Throughout her career, Bette Davis gained a reputation for playing some really despicable and cruel roles, and this film from John Huston attests to that. Being one of only 6 movies Davis made with Olivia de Havilland, one would expect this movie to be amazing. It is not as memorable as something like Jezebel or All About Eve, but is still worth watching because it perfectly shows how unforgiving Bette could be. The movie is about two girls who for some reason have masculine names, Roy (de Havilland) and Stanley (Davis). One day, Stanley steals Peter (Roy's husband) for herself, which leads to her sister Roy divorcing him. Meanwhile, Craig, the guy who Davis was engaged to, starts to date Roy instead: a complete reversal of relationships. After this, William, Stanley's uncle, is used to spoiling her with free money and other goodies, but is now having second thoughts after learning that she stole her sister's boyfriend. Roy and Craig get married soon after. Eventually, Stanley realizes she made a mistake by marrying Peter, since all he seems to do is drink. This is probably because he's trying to run away from some serious problem that is affecting him rather than facing it, and sure enough, he commits suicide later. Stanley is now convinced she must get back into her relationship with Craig, but that's now impossible considering he's married to her sister. While driving to talk things over with her former boyfriend, she accidentally hits and kills a young kid with her vehicle. Confused, tired, and now wanted by the police, Stanley decides she must travel as far away as possible, but she's interrogated before she can escape. Bette manages to persuade the cops to look the other way just this once and blames Parry Clay, a black law student, for the vehicular fatality. The cops believe her because she is white and has quite a lot of money. Clay is imprisoned, but Stanley promises to secure his release after she can prove it wasn't him. Her story by this point is so dishonest and full of lies that she's just digging herself a hole. None of it makes sense, and the cops eventually realize this and pursue Stanley to her uncle William's house. Stanley believes if anyone can help her out of this mess, it's him. He tells her he has a fatal illness and his time is running out. Stanley, too panic stricken to care, wishes him dead and tells him he already lived his life. After trying to escape the cops one last time in her car, she crashes it and is killed. Strangely, Bette Davis actually wanted to play Roy in this movie, the sister who stays out of trouble. It's safe to say nobody ever accused Bette of playing an abundance of friendly characters. The movie's production process was also delayed by the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, and Davis herself felt the movie was not the best. In my view, one of the most minor characters ends up having the most interesting connotations. In this case I'm referring to Parry Clay, the black law student who is framed by Davis after she crashes her car into the child. Many people (even back then) didn't like how helpless he was portrayed in the movie, since it kind of demonstrated how an african american's testimony is almost guaranteed to be ignored if it's made against a white person. Even though Davis does try to free him from jail knowing he didn't do anything wrong, it doesn't make it less reprehensible. To be clear, In This Our Life is essentially one of those movies that is not appreciated in its own time and finds fame later on. It's true that Davis starred in much better movies than this, but this is a solid showcase of how ruthless her characters could be.
Review of In This Our Life
