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THE GREAT LIE (Warner Brothers, 1941) directed by Edmund Goulding, teams Bette Davis and George Brent for the tenth time. Though DARK VICTORY (1939) is often hailed as their finest achievement on film, THE GREAT LIE is most memorable not so much for their fine chemistry, but for Mary Astor, whose performance not only steals it from her leading performers but won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her fine achievement playing the other woman to her husband.

The story opens with Peter Van Allen (George Brent), an aviator and wealthy playboy, married to Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor), a famous concert pianist. Called by his attorney, Jeffrey H. Thompson (Jerome Cowan), Peter is given the news he's not legally married to Sandra. Her divorce from her previous husband has not been finalized at the time of their wedding. Though Peter is willing to wed her all over again, Sandra refuses to marry the day of her upcoming concert in Philadelphia and insists their wedding will have to be postponed to another date. Finding her career more important than their lives together, Peter, who earlier had taken his plane to Maryland to visit with his former fiancée, Maggie Patterson (Bette Davis), her outbursts prevent him from giving her the news of his freedom. Eventually Maggie learns of the matter and becomes his wife after all. Later Peter is called away on an assignment to Brazil. During his absence, Maggie meets with Sandra in New York with startling news she's pregnant with Pete's child and intends on getting him back. Receiving news of Peter being killed in an airplane crash in the jungle, Maggie comes to Sandra with a cash settlement allowing her to have her baby in a secluded Arizona ranch on the condition she can return to Maryland and raise the child as her own. Time passes. Maggie is now the "mother" of little Pete while Sandra is free to go on her world concert tours. With the surprise news of Pete having survived the crash and returning home to her, their lives together are happy until Sandra returns. Also in the supporting cast are Lucile Watson (Aunt Ada); Hattie McDaniel (Violet); Grant Mitchell (Joshua Mason); J. Farrell MacDonald (Doctor Ferguson) and Sam McDaniel (Jefferson).

Though an interesting concept, THE GREAT LIE might have failed had it not been for its three veteran performers making the story better for what it is. George Brent plays his usual caught between two women husband while Bette Davis and Mary Astor are equally matched as "friendly" rivals out for the affection of the man they both love. The year 1941 proved to be a turning point for Mary Astor's career with this and her outstanding role opposite Humphrey Bogart in THE MALTESE FALCON being the two movies she is best remembered. As much as I always felt Astor should have at least been nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her wonderful performance in DODSWORTH (United Artists, 1936), at least the award she won for THE GREAT LIE makes up for that oversight. The truth about THE GREAT LIE is how Mary Astor makes her self-centered role so likable. Along with her shorter hair-cut to appear older yet appealing to her character without losing her attractiveness, her high point is not so much her piano playing to Tchaikowski's Piano Concerto # 1 in B Flat Minor, but how her tense and slightly amusing confrontation with her rival and former husband, good enough for that well-deserved Academy Award win.

Available on both video cassette and DVD format, THE GREAT LIE can be seen occasionally on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. (***)

For many fans of classic films, this is a fun favorite, mainly because of the performances of Bette Davis as Maggie and Mary Astor as Sandra. George Brent plays a playboy, Pete, who marries concert pianist Sandra, only to find out a few days later that her divorce wasn't final. Apparently (though this isn't explained) he was involved with Maggie shortly before, but she refused to marry him because he's a drunk. However, she does marry him.

There's a problem, though, which is that Sandra turns up pregnant. Then Pete is missing in Brazil somewhere and is believed dead. Maggie talks Sandra into having the baby and letting her and Brent raise it, in exchange for supporting Sandra financially, and she can continue with her concert career unfettered. The two go to a cabin in Arizona where Sandra, a big drinker with other lousy habits, can be supervised.

Well, it's pretty hilarious and only gets better. Davis and Astor give as good as they get to each other, with Sandra screaming that she's an artist who can't get nourishment from a lettuce leaf, and Maggie offering to make her a sandwich. And we all know what happens - Sandra is a nasty you know what and reneges big time.

