The Old Maid (1939)

The Old Maid
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Casey Robinson based on the stage play by Zoe Akins and the novel by Edith Wharton
1939/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Charlotte Lovell: Oh, but you needn’t pity me. Because she’s really mine. If she considers me an old maid, it’s because I’ve deliberately made myself one in her eyes. I’ve done it from the beginning so she wouldn’t have the least suspicion. I’ve practised everything I’ve ever had to say to her, if it was important, so that I’d sound like an old maid aunt talking. Not her mother.[/box]

It’s not a bad movie but this tear-jerker did not particularly move me.

During the Civil War, Delia Lovell (Miriam Hopkins) is about to marry society luminary Jim Ralston.  As she is getting ready for the wedding, she learns that beau Clem Spender (George Brent) has returned from a two-year absence.  She is breaking a promise to marry him and her cousin Charlotte (Bette Davis) offers to break the news.  Unbeknownst to Delia, Charlotte is carrying a torch for Clem and after the wedding the two get together, apparently for one night of passion, before Clem goes off to war.

Segue to several years later and Charlotte is keeping a foundling home.  Her favorite foundling is named Clementine.  Charlotte is now engaged to Joe Ralston, Jim’s brother. The Ralston family keeps begging Charlotte to give up the home and sends Delia to persuade her to do so.  Charlotte adamantly refuses and Joe gives in.  But on the day of the wedding, in an apparent fit of insanity, Charlotte admits to Delia that Clementine is her daughter and Delia quickly guesses that the father was Clem, who was killed in the war. Delia is jealous and says she will tell Joe.  She does go to Joe and convinces him to call off the wedding, not because of the illegitimacy but because she claims Charlotte is too ill to marry.

After Delia is widowed, she invites Charlotte and Clementine to live with her.  The rest of the plot covers the sad saga as Clementine starts calling Delia mother and disrespecting her strict old maid Aunt Charlotte.  With Donald Crisp as a kindly doctor.

This is a well-made film and the acting is good, although I think Hopkins should have stuck with comedies.  My main problem with the film was the ending, which requires Delia to make a complete turnaround totally out of step with her previously established character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfAtKFYy9EU

Trailer