8 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:

davis at her best

A Customer from london,england, 7th January, 2007

This is one of the less familiar titles of the Davis career but shes'at her glorious best in this enormously moving story of sacrifice,lost romance and maternal love.Made in 1939 - widely regarded as Hollywoods greatest year - this sensitively written,gorgeously designed and photographed picture ,based on Zoe Akins Pulitzer-prize winning play , sees Bette effortlessly age thirty years through the course of its running time and give perhaps her most sympathetic and heart-rending performance.Shes'given admirable support by co-stars Miriam Hopkins and Donald Crisp but it's her triumph all the way.Astonishing work which remains enthralling nearly seventy years later - see it and reflect on Davis' eternal hold over her audiences - was any actress ever responsible for jerking more tears ?Still one of the great artists of cinema

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

The Old Maid

Bridgepav from , 10th September, 2008

If you love Bette Davis, this is one for you. Typical hard faced, but gentle inside performance. Then type that Davis knows best. An early film, and fantastic for period feature, but all eyes on Bette for doing the 'right thing'...

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

great

oldun from from nottingham, 2nd September, 2008

There is no other who can come up like Bete Davis Icould watch her time and time again She was and still is the great actresss on our screeens

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A heartbreaking tale of sacrifice.

GratuitousViolets from , 28th January, 2010

Bette Davis' performance in this movie is a force to be reckoned with that will leave you almost aching inside. The story revolves around a plain and homely young woman called Charlotte; Charlotte's fall from grace is becoming pregnant by the ex-fiance of her cousin Delia outside of wedlock during the American Civil War. To hide her shame, and keep the daughter that she desperately loves but cannot declare, she opens a home for war orphans. Having to forgo happiness for the sake of her daughter and the mistakes that she's made, Charlotte becomes a bitter woman, forced into making her daughter believe she is 'Aunt Charlotte', while Delia becomes 'mummy'. Truly a heartbreaking tale of sacrifice and an intriguing look at how devastating something so natural and acceptable in modern times could be literally destructive for women in the 1800's.

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Old Maid

A Customer from London, 22nd January, 2009

Wish movies were still made like this.

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GREAT FILM FOR A CUP OF TEA AND PACKET OF BICCIES

A Customer from Melksham, 17th January, 2009

This is a great story with great costumes and wonderful acting - a bit over the top in places but just what you need for an excellent indulgent movie night. Bette Davies is amazing as always - she is luminous and as she ages none to well your heart goes out to her. The ending is a triumph and I loved it - tears rolling down my face and I loved it.

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The Old Maid

A Customer from London, 16th January, 2009

This is an excellent black and white production of a dramatisation of an Edith Wharton novel. While the feel of the film remains resolutely 'stagey' and the values reflect those common in 1940s 'womens' movies, the performances are relatively restrained and enjoyable. The story is based on the relationship between two cousins over a period of twenty years. At the start Delia (played by Miriam Hopkins) is getting married (to the 'wrong' man) even though she is still in love with the character played by George Brent, who went of to fight in the American Civil War, ultimately never to return. Her cousin Charlotte (played by Bette Davis, with some dramatic tension and conviction) also loves him (unknown to the other characters), and in comforting him, ends up having his child. Charlotte disguises her motherhood in taking care of an orphage of refugee children, and on Delia's husband dying decides to live with Delia and her family. The rest of the film concentrates on Delia superceding Charlotte as her child's mother. The story line allows for a series of great confrontations between the two leading ladies, played with some intensity, and relative naturalness (and apparently made even more natural by their 'real-world' mutual loathing), and includes a series of cameos from the Warner Brothers supporting cast of the period.

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