A STOLEN LIFE
US, 1946, 107 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Dane Clark, Walter Brennan, Charles Ruggles, Bruce Bennett. Peggy Knudsen, Esther Dale.
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt.
A Stolen Life is a melodramatic Bette Davis vehicle from the mid-'40s. It was made after her successful period, dramatically and at the box office with a string of hits from 1939 to 1945. This film was made by her own production company. She took the opportunity to play twins (which she was also to do in Dead Ringer in 1964). There is a pleasant Bette Davis as will as a bitchy Bette Davis. She plays them both to the hilt. Her leading man is Glenn Ford - perhaps a bit too relaxed as a pipe-smoking scientist. Dane Clark, on the other hand, is a temperamental artist. There is a good supporting cast including Walter Brennan and Charlie Ruggles. Direction is by Curtis Bernhardt who was to direct her in Payment on Demand. Bernhardt was working at Warner Bros. at this time making their dramas and melodramas (e.g. Devotion, the story of the Bronte Sisters). The film receives the lush Warner Bros. style and is an enjoyable melodrama of its kind.
1. The popularity of Bette Davis? The film as a Bette Davis vehicle? Mid-'40s? The touch of film noir?
2. Warner Bros. production values: affluence, the world of society, the blend of the real and the artificial? Soap opera and melodrama? The lush musical score?
3. The popularity of melodrama? Contrived and heightened characters and situations? Audiences enjoying the dramatic intensity? The credibility of such stories? Bette Davis as a heroine of this kind of melodrama?
4. The use of Bette Davis in the twin roles: appearance, look, manner of speaking, similarities and contrasts? Two Bette Davises for the price of one! The editing and photography work, even Bette Davis lighting a cigarette for her alter ego?
5. Kate as pleasant, her arrival at the island, shyness, boat, the encounter with Bill, her falling in love with him? Friendship with the lighthouse-keeper? Her reaction to Pat and her intruding? Bill falling out of love with her? Her being angry but suppressing it? Pat's luring B111? The marriage and its effect? Pat's return from South America? The clashes between the two sisters? The accident, Pat's taunts, her death? Kate assuming the identity? The credibility of this decision? her regaining her health? Trying to be Pat? The tension in trying to be the bitchy sister? The audience sensing this tension in Bette Davis' performance? Re-meeting Bill? The discovery of the affairs? Divorce? The background of the artist and his help? Her walking out, unable to sustain the deception? her reliance on her uncle - his continued support? Bill's return, the discovery of the truth? The happy ending? The effect of her stolen life?
6. The contrast between Kate and Pat? Pat and her arrogance, social life, her vigorous entry, wilful behaviour, dancing with Bill, playing with his emotions? The marriage? Motivation? South America, affairs, return? The irony of the affair and Kate having to learn about it and try to act up to it? Her death?
7. Bill: pleasant man, scientist, falling for Kate, attracted to Pat, caught in her wiles, the marriage, neglect, Brazil, the return, the effect of her death, the separation? His response to Kate as Pat? Difficulties9 the truth and the happy ending?
8. The lighthouse-keeper and his friendliness, help in the accident? The uncle and his continued support?
9. The artist and his relationship to Kate, support from her, his eccentric manner?
10. Pat and the affair with the businessman? His reacting to Kate as if she were Pat?
11. Popular themes of love, hate, tension, cruelty, deceptions? This kind of soap opera as heightened fable about perennial values?
