goes to meet him. He is shocked by Delia's pending marriage. Clem is killed in the war and Charlotte is caring for many war orphans. After the war, Charlotte is being married off to Joe Ralston but she's actually hiding a secret.

This is highly soapy and it rushes through a lot of story. It is the highest melodrama distilled in cinematic form. It tries hard to be a rivalry of two legends. Some of those moments work. Bette Davis gives the melodrama her all. It is a very good old fashion melodrama.

Very Good Period Soap Opera

[Irecken · 8/10 · 3 March 2002]

"The Old Maid" is a lovely and picturesque film, full of the tear-jerking elements that you may expect with the story, full of lies and love and illegitimate children. Bette Davis gives an admirably restrained performance, and Miriam Hopkins even manages to elicit a measure of sympathy toward the end. The only bad thing about the film was the casting of Jane Bryan as Bette's illegitimate daughter, an uncharismatic and unattractive actress whose bad acting is saved from ruining the film by Miss Davis and Miss Hopkins.

Well made but a tad of a disappointment

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 30 May 2007]

This is a well made film but despite everything, I felt a tad disappointed. I think some of it might be the inconsistencies in the characters and another is probably due to the low energy level in the film. In real life, the film's stars (Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis) hated each other and getting these divas to work together was a major ordeal. I really wish that the energy from this volcanic relationship had somehow been translated to the screen. Instead, you have two characters who have reason to dislike each other (in particular, Davis's character really had every reason to want to kill Hopkins' character), but spent the movie quietly seething--so quietly that the only sparks came out near the end and even these were quite muted. Perhaps this very controlled manner was more realistic than a histrionic relationship but it certainly was a lot less fun to watch. And, as I said at the beginning of this review, the characters were inconsistent and not especially believable. Hopkins generally played a decent person in the first half of the movie when, out of the blue, she stabbed Bette (figuratively) in the back. Then, in a subtle way she spent the rest of the film undermining Bette until the end when she repents and shows some decency. It was like the character had a case of Multiple Personality Disorder ("Dissociative Identity Disorder" for all you psychotherapists out there). And Bette was very decent in the first half of the film, only to become bitter and cranky. I understood why the writer chose to do this with Bette--showing how a disappointment in love can change a person's personality radically. But how could they explain away Hopkins' strange and inconsistent actions? Despite all this, the direction and entire production was first-rate Warner Brothers entertainment. And when Warner pulled out all the stops, their films were amazing--even if a bit flawed as in the case with this film. A bit of a disappointment, yes, as I am a HUGE Bette Davis fan, but still well worth seeing even if sparks don't fly.

Charlotte must remain hushed.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 6 April 2017]

If there was a hit play on Broadway, you know that in the mid to late 1930's and 40's that Bette Davis was looking at as a potential vehicle for herself. There was "The Petrified Forest", "Jezebel", "Dark Victory", "The Little Foxes" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner", and one that received the Pulitzer prize, this play by Zoe Atkins, gloriously filmed in the greatest year that the movies have ever known.

Not all spinsters start off as old maids, and in the case of Bette's Charlotte, she was a lovely young woman who made one "mistake" with the now deceased civil war hero George Brent. Only the audience is aware that she has had a baby by him, taking care of her as a foundling, but only to stand by as her cousin Delia (Miriam Hopkins) arranges to adopt the little girl. Forgetting who raised her growing up, the young Tina (Jane Bryan) grows to hate her "Aunt Charlotte", now sour looking and stern, while Delia hasn't seemed to age at all.

It's obvious that the egotistical Hopkins cared more about image than reality, while Davis doesn't give a crap, only wanting to play the part as written. That's not to dismiss Hopkins, giving a sincere performance, only changing her hair style slightly to indicate the passage of time. Donald Crisp as an old family friend is superb, while Louise Fazenda's old nurse delightfully loyal.This is excellent on every level, and I mark Davis's performance as even better than the one she managed to be nominated for in a year of hits, "Dark Victory". Davis doesn't even mind a shadow covering half her face, as if during this scene (where she practices disciplining Bryan) to indicate the shadow of a life her existence has become. I could watch all of Davis's classics back to back with only a break for sleep, and never be tired of them.

Decent, though disappointing Bette Davis film --- BUT MAY I NOW CHANGE MY MIND?

