WINTER MEETING
US, 1948, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, James Davis, Janis Paige, John Hoyt, Florence Bates, Walter Baldwin.
Directed by Brentaigne Windust.
Winter Meeting was a Bette Davis vehicle of the late '40s, a time when her popularity was declining, although she was soon to make her great success, All About Eve. The film echoes Now Voyager and Bette Davis plays a repressed spinster poet.
She encounters a young sailor hero from world War Two who had intended to become a priest. There is an unlikely romance as well as very long sequences in which each explains life to the other. These sequences were considered very talkative at the time. However, especially on television, they illustrate the range of Bette Davis' acting ability and her capacity for holding audience attention. There is an interesting performance by John Hoyt as a Noel Coward-type gentleman about-town. The film is sombre and romantic in the Warner Bros.-Bette Davis style.
1. The impact of Bette Davis, her impact in her time, now? Acting range, skills?
2. Warner Bros. production: New York, black and white photography, sets, light and shadow, the cast, Max Steiner romantic score?
3. The contrived screenplay: the establishing of the characters, the atmosphere of New York, social set, the melodramatics, romance, the long discussion sequences?
4. New York and the atmosphere of the late '40s? The girl on the train and the reading of the paper, Stacey on the train? The hustle and bustle, Susan on the streets, parties, restaurants? The aftermath of the war, charities? Work? How authentic did the atmosphere seem? Authentic for this group of people and their interaction?
5. Bette Davis' style as Susan: repressed spinster, successful poet, the encounter with Stacey, going out as the blind date? Her interest in the other girl, the success of the meal and Novack and his drinking? Dancing? The return home and Novack's forcing his attentions on her, her caution? Her exhilaration in his company? His advising her to go to the country? The lyric country sequences? His persuading her to tell her story? The importance of her father, her runaway mother and the McGuire? side of the family? Madness, hurt? How persuasive was her story-telling? Her persuading him to tell his story? Her joy, sudden leaving? Her relationship with the couple looking after the house? Stacey and the second restaurant sequence and its ironies? The encounter with Novack, her persuading him to face his future? Her future and her ringing of her mother? A character study? Detail?
6. Novack as hero - the war hero, his background from Liberty, his being in New York, outings, drinking, the encounter with Stacey, attraction towards the girl, dancing? Getting out of the cab with Susan? His attraction? Going to the country, the outings? Listening to Susan's story? His own story, childhood, priesthood, discussions, disillusionment, war heroism, thinking that he was unworthy of God? The importance of his leaving, encountering Susan again, the discussion and the possibility of the priesthood?
7. Stacey and the man-about-town - type, work, secretary, socialite, parties, friendship with Susan, his barbed manner of speaking?
8. The secretary and her style, attracted towards celebrities, enjoying life, dancing, meals, put out when Novack went with Susan?
9. The family in the country and their loyalty to Susan?
10. The significance of the title - the way that the seasons Were used? A meting that would come to no fruition? The mutual influence of each? The unlikely romance - and its unlikely consequences?
