The same year as her Oscar winning role in "Jezebel" and the Oscar nominated family drama, "Four Daughters", Bette Davis was one of three daughters in this sensational sleeper. Along with Jane Bryan and Anita Louise, Davis is the daughter of stern, judgmental (but still loving) Beulah Bondi and the plain spoken, more understanding Henry Travers, simple folk in a small Montana town. One sensational night, Davis meets San Francisco based sports writer Errol Flynn who proposes without even thinking about the words coming out. Bryan marries the man of her dreams (Dick Foran) and starts a family, while Louise agrees to marry the much older Alan Hale Sr. who gives her everything she wants even though he knows she doesn't love him. Davis relocates to San Francisco and goes through every possible turmoil imaginable, even finding herself in the middle of the great earthquake of 1906. Through correspondence, the sisters all express their individual problems, including Bryan who believes that her husband is cheating on her. This leads to a great scene where the three sisters confront three other men allegedly involved with the unseen woman. What works about this drama is not just the great Bette Davis and the very complicated Errol Flynn, pretty much the same lovable cad as John Garfield's in "Four Daughters". That sensational Warner Brothers sound comes through in the lush musical score, aided by the lush sets and costumes, and fantastic special effects for the earthquake sequence.A great supporting cast including Donald Crisp as the adviser pal to Flynn, Lee Patrick as the irritating but likable chatterbox neighbor of Davis and Flynn, and Ian Hunter as Davis's understanding boss makes this truly an underrated gem. This starts on the day of Theodore Roosevelt's presidential election, deals with the rise of automobiles as the main method of transportation, and ends with the election of President Taft. It shows that as the world changes, so does family.

This film begins as a wonderful period piece taking place in Silver Bow, Montana, which today is a suburb of Butte. At the beginning of the film the Elliot family (headed up by wonderful character actors Beulah Bondi and Henry Travers) are preparing to attend an election night ball to celebrate the election of Teddy Roosevelt. At the ball, daughter/sister Bette Davis (Elliot) meets Frank Medlin (a rather young looking Errol Flynn). Of course, the main story line of the film follows the marriage (disasterous) of Davis and Flynn. But the story is about the 3 sisters, so it follows their lives, as well.Among the many character actors in the film are Dick Foran (who also made many budget singing-westerns), Anita Louise, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, and Alan Hale (who often appeared in films with Flynn).If you prefer films where there is a straight-forward plot that goes from beginning to end, this film might disappoint you. Rather, this is a story of the marriages of three sisters (as the title suggests), with all the ups and downs of what is as true about marriages at the turn of the last century as is true today at the turn of the current century. The strength of the film is the acting.The scenes of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco (where Flynn/Davis were living) is not on the scale of MGM's film "San Francisco" (made two years earlier), but it is still very well done, although it focuses on the smaller scale of the destruction in the apartment where Bette Davis is living after husband Flynn leaves her. There is no doubt that this was a fairly big budget film.This film was so good, that I decided I'd like to read the novel. I found one copy of the novel online for $2,500! Nothing available digitally. Guess I won't be reading that anytime soon.There is one disappointment here -- the ending. I don't want to spoil it, but in the film Bette Davis' character makes a bad decision at the end of the film. Ironically, the original screened version of the film had the right decision, but preview audiences disliked...well, you'll find out. Even Bette Davis later admitted the final film version had the wrong ending.Nevertheless, it's a wonderful film.

PLOT SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!! In the early 1900s three sisters meet and marry different men. The main one is Louise (Bette Davis) who marries carefree and very handsome Frank (Errol Flynn). She elopes to marry him and they go to San Francisco. Then the complications pile up...She gets pregnant and then looses the baby, Frank gets fired and leaves her, the famous San Francisco Earthquake hits...this movie really piles it on. The other sisters lives are shown occasionally here and there throughout the film. It all leads to a tearful happy ending.This was (for Warner Brothers) a very lavish production. It's obvious they spent a lot of money on sets and costumes so it always looks great. Storywise it's pretty predictable and silly but I was never bored. It moves VERY quickly and the earthquake sequence alone is incredible.All the acting is good but this is Flynn and Davis' movie all the way. Flynn is incredibly handsome and gives a very good performance. Davis looks pretty and gives a more controlled (for her) performance but it's still good. But I never believed the two of them were in love for one second though. They're both acting well but the spark isn't there. Still this is a lavish, well-done movie and worth catching. I give it an 8.

This is a most excellent drama, set in San Francisco from 1904 to 1908, with the great earthquake of 1906 at its center. While the business failure of Flynn's character is a little unrealistic, both he and Bette Davis play sympathetic characters; they made me feel the disappointment of people who expect a lot out of Life and then suffer through its hardships.The scenes of the earthquake are terrific - don't miss the seemingly ENDLESS shaking and destruction of Bette's rented room, as her neighbor comes screaming into the room looking for comfort, and the indoors gives way to the OUTDOORS! Very nice effects for 1938, 60+ years before computer imaging! That part of the story seems all the more poignant to me, now that we know the death figures were faked - at least 10 times as many died as the officials admitted.I won't give away the ending, but it was satisfying and made me glad to have seen the film. Do catch it on Turner, which runs it a couple times per year.