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 19 October 2012]

My original review: It's interesting to read our reviews of this film here at IMDb. Interestingly, most of our reviewers give it pretty decent marks, which was not what most reviewers said at the time of the film's original release. And I must concur with those reviewers some 70 years ago. Stodgy is a good descriptor for this film, and it seemed like it went on forever. And I say that as a tremendous fan of Bette Davis. And I note that this film was made at the beginning of what one might call "the golden age of Bette Davis". By this film was not gold, rather bronze. Many viewers will be disappointed in the demise of legendary Bette Davis costar George Brent very early in the film. As stodgy as this film is, particularly during much of its early scenes, it was rather daring that Davis' character had an illegitimate child, which she then raises as a foundling. I recently read that with Mariam Hopkins, you either thought she was wonderful, or horrible, with very little room in between. I tend to dislike her as an actress, though she had some roles that were tremendous. This is not one of them, though she is passable here. To be honest, it's the last 20 or so minutes of the film where you will find the best scenes by all the actresses, particularly some strong scenes by Davis. Before that, there are occasional strong scenes, with lots of pap in between. But that last 20 minutes...mmmmmmmm. The only other actor worth mentioning here is the great Donald Crisp, who is superb as the doctor and family friend. This film is worth watching, but I doubt it'll find its way to many home DVD shelves. Some of Bette Davis' films I can watch over and over and over. But not this one. Once is fine. Perhaps if the writers had totally redone the plot it might have been a great film...as great as its initial premise.

Now, several years later, I have just finished re-watching this film, and while I still rate it a "7", I found it much better than when I viewed it previously. I didn't find it stodgy at all this time around. No, it's not one of Bette Davis' very best films, but it's darned good. Not a gold, not a bronze...perhaps a silver. I also found Miriam Hopkins much better than I had previously thought...in this film; I still think she was an actress that appeared as a dolt far too often in films, but she was good here. I'm still not going to buy the DVD, but I can see myself watching the film again.

Best of Warner's Era Films Not Directed by William Wyler

[sissymaletopman · 9 May 2008]

Everyone who is a fan of Davis' knows that William Wyler (director of Jezebel, the Letter, and the Little Foxes) was Davis' "best" director because he could put her in her place and control her, forcing her to not over-act and use too many bits of business and gestures, etc to distract. Davis did not need mannerisms to get emotion across on screen and Wyler seemed to be able to tell her how to control that; she learned from him, for after Jezebel in 1938, she very rarely acted in a manner displaying lack of control that matched her pre-Jezebel career.

The Old Maid was directed by Edmund Goulding; I don't know much about him except that was considered a "women's film" director and was respected as a talented one. In any event, the Old Maid is the best of Davis' four 1939 films. which include Dark Victory, Juarez, and the Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.

In the Old Maid, Davis with the help of Mr Goulding delivers a restrained yet compellingly provocative performance; the film spans a twenty year time period, beginning in 1861 or so with a young Davis ministering to her cousin Delia (played by the talented but very difficult Miriam Hopkins.) Although Miriam does her best to steal each scene from Davis, she never succeeds. Bette Davis is superb in this film; so much so that it really remains one of the few undated movies from the 1930s. True star quality is related to being able to connect with an audience over years and years of time. Ms. Davis certainly has this ability - never better displayed than in the Old Maid.

Favorite scenes: Charlotte (Davis' character) wedding preparation and Delia's subsequent lie - along with the next scene that takes place when Davis realizes that Hopkins' character has lied and ruined her life - watch Davis' face as she utters "it was wicked of you" to Hopkins- (who, by the way delivers a disappointing response.) Now that's star-quality acting!

The Old Maid Shows Similar Themes ***

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 27 May 2006]

A spinster named Charlotte giving up her life for a girl named Tina. Sounds like the great "Now, Voyager." It's not as good but is passable.

Davis plays a woman settling down to a grim spinsterhood after having an illegitimate child. She stays with relative Miriam Hopkins and the two battle it out as the years pass.

The film is hurt by the fact that the vast majority of scenes take place in the house where the two are residing.

The child, Tina, refers to Davis as Aunt Charlotte and in her bitterness, Davis is highly critical of her. In response, Tina often says nasty things to her.

The theme of women giving up their lives to keep a major secret of illegitimacy hidden has often been shown in films. This time it's adequately done to the fine acting of Davis and Hopkins.