December 6: Golden Oldie

One of my all-time favorite actresses is Bette Davis. I cannot really articulate why, but I find her to be an intriguing and fascinating screen presence. Perhaps because she was willing to take risks and play characters that might be unlikable. Perhaps because she was more versatile than many realize. Perhaps because she just happened to be a damned good actress. I got to work with the producers of one of her TV-movies as they were preparing the opening credits and wanted various photographs of her through the years. And then, I actually got to meet the woman herself -- which remains a very special moment in my life.

So, thanks to the good folks at Green Cine, I scored a copy of Old Acquaintance, a woman's picture from 1943. I had seen the movie a long time ago but I wanted to watch it again.

Old Acquaintance is an adaptation of a play by John Van Druten (who received co-writing credit with Lenore Coffee on the screenplay) and centers on the life-long friendship between Katherine 'Kit' Marlowe (Davis) and Mildred 'Millie' Watson Drake (Miriam Hopkins). When the film opens, it's 1924 and Kit Marlowe has just published her first novel. Millie is to host her visit and has everything all planned out -- and, of course, nothing goes as expected. It becomes clear that Millie is spoiled, petulant and somewhat jealous of Kit's success, while Kit envies Millie's domestic life with her husband Preston (John Loder). Millie shows Kit a manuscript for a novel that she has written and before you know it, the years pass and Mrs. Drake has become a successful writer of pulp romances. Meanwhile, Kit's work comes slowly, wins awards, but sells few copies.

We skip ahead and Kit is trying her hand at playwriting while Millie is spending money wildly, neglecting her daughter and her husband. Preston makes it clear that he cares for Kit who declines his offer so as not to offend her friend.

Another jump in time and the U.S.A. has entered World War II. Kit has acquired a younger lover (Gig Young) who helps her arrange a meeting between Preston (now a major in the army) and his now-grown daughter (Dolores Moran).

Over the course of the film, marriages break up, lovers come and go, but the one constant is the friendship between the two women. Of course, one of the themes of the film is that a woman can have a career or a family but not both. (Something that Davis herself struggled with off-screen.)

Hopkins has the flashier role and her histrionics are mildly amusing. The character is meant to be somewhat annoying and the actress perfectly captures that. Davis has the more subdued role and she excels in the part. Her role allows her to play the martyr and suffer nobly. Much has been written about the women's real-life dislike of one another and there's a famous scene where Davis literally shakes Hopkins in an effort to knock sense into her. It's capped by a clipped and amusing "Sorry!" But while that may be the sequence everyone knows, the overall movie is terrific.

The supporting cast is fine. Young, in one of his first roles, acquits himself well. Moran is fine while character players Anne Revere (as a bitchy journalist) and Esther Dale (as Davis' maid) do sterling work.

The DVD transfer is pristine, maintaining the terrific black and white photography. The extras include commentary by director Vincent Sherman and Davis biographer Boze Hadleigh, a Warner Bros. cartoon, a short Stars on Horseback, and a featurette Old Acquaintance: A Classic Woman's Picture, which has commentary by Jeanine Basinger, Hadleigh, and others.

The movie was remade in 1981 by director George Cukor as Rich and Famous, and at the time of this writing Cameron Diaz is attempting to do a contemporary spin on the material.

Rating: B+