''Old Acquaintance'' is a 1943 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
released by
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
It was directed by
Vincent Sherman
Vincent Sherman (born Abraham Orovitz, July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006) was an American director and actor who worked in Hollywood. His movies include '' Mr. Skeffington'' (1944), '' Nora Prentiss'' (1947), and ''The Young Philadelphians'' (1959) ...
and produced by
Henry Blanke
Henry Blanke (December 30, 1901 – May 28, 1981) was a German-born film producer who also worked as an assistant director, supervisor, writer, and production manager. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for '' The Nun’s Sto ...
with
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
as executive producer. The film was adapted from a
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
by
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observation ...
,
Lenore Coffee
Lenore Jackson Coffee (July 13, 1896 – July 2, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist.
Biography
Lenore was born in San Francisco in 1896 to Andrew Jackson Coffee Jr. and Ella Muffley. She attended Dominican College ...
and
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding (20 March 1891 – 24 December 1959) was a British screenwriter and film director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 silent film ''Three Live Ghosts'' alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. ...
based on Van Druten's 1940
play of the same title.
The film stars
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
,
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.
Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' T ...
,
Gig Young
Gig Young (born Byron Elsworth Barr; November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in ''Come Fill the Cup'' (1952) and '' Teacher's Pet'' ...
,
John Loder,
Dolores Moran
Dolores Jean Moran (January 27, 1926 – February 5, 1982) was an American film actress and model.
Early years
Moran was born in Stockton, California, and attended elementary and secondary schools there. She won the Northern California O ...
,
Roscoe Karns
Roscoe, also spelled Rosco or Roscow, may refer to:
People
* Roscoe (name)
Places United States
* Roscoe, California (disambiguation)
* Roscoe Township (disambiguation)
* Roscoe, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Roscoe, Illinois, a villag ...
and
Anne Revere
Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a progressive member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway theatre, Broadway and her film portrayals of mothers in a ...
.
Background
The
John Van Druten
John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observation ...
play upon which the film is based premiered at the
Morosco Theatre
The Morosco Theatre was a Broadway theatre near Times Square in New York City from 1917 to 1982. It housed many notable productions and its demolition, along with four adjacent theaters, was controversial.
History
Located at 217 West 45th Stree ...
in New York City on December 23, 1940 before running for 170 performances. The play was staged by
Auriol Lee
Auriol Lee (13 September 1880 – 2 July 1941) was a popular British stage actress who became a successful West End and Broadway theatrical producer and director.
Biography
She was born in Maddox Street in the London district of St George's Han ...
and designed by
Richard Whorf
Richard Whorf (June 4, 1906 – December 14, 1966) was an American actor, writer and film director.
Life and acting career
Whorf was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Harry and Sarah (née Lee) Whorf. His older brother was linguist Benjamin Le ...
, and it starred
Jane Cowl
Jane Cowl (December 14, 1883 – June 22, 1950) was an American film and stage actress and playwright "notorious for playing lachrymose parts". Actress Jane Russell was named in Cowl's honor.
Biography
Cowl was born Jane Bailey in Boston, Mas ...
,
Peggy Wood
Mary Margaret Wood (February 9, 1892 – March 18, 1978) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She is best remembered for her performance as the title character in the CBS television series ''Mama'' (1949–1957), for which sh ...
and
Kent Smith
Frank Kent Smith (March 19, 1907 – April 23, 1985) was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theatre and television.
Early years
Smith was the son of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Smith. He was born in New York City and was educated ...
.
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
wanted
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...
to take the role of Millie, but Shearer, who was semi-retired, declined to take the secondary role and second billing.
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.
Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' T ...
, who had starred in ''
The Old Maid'' with Davis and had endured a difficult working relationship with her (Davis allegedly had an affair with Hopkins' husband
Anatole Litvak
Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak (russian: Анатолий Михайлович Литвак; 21 May 1902 – 15 December 1974), better known as Anatole Litvak, was a Ukrainian-born American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in vari ...
), accepted the role.
Plot
In 1924, newly successful author Kit Marlowe returns to her hometown to speak, as part of a lecture tour, and to visit her dear childhood friend Millie. The friends have formed distinctly opposite personalities: Kit is witty, perceptive, wry and calmer, while Millie is intense, self-involved and histrionic. Millie has married Preston Drake and is pregnant, and she surprises Kit when she discloses she has also written a book, a romance novel. Millie asks Kit to present her book to her publisher. Upon their meeting, Preston appears to be impressed by Kit Marlowe.
Eight years pass, and Millie has become increasingly difficult and resentful of any diversion from full attention being focused upon herself. When Kit jokes and glowingly reports about her shopping trip with Preston and Millie's only child, Deirdre, Millie impudently retorts "Time you had one of your own!" as she swans out.
Preston immediately asks Kit why she has remained so loyal to Millie over the years. Kit confides in Preston despite Millie's often emotionally unstable and dysfunctional behavior, she feels indebted as Millie was her first real friend. Kit feels a particular loyalty to Millie as orphaned Kit grew up with an aunt who died and found a sense of home and family through Millie's parents' kindness and generosity towards Kit.
Millie has become a very successful writer, with a string of romance novels. This has made her very arrogant and condescending to those around her. Visiting New York, on the eve of the opening of a play written by Kit, the Drakes' marriage is slowly disintegrating. In an interview with a reporter, Preston, an architect and engineer, is shown to feel secondary to his wife’s success. In a private moment with Kit, when Millie mentions Preston’s drinking habit, Kit replies “people drink for escape,” but Millie does not seem to appreciate Kit’s point. In a private moment between Preston and Kit, he professes his love for her. Millie and Preston clash with Kit playing referee. The response is complete ingratitude from self-absorbed Millie and growing romantic feelings from an increasingly frustrated Preston.
