This one hits all of the right notes, is perfectly paced, and perfectly performed and directed.Maggie (Bette Davis) and Pete (George Brent) are engaged or at least have an understanding. However, pianist Sandra (Mary Astor) has her eye on Pete. One night at a party, when Maggie is not in attendance, Sandra and Pete get sauced, and wind up getting married. Pete wakes up the next morning with a ringing headache and resounding regret, but figures he just can't wed and bed the lady and leave, so he resolves to stick it out, even though he never says any of these things. It is all between the lines. Well low and behold Pete finds out that the marriage is not legal, that Sandra's divorce from her first husband was not final until AFTER their wedding. Pete is free technically, but still he wants to do the right thing. He tells Sandra he will meet her at city hall at a particular time to redo this thing legally. But Sandra has a big piano concert she can't miss! Pete holds firm. He will be at city hall at the appointed time or the marriage is off. She does not show up, and Pete leaves skid marks on his way back to Maggie, who is dehydrating herself with all of her tears over Pete's sudden marriage and abandonment of her.Maggie and Pete reconcile, AND they immediately marry. They both want this so there will be no more Pete waking up to any more Sandras hanging around. Some time is given to showing them being happy newlyweds, spending time together doing nothing in particular but being happy while doing it. Isn't that the definition of love? Being happy no matter what you are doing as long as you are with the other person? Well, patriotic duty takes Pete on a aerial mission over South America. It's not that he is in the military, but he is a skilled airman who can get to the remote site safely...only his plane goes down over South America and he is presumed dead. Maggie is devastated at the news, but then up pops Sandra with news of a "little accident" that is on the way from her very short lived marriage with Pete. Sandra has no room in her life for a child, Maggie very much wants Pete's child regardless of the mother, so the two head out to a remote desert spot for Sandra's pregnancy to come to fruition. Here the two enter into a "strange marriage" of sorts with Maggie being the nagging mother hen to an unhappily pregnant Sandra. The kind of nagging mother hen she said she would never want to be to Pete. During this time you get the feeling that Sandra and Pete probably were very much alike with the same impulsiveness and bristling at the idea of discipline, but then it is opposites that often attract is it not? Maggie returns and tells everybody the child is her own by her short lived marriage with Pete. Sandra goes back to her world piano concert tour. Maggie settles into happy single motherhood. And it helps to be rich and have servants in that case too.But then happy news. Pete is alive and well. He's been living with natives in South America and has finally found his way back to civilization and is on his way home. Maggie continues "the great lie" once Pete returns, and he is thrilled to be a dad. But Sandra has heard the news too. And one day she turns up at Pete and Maggie's home. What happens? Watch and find out.Bette Davis and George Brent play wonderfully off of each other. This is probably at least partly because they had a romantic attachment off screen. Mary Astor as Sandra is very convincing as the vengeful woman who never wanted her child, but is glad to act like she does to get Pete back. And she seems to enjoy torturing Maggie as to what her next move will be. Why? You might ask. Because Sandra knows that Pete may have married her at one time when drunk, but he chose Maggie. He still chose Maggie in his heart even after he was married to Sandra. It is never said, but I think Pete wouldn't budge on the date and place for Sandra and himself to remarry because he KNEW she'd say no, that she'd put her career first. This gave him the excuse to get out of the marriage while being able to lay the blame entirely at her feet. This movie may have been made 75 years ago, but this is still the M.O. for most men. If they are with "miss right now" and find "miss right" they will find some way to make "miss right now" leave them, so they do not have to be the bad guy. Some things never change.Some odd facts about this movie. Bette Davis wanted Mary Astor in this film because she was an accomplished pianist, yet apparently all of the scenes of her playing were dubbed. Also, Davis and Astor hated the original script and rewrote it so that it is the accomplished work it became. Highly recommended.

