Le grand mensonge

Bette Davis and Mary Astor take place in one of filmdoms greatest bitch-fests, The sappy sweet Davis and obnoxious concert pianist Astor both love the same man(George Brent). He goes back and forth between them. Slick and soapy, the performances are great and Astor walked away with an Oscar. Great classical score, too.

A rich woman Maggie (Bette Davis) is in love with Peter Van Allen (George Brent) who is married to famous concert pianist Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor). Them Van Allen finds out his marriage to Kovak isn't legal--they got married before her divorce was final. So he marries Maggie which infuriates Kovak. Then Kovak discovers she's pregnant and Van Allen disappears when his plane crashes in the jungle...

As you can see this is more than a little silly. The above plot just covers the first 30 minutes or so--the story gets even more ridiculous. This is wildly overly melodramatic and has an ending where reality totally disappears, but production values, music and performances pull it over.

It was lushly made (Warners Brothers spared no expense on this one) and there's some great music here--LOVE the piano solos that Astor is supposedly playing. Brent is good in his role--handsome and intelligent. Davis is (as always) good--she ALMOST overdoes it but is pulled back. Astor is GREAT--she deservedly won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this. She takes her role and runs with it--she's playing an almost totally evil, self-absorbed woman and enjoys it.

So it IS silly but worth seeing. I watched the film with a smirk on my face the whole time but I DID keep watching. I give it a 7.

Am a great fan of "classic" film, and films made in "The Golden Age". While George Brent has always been hit and miss for me, Bette Davis has always been wholly deserving of her legendary reputation and director Edmund Goulding directed her to great effect in 'The Old Maid' and 'Dark Victory'. Have liked a good deal of other Mary Astor performances and Hattie McDaniel and Lucile Watson were always watchable regardless of the overall quality of the film.

'The Great Lie' is very impressive in many areas and did find myself liking and enjoying it a lot. Considering what it had going for it, part of me was also a little disappointed and thought that 'The Great Lie' could have been even better than it turned out. Instead of the great film it could easily have been, it was instead good to very good with great elements. It represents Goulding, Davis (do prefer the mentioned films of theirs), composer Max Steiner and especially Astor are well represented. Have seen a lot better from Brent though.

Will agree that the story is often implausible and in particularly credibility-straining parts truly ridiculous and some strands from another happen too fast. As can be the case with melodramas, parts of the script lay it on a little too thick on the soap.

Brent is for my tastes rather bland in a pretty colourless part.

Davis however is great. Not quite one of her finest performances, but she is beautifully retrained while very much engaged with the increasing intensifying drama, as the intensity increases she increasingly pulls out all the stops. McDaniel and Watson shine in support in roles perfect for them and ones they always played very well. Best of all is Astor, who is brilliant. While she was a fine actress, did find myself being amazed at how much ruthlessness and fire she had in her and it was absolutely thrilling to watch. She and Davis are dynamite together. Goulding directs sympathetically while allowing Davis and Astor to have fun without being too laid back about it.

It is a lush-looking film, the photography, the costumes, the sets, all lovely on the eyes. Steiner's score showcases his unmistakable style in a sweeping and dramatic but not too overpowering score beautifully orchestrated. The script is not perfect, but has more than enough wit, poignancy and intensity to spare. While the story could have been better, it wasn't dull at least and the character interaction kept it engrossing.

Overall, good but could have been great. Davis and Astor are the main reasons to see it. 7/10

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.

Though some may say the plot's too far-fetched, I say what Hollywood story isn't, to some extend or another? Even so-called bio pics stretch and bend the truth. Anyway, when you have actors that give great performances, and keep the drama from becoming melodrama, and make the implausible seem plausible, and keep your attention to the end, well, what the heck?

Mary Astor gets to show off her musical talent, as concert pianist Sandra Kovak, who married Peter Van Allen (George Brent) after a drunken whirlwind fling (and while he was rebounding from his breakup with Maggie Petersen, played by Bette Davis), only to discover her divorce from her previous husband wasn't final yet. When Peter's offer to marry her for real (and sober) this time is rejected in favor of her planned concert tour, they break up, and he realizes his heart still belongs to Maggie. Soon, they're back together and married, but they haven't heard the last of Sandra.

There's a lot of soap opera elements here: a baby, a presumed death, a bargain, a lie, a threat, a confession, and a lot of entertainment.

And as a bonus, there's Hattie McDaniel as Violet.

This is also the movie that gave rise to the idea that Bette spoke a ridiculous line, where she repeated the name "Peter, Peter, Peter!" Actually, she said the name "Pete" twice, while thinking wistfully of her husband. And it was spoken with melancholy, not in rapid-fire succession, like a stuck record needle.

For that alone, the film's worth watching, though the story will keep you entertained.