Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
JohnHowardReid Copyright 18 November 1949 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 22 October 1949. New York opening at the Strand: 21 October 1949. Australian release: 27 April 1951. 8,640 feet. 96 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A woman's dull husband (he's the doctor in a small town) does not help her greedy disposition.NOTES: Davis' last film as a contract star for Warner Bros. Steiner was nominated for an Academy Award for his score in the Drama/Comedy category, losing to Aaron Copland's The Heiress.COMMENT: There is much to enjoy in this high-blown melodrama, despite its wild implausibility and Miss Davis's incredible theatrics in what is virtually a cruel and incisive self-parody. To see Miss Davis as a sultry femme fatale requires a considerable suspension of belief which her garish make-up and ripe mannerisms do nothing to lessen. Still, Miss Davis, for all her faults, is infinitely preferable to Joseph Cotten whose screen personality here is even more woebegone and tiresomely philosophic than usual. The cast is better: Ruth Roman makes good capital out of her couple of brief appearances, Minor Watson has an unusually meaty role and Dona Drake s strongly as a slatternly maid. The script has some bizarre touches which Vidor directs with style and relish, particularly the off-beat, storybook-style opening and the elaborate crane shot at the conclusion. Max Steiner's music score consists almost entirely of variations on Fred Fisher's "Chicago" and is quite effective. The photography, especially the location work, is superb. Production values are lavish.
moonspinner55 Notorious Bette Davis...acting against her will in an unsuitable part, although it's a performance many of her fans relish. Davis is about 5-to-10 years too old for role of Rosa Moline, wife of a well-meaning-but-penniless doctor, residing in a small Wisconsin town with starry-eyed dreams of living in Chicago; Rosa's secret lover, a corporate businessman from the Windy City, keeps reeling her in and throwing her back, while the good doctor takes her antics in stride. Screenwriter Lenore Coffee, working from a book by Stuart Engstrand, can't seem to iron out the character eccentricities or dramatic indignities inherent to the plot (she can't even use the novel's title to her advantage), leaving director King Vidor and his cast pretty much on their own. When Rosa gets sick at the finale, we have no idea why; when the lazy, foul-tempered maid sasses her, we have no clue why Rosa even puts up with her (or how the doctor affords her). Vidor directs Davis gently, casually--and of course she brings everything else from home: poison-coated coyness, lewd lips, flip talk, ridiculously playing with her long brunette wig as if she owned it. So, is this respectable work from Bette Davis, in her last film under contract for Warner Bros.? It is a stunning performance for both right and wrong reasons. True, Bette's Rosa is too heavy and shapeless to actually believe she's a grande dame in her horse-and-buggy town (maybe a blonde wig would've helped?); however, Davis is very good in her scenes with Joseph Cotten, and she doesn't go maniacal with the material. The film has been called camp, unintentionally hilarious--and at times it does strike a wild chord--but I think King Vidor was in on the dirty humor. His outlandishness doesn't qualify the film as a success necessarily, but it is certainly enjoyable. **1/2 from ****
Bucs1960 Only Bette Davis (along with Joan Crawford) could take a trashy film and make it absolutely compelling. No, this isn't a good movie, probably not even a fair movie but oh, Bette, you make it all worthwhile.Bette wears the worst wig of her career, some really surrealistic make-up and was years too old for the part......so what?? When she delivers those famous lines "What a dump", you could jump for joy. This is Davis at her campiest and you can bet she knew it.The story line is fairly simple. A small town bitch wants to be a big city bitch and takes a lover to attain that goal. She couldn't care less that she has a husband, played by Joseph Cotton, when she sets her sights for the boyfriend played by that perpetually bland actor David Brian. All hell breaks loose as Davis chews up the scenery and her fellow actors. The final scene as Davis drags herself to the train station is the raison d'etre for the cult following that has developed around this film. It is a film lovers delight. She was some dame!!!
lizphairian I saw this movie on my 21st B-day, and was really loaded... I loved it!! Then forgot what it was called.The shot with Bette on the porch swing and the burning lumber thing in the background still creeps me out, it looks insane. What kind of husband would put up with that tramping around? And the long,long.... drawn out crawling back to the train scene is a riot. I thought she got ran over but i guess she has a miscarriage? What is the deal with the ending?I don't know but I'm happy with thinking she get run over.The ending is the best!! THE BEST!!!