"The Great Lie" released in 1941, was made at the height of Bette Davis' fame at Warner Brothers. It's not a very well-known film, and it also stars Bette's frequent co-star, George Brent, and Mary Astor is on hand as well. The three principle stars get mixed up in a sort-of love triangle. George Brent plays Peter, a playboy of sorts, who marries Sandra (Mary Astor) a vain, self-centered pianist. They marry on a whim, find out the marriage is not legitimate; so Peter, realizing he still loves Maggie (Bette Davis) then marries her! Wow...after aviator Peter flies to Brazil and is assumed dead, Sandra discovers she is pregnant. Being that she is career-focused and about as maternal as a rattlesnake, she agrees to allow Maggie to raise the baby. Well, lo and behold, Peter turns up after a year, not dead at all. Maggie lies to him and tells him the baby is hers. Sandra shows up, agrees they had a bargain, but now that Pete is alive, well, she wants him back and the baby. What to do? What saves this improbable and somewhat ridiculous story is the performances of Bette Davis and Mary Astor. Astor clearly has the more delicious part, playing a totally self-absorbed diva and throwing off catty one-liners at Davis. Bette plays her part as more maternal and traditional, but she is not above giving Astor an occasional look that could kill. This film, while certainly not great, shows the real talent of Bette Davis. One of her genuine strengths as an actress was to be able to take the occasional mundane scripts Jack Warner threw at her and turn them into something real. There are also able supporting performances by the reliable Hattie McDaniel and Lucile Watson as well. Worth checking out just to see Davis and Astor go at each other a couple of times.

To my mind this film is perfect - a classic example of what the studio system of the golden years of Hollywood could achieve. Strong direction, witty dialogue, beautiful music, sublime cinematography, crisp editing, gorgeous production design and costuming, brilliant performances - every element of this film is perfect.Add to all that the daring (for its day) story-line, Bette Davis at the height of her dramatic powers and at her most beautiful, and Mary Astor delivering what I think is one of the great screen performances of all time, and you have a very special film indeed.Although the film may seem to have dated elements, especially in the depiction of the African-American characters, if you let yourself watch the film with 1941 eyes you will be richly rewarded. Besides which the wonderful Hattie McDaniel brings so much depth to what could have been a simple stereotype.As you can tell, I love this film. I understand Bette Davis and Mary Astor loved working together - and you can see that on the screen. The scenes between the two of them are electric, with so much being said beyond the words. Thank God Astor won an Oscar for her work here. She truly deserved it.

While this does not rank among the very best of Bette Davis' films, it is exceptional and extremely entertaining. The reason it doesn't quite make it to the heights of the great movies such as LITTLE FOXES or ALL ABOUT EVE is that the plot, though interesting, is so impossible that if you really stop and think about it, it all makes very little sense. However, provided you are not a close-minded curmudgeon (I, myself am an open-minded curmudgeon), then forgetting about the impossibilities isn't an issue and you can sit back and love this film.The film begins with George Brent eloping with Mary Astor. After they both sober up, Brent can't help but notice that Astor is a highly strung and demanding....um...diva (I'm trying to keep this review family-friendly). That same sober morning, Brent is told that the marriage is not legal, as Astor's divorce decree isn't yet final, so they'll have to remarry. Fortunately, the guy realizes that Astor is a baby-eating monster and leaves--back into the arms of his ex-fiancé, Bette Davis.Davis had been terribly wronged by Brent, as they were STILL engaged when Brent eloped with Astor. However, Brent is super apologetic and convinces her to marry him--after all, the marriage to Astor wasn't legal.Shortly after this, Brent is killed while on government business in Brazil. Davis is sad, but things get really interesting when she learns that Brent's one night "marriage" to Astor has resulted in pregnancy!! Astor, however, has all the maternal instincts of a hamster, so Davis convinces her to take the baby to term and then give it to her to raise--after all, she'd love to have Brent's baby. While never said, it was implied that if Davis hadn't made this deal to finance the baby's birth, then Astor would have probably gotten an illegal abortion.During the months living all alone with Davis, Astor is quickly going stir-crazy. However, if she has the baby, she must keep it a secret or it might harm her musical career (after all, this was the 1940s). Plus, Davis intends to return home and tell everyone it is her biological child--or at least let them think this. This portion of the film is probably the most interesting, as Astor goes from being selfish and mean to being like Davis' character in the film WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?--but only meaner and grumpier!! Astor's part allows her to scream, yell, nearly burn down their cabin and run amok with wild abandon. This ain't exactly intellectual fare, but wow is it fun to watch as it unfolds!! It was really interesting that in this film, Davis is in control and sweet and Astor is the Devil's daughter (well, practically Satan's kid--she's THAT selfish and cruel).After the baby is born, as agreed Astor splits and leaves the baby with Davis--showing no second thoughts or concerns for the kid. However, when out of the blue, Brent is discovered alive in the Amazonian jungle, Astor sees her chance to return to not only bust up the marriage, but take the child AND Brent for herself. This leads to a very satisfying conclusion that practically brought this old grouch to tears.As I said above, there are so many impossible situations piled on top of each other that the plot is all but ridiculous. But, with amazing dial dialog, acting and very, very smooth direction and production, this couldn't help but be a great film. A must-see for old movie buffs.