A Piano for Mrs. Cimino

Bette Davis fans might not like A Piano for Mrs. Cimino, but I stuck with it because my mom insisted it was a good movie. On my own, I probably would have turned it off. She's given an irregularly cut gray wig to make her look unkempt, coke bottle glasses to make her look confused, and starts off the movie being carried out of her house screaming. She's put in a hospital, stripped of her dignity, tied in a straight jacket, and incoherently sits through a hearing where she's deemed mentally incompetent and sent to an old folks' home. This is not the type of role her fans want to see her in.

If you don't mind, or just want to see her in a very meaty role during her sunset years (to redeem herself from the horror flicks), you can keep watching. It's a very sad topic that is unfortunately realistic. Old people go through hard times (Bette's husband has just died) and their kids assume power of attorney and send them to a home - when young people go through hard times, they get sympathy and therapy. Thankfully, Bette's devoted and smart granddaughter, Alexa Kenin, finds an innovative and unorthodox rest home run by Penny Fuller. Penny believes that old folks' minds atrophy from lack of use, and in her home, the residents go to classes to revive their little gray cells. If and once they recover, they have a graduation ceremony and return to their lives or start anew with independence. If more retirement homes were run like this, imagine the possibilities!

My favorite part of the movie was seeing Bette reunited with Keenan Wynn, her devoted (onscreen) husband from Phone Call from a Stranger. There were scenes that were hard to watch, since I love Bette and don't like to see her suffer. There is a very upsetting scene where she finds herself a victim of an elaborate financial scam. It's frightening for anyone, young or old, and it's deplorable that these villains frequently target old people to try and steal their money. But I'd rather see Bette suffer and act than ham her way through Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

Grandma Esther defies the challenges of old age with dignity and her character is deliciously charming, sensible and intelligent. I always adored her. This grand film should, undoubtedly, have been made for the movies. Well told story, superbly depicts old people when they become a problem to the family. It reminded my own struggle to keep my Grandma with me and my parents insisting on my ruining my future by doing so.

As less and less opportunities arose for Bette Davis to make motion pictures in the 1970s and 1980s in lead roles, she appeared on more and more television films. A PIANO FOR MRS. CIMINO was one of these. The film was about a widow who was considered too old to run her husband's music store by her family. Davis gave considerable dignity to the occasionally frail Mrs. Cimino. While she was occasionally on the edge of disaster (we see her almost cheated by a con artist at one point), she usually shows she can handle most of the crisis she faces. It also turns out that the music store, which a conservator turns over to an acquaintance (Graham Jarvis) to run, is almost run into the ground by Jarvis and an inept nephew.

Before the film ends, Davis meets a new man of her own age whom she starts living with. Interestingly enough it is Keenan Wynn, who had appeared once before in a film with Davis - PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER, made three decades earlier. There he was a happy-go-lucky salesman who could get on one's nerves due to his sense of humor, but who turned out to be a steady and reliable husband to Davis' unfaithful wife - after she gets crippled. Here Wynn is a decent fellow who plays the piano while Mrs. Cimino sings. They turn out to be a good couple together.

It was a good film for Davis to appear in - giving her a proper aging role that was meaningful. While her last great part, the blind sister in THE WHALES OF AUGUST, was still to come, had she stopped with A PIANO FOR MRS. CIMINO it would have been a lesser but respectable conclusion to her career.

Bette Davis stars in this sensitive drama about an old woman's fight for some dignity in her life. In her prime years in A Piano For Mrs. Cimino. Davis was a music teacher and owned a music store with her late husband who died the year before.

Now her sons want to take control of her assets after a mild stroke Davis sustains. In a way I can understand how George Hearn and Leroy Schulz feel. They're guarding an inheritance and when she does go into a nursing home he bank and the social welfare system insist she sell her house.

Davis is down but not out and with the support of a favorite granddaughter Alexa Kenin she fights back and shows a lot of life.

A Piano For Mrs. Cimino reunites Davis with her co-star from Phone Call From A Stranger Keenan Wynn. With Davis on the piano and Wynn on the clarinet they do make some beautiful music together.

Two other roles of note are Penny Fuller as the head of the nursing home Davis is residing in and Graham Jarvis the trustee the brothers get for her estate.

A PianoFor Mrs Cimino is a fine role for the aged Bette Davis. Her fans and future fans will love it.

Have regarded Bette Davis very highly as an actress, and still do. She was in many very good to masterful films throughout her very long career and she was seldom less than good. Her Margo Channing in one of my favourite films 'All About Eve' is iconic. Another big selling point of 'A Piano for Mrs Cimino' was the subject matter, one that can be universally related to and one that is still relevant now and not always easy to portray.

'A Piano for Mrs Cimino' does a great job with how it handles the difficulties and different sides of old age and how it affects others, the latter not being trivialised which was a good thing. Handling it in a knowing manner that is both compelling and emotional. Sure it is not always subtle and at times gets on the melodramatic side, a danger with dramas dealing with difficult and universal subjects. The pace is mostly secure actually but occasionally drags and doesn't find its rhythm straight away. Anything, regardless of how the execution is, that explores themes like those seen here and ones even heavier though is worthy of admiration for even trying. 'A Piano for Mrs Cimino' is no exception.

Davis is the main reason to see 'A Piano for Mrs Cimino' in a performance that is not among her all-time best but for me it is among her better later years performances. Like the handling of the subject matter, it is not always a subtle performance but it is a very moving and quite powerful ones. To me the pathos was not overdone and was portrayed poignantly, and neither was the feistiness which stopped the portrayal from becoming too mawkish and made one admire her character more.

The rest of the cast shouldn't be overlooked, with a touching and sympathetic Alexa Kerrin being the one to primarily stand out as the most sympathetic supporting character, and even perhaps character overall, in the film. George Hearn does very well portraying his character's unscrupulousness, avoiding the cartoonish route. Graham Jarvis is likeable too. The characters do have a realism to them.

Visually, 'A Piano for Mrs Cimino' looks pleasing and doesn't look too made for television while not being too flashy. It's thought-provokingly scripted and doesn't become too over-the-top or too low-key. As said already, the difficult and relevant subject depicted is handled maybe not subtly but in a way that's poignant and relatable.

Overall, very good. Not a Davis high-point but it is well worth seeing for her alone. 8/10 Bethany Cox