This is truly a wonderful movie for some reason - actors in those days were able to make you believe anything and go right along with it, and take the plight of the characters seriously. This is probably because the stories were character-driven and audiences invested in the people and therefore bought the story.

Well-directed by Edmund Goulding, the performances are wonderful from the women, Davis, Astor, and Hattie McDaniel as Maggie's maid, who again proves her strong acting abilities. Brent, who made a career out of supporting these huge female stars, is good.

Can't beat this one for entertainment.

An amazing unfolding story that arises out of a ridiculously implausible plot that nevertheless is a classic film. Who needs a plot anyway when you have Mary Astor and Bette Davis fighting over the quietly cool George Brent? Throw in an unexpected pregnancy and a trip to the Arizona desert to keep the mother from having a miscarriage due to her bad habits, with boredom, sand storms, and endless cigarettes. The way it sounds is not at all like the impact it produces. There's one point in the film's second half when people might be thinking that it would be a good place to end the film, keeping the lie intact. But Edmund Goulding makes the absolute most of what follows, hitting the real ending with power and precision.

To my mind this film is perfect - a classic example of what the studio system of the golden years of Hollywood could achieve. Strong direction, witty dialogue, beautiful music, sublime cinematography, crisp editing, gorgeous production design and costuming, brilliant performances - every element of this film is perfect.

Add to all that the daring (for its day) story-line, Bette Davis at the height of her dramatic powers and at her most beautiful, and Mary Astor delivering what I think is one of the great screen performances of all time, and you have a very special film indeed.

Although the film may seem to have dated elements, especially in the depiction of the African-American characters, if you let yourself watch the film with 1941 eyes you will be richly rewarded. Besides which the wonderful Hattie McDaniel brings so much depth to what could have been a simple stereotype.

As you can tell, I love this film. I understand Bette Davis and Mary Astor loved working together - and you can see that on the screen. The scenes between the two of them are electric, with so much being said beyond the words. Thank God Astor won an Oscar for her work here. She truly deserved it.

The Great Lie (1941)

This is really a fabulous mixture of great movie themes, and it pulls it together to make its own amazing statement about fidelity and love. And class. And pre-war America, seemingly isolated but actually trapped by world events.

Within ten minutes there is first an echo of My Man Godfrey (George Brent in this case making a more mainstream Powell) and then a swoop down for a taste of Gone with the Wind or even closer, Jezebel (the plantation south, even though it's 1940 or so). Then it's a melodrama straight up, and tragedy, and even if the plot is improbable, you go with it and get swept away.

Brent plays Pete, a man caught between two women, both of money, but one cosmopolitan and used to being in charge, and one a lively, warm woman living a more earthy life. At the start it seems Pete is married to the urbane one, a concert pianist, Sandra, played with typical poise and ice by Mary Astor (compare this to her more famous role in The Maltese Falcon from the same year). She's a professional woman, in charge of her life, and, lately, Pete's. She wants independence and culture, and man with his feet on the ground.

But Brent's country girl, an ex-love (and true love, it seems) Maggie is played to perfection by Bette Davis. The music here, and the support cast is African American, which makes for a more heart warming, and wrenching, background. He pays a visit to Maggie the day after his wedding (for reasons that slowly clarify) and the dynamic is set. And the twists begin. We have a contemporary drama between recognizable stereotypes as World War II looms for the U.S.

Early on, Sandra asks Pete after his visit to Maggie, "Did you get it?" He says, "What?" Sexual innuendo intact, the Hays code chaffing, she clarifies, "The air?" What a great simple example of how movies so often played brilliantly with innuendo because the code wouldn't allow a straighter interplay.

Director Edmund Goulding is not as well known as some of his contemporaries, but he has a few masterpieces in his lot, including the Bette Davis Dark Victory and the later Razor's Edge. For me, The Great Lie is maybe short of perfect--the plot does intrude on our sense of suspending disbelief--but it's really fast, moving, well written, and well directed. No question.