Let's face it - this 1942 Warner Bros film classic is a hoot. Directed by journeyman studio veteran Irving Rapper, it's an unabashed, only-in-Hollywood soap opera with Bette Davis at the peak of her popularity as she evolves from a distraught, overweight spinster to a glamorous Boston society social maven in about ten minutes. Probably to Tom Cruise's horror, it's also a big valentine to the positive effects of psychoanalysis, a "new" science which must have been viewed with a great deal of skepticism at the time. Yet for all its plot contrivances - and there are quite a few - this is ultimately sublime entertainment thanks mainly to the stellar performances and the simple fact that the story is never dull.
The plot focuses on heiress Charlotte Vale, a walking disaster of sheltered neurosis in sensible shoes and a virtual slave to one of the most dominating mothers in screen history. Charlotte's concerned sister-in-law Lisa brings Dr. Jaquith to the Vale mansion where he convinces Charlotte to seek psychiatric treatment at a posh sanitarium. Although still insecure after she leaves on a life-altering pleasure cruise, she finds inevitable romance with architect Jerry Durrance, who of course is married to an unstable woman. Overcome with guilt and breaking an engagement to an available prospect, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium, where she meets troubled young Tina, who of course turns out to be Jerry's daughter. From this ultimate contrivance, plot threads get sewn together in short order, cigarettes lit under the moonlight and Davis coos her big line, "Don't let's ask for the moon; we have the stars." In what amounts to a showcase for her versatility, Davis is superb in both before and after modes, even playing a romantic shipboard teenager with sincerity in a flashback sequence. Paul Henried plays Jerry with requisite Continental charm, but he is truly overmatched by Davis in their scenes together. Claude Rains fares better in the pivotal role of Dr. Jaquith providing his medical advice with convincing paternal authority and genuine warmth. Gladys Cooper - who would play the far warmer mother of Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" two decades later - portrays Charlotte's iron-willed mother in a sharply uncompromising manner befitting the intimidating stature she holds in the family. Broadway luminary Ilka Chase is fine in one of her few screen appearances as sympathetic Lisa, and Bonita Granville - grown-up since her sinister turn as the rumor-mongering child in William Wyler's "These Three" seven years earlier - plays the bratty niece June with enthusiasm. The print condition on the DVD is excellent, though there are no other extras included.
The plot focuses on heiress Charlotte Vale, a walking disaster of sheltered neurosis in sensible shoes and a virtual slave to one of the most dominating mothers in screen history. Charlotte's concerned sister-in-law Lisa brings Dr. Jaquith to the Vale mansion where he convinces Charlotte to seek psychiatric treatment at a posh sanitarium. Although still insecure after she leaves on a life-altering pleasure cruise, she finds inevitable romance with architect Jerry Durrance, who of course is married to an unstable woman. Overcome with guilt and breaking an engagement to an available prospect, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium, where she meets troubled young Tina, who of course turns out to be Jerry's daughter. From this ultimate contrivance, plot threads get sewn together in short order, cigarettes lit under the moonlight and Davis coos her big line, "Don't let's ask for the moon; we have the stars." In what amounts to a showcase for her versatility, Davis is superb in both before and after modes, even playing a romantic shipboard teenager with sincerity in a flashback sequence. Paul Henried plays Jerry with requisite Continental charm, but he is truly overmatched by Davis in their scenes together. Claude Rains fares better in the pivotal role of Dr. Jaquith providing his medical advice with convincing paternal authority and genuine warmth. Gladys Cooper - who would play the far warmer mother of Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" two decades later - portrays Charlotte's iron-willed mother in a sharply uncompromising manner befitting the intimidating stature she holds in the family. Broadway luminary Ilka Chase is fine in one of her few screen appearances as sympathetic Lisa, and Bonita Granville - grown-up since her sinister turn as the rumor-mongering child in William Wyler's "These Three" seven years earlier - plays the bratty niece June with enthusiasm. The print condition on the DVD is excellent, though there are no other extras included.