Film Review
What this shameless weepy may lack in subtlety and restraint it more than
makes up for in style. Yes, it's a woman's picture (a derogatory
term if ever there was one), clearly intended to ensure the
manufacturers of disposable handkerchiefs stayed in business during
WWII, but with the redoubtable Bette Davis at the helm and
knocking out one of her legendary take-no-prisoners bravura
performances,
Mr. Skeffington has an irresistible appeal.
The film would appear to be tailor-made for Bette Davis, an actress
who, throughout her career, was highly self-conscious of her
limitations in the beauty department. Davis knew full well that
her appeal lay not in her being the most glamorous thing in Hollywood
but in her extraordinary skill as an actress and the fact that most
female audiences could identify with her. Whilst the
character she portrays in this film isn't particularly convincing on
paper, Davis invests her with great pathos and she succeeds in
transforming a rather trite story of a vain woman losing her beauty
into an exceptionally poignant morality tale.
To its credit, the film doesn't take itself too seriously. There
is plenty of humour, some of which is quite dark, and most of which is
underplayed, and this prevents the overly generous dollops of
sentimentality from becoming too toe-curlingly saccharine.
Director Vincent Sherman succeeds in getting a great performance not
only from Bette Davis, but also from her co-stars, Claude Rains and
Walter Abel. Rains is particularly memorable as the sympathetic
unloved husband; he gives his character a humanity and down-to-earth
realism which perfectly counter-points the tragic egoistical
artificiality of the heroine played by Davis. Despite its high
schmaltz quotient,
Mr. Skeffington is a surprisingly entertaining film,
perhaps a tad silly in places, but wonderful therapy for anyone who
feels the need to sob his or her guts out over the carpet when Cupid
slips up.
© James Travers 2008
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Film Synopsis
With a host of eligible young bachelors throwing themselves at her
feet, socialite beauty Fanny Trellis surprises everyone by marrying a
middle-aged Jewish stockbroker named Job Skeffington. After her
brother defrauded Skeffington whilst in his employ, Fanny felt she had
no option but to marry the older man, even though she has no feelings
for him. Skeffington, by contrast, is infatuated with Fanny and
will do anything to make her happy. Fanny's brother is so
disgusted by the marriage that he enlists as a fighter pilot in WWI,
and promptly gets himself killed. Receiving this news, Fanny
ceases to feel any obligation towards her husband and, on learning that
he has been entertaining his secretaries in his spare time, she quickly
divorces him. As Skeffington goes off to Germany to start a new
life with their infant daughter, Fanny returns to her carefree
socialite life, rejoicing in the ease with which she can still lure
young men into her boudoir. But then disaster strikes.
Fanny contracts diphtheria and overnight she ages twenty years.
Time has finally caught up with her...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.