In This Our Life (1942)

In This Our Life
Directed by John Huston
Written by Howard Koch from a novel by Ellen Glasgow
1942/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

Stanley Timberlake: You’re afraid aren’t you? Afraid of yourself. Afraid of what you might feel if you let yourself go. Why don’t you admit the truth Craig? You’ve never gotten over me and you never will. You’d like to put your arms around me right now, wouldn’t you? You’d like to kiss me, wouldn’t you?

John Huston directs a “woman’s picture?”?  Yes, and it’s not bad.

Stanley (Bette Davis) and Roy (Olivia de Havilland) Timberlake are sisters.  (The origin of their masculine names is never explained).  Stanley is a wild thing famous for careening around in the car her uncle gave her.  Uncle William (Charles Coburn) is a kindred spirit, an amoral rapscallion who robbed the family business from the girls’ father.  As the story begins, Stanley’s latest impulsive move is to run away with her sister’s husband Peter (Dennis Morgan) the night before her planned wedding to fiance Craig (George Brent).

The runaways cause enormous pain of course but Roy is determined to be strong and live her liife and gives Craig the courage to carry on as well.  Roy and Craig, a liberal lawyer, naturally fall in love.  Peter is punished for his sins by marrying Stanley who leads him a miserable existence.  I will not spoil the rest of the story except to say that Stanley gets herself deeper and deeper into hot water.  With Frank Craven as the sisters’ father and Billie Burke cast against type as their invalid, hysterical mother.

I never like Bette Davis better than when she is bad and she is really rotten here.  Olivia De Havilland’s calm lady-like but strong performance is a perfect foil to Davis’s histrionics.  Bette Davis called this the worst movie in the history of the world and both Jack Warner and Hal Wallis begged Huston to tone down her performance but I think it is pretty delicious.  Davis’s make-up gave her a new look that was not a hit with audiences but I thought it made her more attractive than usual.  The story is pretty silly of course but it does present a young black man with aspirations to a career, something unusual at the time.

The Warner Home Video DVD I rented has an excellent commentary.

Trailer