It's well documented that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins were far from enamoured of each other off screen for a variety of reasons not least Davis' affair with Hopkins' husband, Anatole Litvak. Nonetheless they contrived to play opposite each other in both Old Acquaintance and this one, in which Davis takes on the eponymous role. Knocked up by George Brent who then thoughtfully gets himself killed in the War Between The States (the American Civil War if you're British) before the child is born, Davis contrives to open an orphanage in which she conceals her own illegitimate daughter, who grows up to be Jane Bryan, a prototype of Ann Blythe's Vida to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce - anything Davis has Crawford must have too. By now cousin Miriam Hopkins has persuaded Davis to allow her, Hopkins, to adopt the child thus relegating Davis to 'old maid' status in which persona she is cruelly taunted by Bryan. As soaps go this produces a fine, luxurious lather with Davis, again playing opposite a strong actress, close to her best, which is saying something.

George Brent is in and out of this picture pretty quickly - and in and out is an apt description. It is set during the Civil War and opens with Miriam Hopkins'marriage, made awkward by the untimely return of her old flame (Brent). Bette volunteers to smooth things over, and does yeoman work, giving Brent a memorable send-off back to the front... 9 months later the send-off becomes reality, and thereby hangs a tale, as they say.This is vintage Davis, better here than in Dark Victory. She is petulant and pouting and takes over the picture as the aunt/ mother to her own child, deferring to Hopkins as the mother/ aunt. She is backed up by some of Warners best supporting actors, among them Donald Crisp, Jerome Cowan and Louise Fazenda.It is very entertaining and well worth your time. It is a straight drama, with no action sequences - a soaper, if you will. But even so, it is extremely well done and holds your interest from beginning to end. In retrospect, it all sounds very hokey but the story holds up and is a must-see for BD fans.

Civil War-era cousins Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins seem to have a close relationship while living with their wealthy grandmother in Philadelphia, but Davis is hiding a secret: she conceived a child out of wedlock with Hopkins' ex-fiancé and went West to have the baby. Upon her return, Davis opens a school for war orphans--her own daughter included!--which now infringes upon her wedding to the brother of Miriam's husband. Edith Wharton's book became a Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Zoe Akins before Warner Bros. got hold of it and turned the whole enterprise into a glossy stew for the ladies. It moves along at a fast clip, yet doesn't quite give Davis a strong enough showcase (she was never very good interacting with children, and the character of Charlotte is a bit of a puzzle). Hopkins, the unofficial queen of knuckle-biting, knows nothing of subtlety, though her fluttery dramatics goose the narrative and give the picture some camp appeal. The men are stiff and colorless, however the production is handsome and director Edmund Goulding sorts out the overly-involved plotting for us in a satisfactory manner. **1/2 from ****

If anyone knows which of Edith Wharton's novels was made into a play by Zoe Atkins and then filmed by Warner Brothers let us all know on this board. I searched Wikipedia on Edith Wharton and couldn't figure out exactly which of her works this could be. The screen credit doesn't tell as you see and it certainly isn't The Age Of Innocence or Ethan Frome or any of her more well known works. My gut tells me its quite a bit different from what Wharton originally wrote. By the way the Internet Broadway Database doesn't tell you anything either.It does tell you that The Old Maid ran for 305 performances on Broadway in the 1935 season and starred Judith Anderson and Helen Menken in the roles that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins play here. Davis and Hopkins are cousins. Miriam's the bright and pretty one and apparently gets first crack at the men. One she had on a string for a while was George Brent who as the story opens arrives back in Philadelphia expecting to take up where he left off with Hopkins. But Hopkins has decided she wants wealth and security and marries solid Jerome Cowan instead.Davis who's had a thing for Brent volunteers to meet him at the station and break the news. Of course Brent insists on a confrontation just before the wedding, but being the gentleman he always is on the screen, backs off and congratulates the bride. And before he goes off to war Davis gives him a grand send off.But Brent leaves the film early, being killed in the siege at Vicksburg and leaves Davis something to remember him by. Something she can't explain in proper Philadelphia society. Kindly doctor Donald Crisp arranges for a trip out west for her health where she has a baby girl and later comes back and starts an orphan asylum, the idea to build a forest to hide her family tree.The rest of the story is pure soap opera, 19th century style with Hopkins eventually adopting the girl and Davis coming to live with her as 'Aunt Charlotte' to her own daughter played when she grows up by Jane Bryan. There's a lot of tension in the air and the fact that Davis and Hopkins hated each other in real life probably helps the performances. But these two women have put across a lot worse than The Old Maid.What this board could use is someone who knows Edith Wharton and her work and can tell the rest of us what the original story was and how close this was to the story. My gut just tells me that this soap opera was far from what Wharton intended.