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Bette The Nasty: In This
Our Life (1942)
Review Copyright Roger Zotti,
2000
Stanley Timberlake ditches her fiance, Craig Fleming,
and takes off with her sister's husband, Peter Kingsmill.
They settle in Baltimore--but not happily ever after. Stanley drives
Peter to suicide.
She decides to return home, and when she does learns her sister plans
to marry Craig.
What's a gal to do? Answer: Set out to win back Craig's affections.
At her histrionic best, Bette Davis plays Stanley in this fast-paced,
always entertaining John Huston directed superior soap opera. Olivia de
Havilland is Roy, Stanley's sister. Also featured are Dennis Morgan, Billie
Burke, Charles Coburn, and George Brent.
The contrast in acting styles is striking. Davis rants and squirms and pulls out all the stops, while de Havilland is soft-spoken, calm, and underplays with consummate skill. In a small role, Morgan as Peter is effective. Apologies to all those Coburn and Brent fans out there, but Coburn as Stanley's uncle is his usual blustery self, a trait he's perfected beyond good sense; and Brent is one-dimensional as usual, a trait he's doubtless mastered to annoy his friend and co-star, Ms. Davis.
Back to nasty Stanley. Drunk and speeding home one evening, she runs down a mother and her young daughter. The child dies. Naturally, Stanley flees the scene.
The police investigate and eventually the blame is placed on an innocent young man named Parry who works in Craig's law office and aspires to be a lawyer.
Buckle up your seat belts for the scene wherein Stanley entreats her dying uncle to help her. Admitting she did "a dreadful thing," Stanley nevertheless disclaims any responsibility for seriously injuring the woman and killing her child.
"It just happened," she says. "I didn't know what I was doing."
"Fix it," she grouses to her uncle. Then she tells him to call the authorities. "They'll listen to you," she pleads. "Say anything, just so they don't arrest me."
Uncle, though, has his own problems. Like being terminally ill.
Uncle: I'm going to die. Don't you understand? I'm going to die.
But does Stanley really care?
Stanley: All right, you're going to die. You're an old man. You've lived your life. I haven't lived mine. Mine has hardly begun. Think of me, uncle ... You're not even listening. You don't care what happens to me anymore than the others. You'll let me go to prison. All you're thinking of is your own miserable self. Well, you can die for all I care. Die.
She storms out of the room.
See the film to learn if Stanley gets the comeuppance she so richly deserves, because on this point my lips are sealed.
Final word. According to Gene Ringgold, author of The Complete Films of Bette Davis, as a good luck gesture director Huston persuaded members of his previous film, The Maltese Falcon, to make unbilled guest appearances. So keep an eye open for Walter Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Elisha Cook, Jr. in the bar scene.
Cast: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Charles
Coburn,
Billie Burke, Hattie McDaniel, Lee Patrick
Directed by John Huston. Screenplay by Howard Koch.
Based on the novel by Ellen Glascow. Gowns by Orry-Kelly.
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