OLD ACQUAINTANCE
US, 1943, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Moran, Philip Reed, Anne Revere, Esther Dale.
Directed by Vincent Sherman.
Old Acquaintance is Hollywood melodrama at its most vivid, at its best. The screenplay is based on a play by John Van Druten who also wrote such plays as The Voice of the Turtle and I Remember Momma. He worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood in the 30s, 40s and 50s.
The film is about rivalry and jealousy as well as about friendship. Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins portray two authors, Davis the serious author, Hopkins the writer of melodramas and romances. They have been friends for a long time. However, the Hopkins character, after getting Davis’s help, has a very successful career, has a very enlarged ego and controls everyone about her, falling out with Davis. She dominates her husband, John Loder, and her teenage daughter, Dolores Moran. They actually turn towards Davis for help – and there are feelings between Davis and Loder, but they act in the best possible interests and morality and separate. Nevertheless, the Hopkins character is ultimately jealous. There is also a complication, with Gig Young and his love for Davis and his falling in love with Hopkins’ daughter. Davis heroically again does the right thing.
This is the material of soap opera and melodrama – but meticulously done with strong performances by the two leading ladies (who had appeared together in The Old Maid).
The film was directed by Vincent Sherman who made a number of melodramas including Mr Skeffington with Bette Davis and several Joan Crawford dramas in the early 1950s like The Damned Don’t Cry.
The screenplay was adapted and updated to the 1980s for Rich and Famous with Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset, directed by George Cukor (his last film).
1. The significance and tone of the title? The traditional song, the explanation of the title at the end?
2. How enjoyable a film of the forties? Typical Warner Bros. melodrama? A vehicle for Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins? Black ,and white photography, musical score, sets, atmosphere? The impact of all this now?
3. The importance of the happy opening? Kathryn as a celebrity? Millie waiting? The emotional changes that took place even in this first incident? Indicating the personalties of the two wmm? Their careers and fame?
4. How important for the film was the contrast of the two women? Kathryn as a celebrity, an easy personality, her willingness to help Millie? Millie as moody, creative, her relationship to her husband? The contrast of
them as women, their success in the fiction world, their attitudes towards reality?
5. The personality of Grant? A sign of contradiction for each? His devotion to Millie and yet not being able to tolerate her emotionalism? The attraction to Kathryn? The credibility of his walking out on the marriage?
6. The importance of the long transition of time? Kathryn and her greater success and sophistication? The elation of her meeting with Kendall and falling in love? Her attitude towards marriage? Her age? Her handling
of the situation by separating from Kendall? Her decisions?
7. Kendall as a person? His response to Kathryn? His attitudes towards the marriage? His attraction then towards Millie’s daughter?
8. The importance, of Grant’s seeing Millie again? The impossibility of reconciliation? The melodramatics by Millie?
9. The importance of the clash between the two wcam? The reasons for it, the words said the attitudes of love and hatred? An unhappy ending for them both? The happy ending for the younger pair?
10. How enjoyable are such melodramas? What insights do they offer into the behaviour of ordinary human beings? Emotional? Audience expectations of such soap operas? How well were the expectations filled?