Moments later, as the three converse, Preston and Millie's argument escalates (with Millie displaying what some might interpret as ‘manic’ behavior) and Preston leaves Millie ‘for good’. Kit tracks down Preston and tries to convince him to return to Millie, but he tries to convince Kit that he is in love with her. Selflessly, Kit tells him she can not reciprocate, as she could not do that to Millie. They kiss goodbye and part.
Ten years pass, and World War Two is underway. Kit is on a radio show espousing the good of the
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
, and Preston, now a major in the Army, hears her. He calls the radio station to suggest they meet for a drink. They do, but Kit also has her much-younger beau, Rudd Kendall, and Preston’s almost 18-year-old daughter, Deirdre, whom Preston has not seen in those ten years, join them. Preston tells Kit he is engaged, and Kit is happy for him. Preston and his daughter become reacquainted. The next morning Rudd (again) presses Kit to marry him, but she puts him off, promising an answer in a few days, and he leaves. Rudd, feeling reproached and rejected, then meets with Deirdre.
Millie treats Preston's return as a victory and sets the scene for a desperate reconciliation. Preston however dashes her hopes by revealing his engagement and asks for ‘joint custody’ of Deirdre. Preston incidentally discloses to Millie that he was once in love with Kit. An outraged Millie throws him out. Millie then rants and raves to Deirdre about how Kit is a Jezebel (the writer's tongue-in-cheek reference to Davis’s 1938 film ''
''). Millie spitefully does her best to poison Deirdre against Kit and relishes in excessively establishing herself as the center of attention and reveling in her self-indulgence, oblivious to Deirdre's clear distress.
Millie also discloses that Kit is to marry Rudd, causing Deirdre further distress, and Deirdre leaves. Kit and Millie have an all-out argument about all that hasn’t been said until now, where Millie acts victimized and Kit reveals a few brutal home truths to an in denial and melodramatic Millie. Millie even goes as far to discard to her own daughter to her love rival. Realizing her words are falling on deafened ears, frustrated Kit physically shakes Millie to "knock some sense" into her self-obsessed friend in arguably the film's most remembered scene.
That night, Kit, having decided to marry Rudd, finds out from him that he is now in love with Deirdre. Kit tracks down Deirdre at a handsome but incompatible beau's bachelor pad, calms her, and returns her to Rudd. Kit then returns home to find Millie, and they reconcile. Millie tells Kit about her new book, about the trials of two women friends, and Kit suggests that Millie title the book “Old Acquaintance”. Millie agrees.
Cast
*
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
as Kit Marlowe
*
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.
Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' T ...
as Millie Drake
*
Gig Young
Gig Young (born Byron Elsworth Barr; November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in ''Come Fill the Cup'' (1952) and '' Teacher's Pet'' ...
as Rudd Kendall
*
John Loder as Preston Drake
*
Dolores Moran
Dolores Jean Moran (January 27, 1926 – February 5, 1982) was an American film actress and model.
Early years
Moran was born in Stockton, California, and attended elementary and secondary schools there. She won the Northern California O ...
as Deirdre Drake
*
Phillip Reed
Phillip Reed (born Milton LeRoy; March 25, 1908 – December 7, 1996) was an American actor. He played Steve Wilson in a series of four films (1947–1948) based on the '' Big Town'' radio series.
Early years
Reed was a star athlete at Er ...
as Lucian Grant
*
Roscoe Karns
Roscoe, also spelled Rosco or Roscow, may refer to:
People
* Roscoe (name)
Places United States
* Roscoe, California (disambiguation)
* Roscoe Township (disambiguation)
* Roscoe, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Roscoe, Illinois, a villag ...
as Charlie Archer
*
Anne Revere
Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a progressive member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway theatre, Broadway and her film portrayals of mothers in a ...
as Belle Carter (credited as Ann Revere)
*
Esther Dale
Esther Dale (November 10, 1885 – July 23, 1961) was an American actress of the stage and screen.
Early years
Dale was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. She attended Leland and Gray Seminary in Townshend, Vermont. In Berlin, Germany, she stu ...
as Harriet
*
Frank Mayo as Army Officer (uncredited)
*
Jack Mower
Jack Mower (September 5, 1890 – January 6, 1965) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 520 films between 1914 and 1965. He was born in Honolulu and died in Hollywood.
After studying at Punahou College, in Honolulu, Mower moved ...
as Army Officer (uncredited)
* Francine Rufo as Deirdre as a child (uncredited)
Reception
According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $2,279,000 domestically and $1,360,000 in foreign markets.
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
, a film reviewer for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', found the friendship between the two lead characters implausible. "As a consequence," he wrote, "we have the tedious spectacle in this overdressed, overstuffed film of a supposedly intelligent woman writer spending her life being loyal to a girlhood friend who mints a fortune with trashy fiction and is vain, selfish, jealous and false to her."
Notes
* The film was remade in 1981 as ''
Rich and Famous'' with
Jacqueline Bisset
Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in '' The Detective'', ''Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet Ride'', for which she rec ...
and
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom ''Murphy Brown'' (1988–1998, 2018). She is also kno ...
.
* When Bette Davis wore her husband's pajama top as a nightie in the film it caused a fashion revolution, with
I. Magnin
I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, ...
selling out of men’s sleepwear the morning after the movie opened, and all of it to young women.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
''Old Acquaintance''on
Lux Radio Theater
''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...
: May 29, 1944
{{Vincent Sherman
American comedy-drama films
Warner Bros. films
1940s English-language films
American black-and-white films
1943 films
Films scored by Franz Waxman
American films based on plays
Films directed by Vincent Sherman
1943 comedy-drama films
Films produced by Henry Blanke
American female buddy films
Films about writers
1940s American films