Old Acquaintance

Davis shaking up Hopkins is sheer genius. An absolute treasure on to itself. In fact just read the synopsis then cue up to that scene and when the scene ends, just roll the credits.

There is no contest here.....the Star, Davis runs off with the film while "the star", Hopkins rants like a drunken fishwife and makes herself look like a contestant at amateur night. I have never been a Hopkins fan and this film validates my opinion........she is shrill and over the top.

The film is another of those "women's pictures" so popular in the 30s and 40s and holds up well in that genre. I won't repeat the plot as it has been covered in other reviews. Davis is looking good as the professional woman that she portrays and although she does her typical schtick with cigarettes and hand gestures, she is a little more subdued than usual. You can almost believe her affair with the boyish Gig Young and her sorrow as it ends. You, however, can never believe that the elegant John Loder could have been married to Hopkins.......he belonged with Davis but it was not to be. My favorite scene has to be when Davis shakes the snot out of Hopkins and since it has been reported that they didn't like each other, I'm sure it was Bette's favorite scene as well.

If you like soap operas and sacrifice, then this film is for you. It's not as bad as it appears initially.

Chatty, entertaining and well-acted drama with comedic trimmings has lifelong friends Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins both becoming writers: Davis, the literary authoress who charms the critics but can't score a bestseller; Hopkins, the fluttery, popular novelist of romantic fiction. Director Vincent Sherman does a good job at bringing this all to a boil, and yet there's too much breathless soap opera packed into the last act (the fault of the screenwriters, working from a play) and it eventually becomes fatiguing. Still, Hopkins does a high-wire act with her performance that is quite nimble (she's pitched very high but is never grating). Davis starts off very fresh and natural, but as her character ages and becomes glamorously middle-aged, Bette's affectations and mannerisms tread a self-parody; she's good throughout the film, yet one longs for more of that earthy quality she displays in the film's first hour. A fine "woman's picture" nevertheless, with some unusually good dialogue and well-paced sequences. *** from ****

Hollywood was still at the height of the "women's films" with stars like Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins sharing the screen in stories with romantic notions. This one is pure soap suds, but just try to look away when these two real-life enemies share the close-ups.

The two portray authors--one a sensitive, thoughtful woman (Bette Davis), the other a shrewish housewife who writes pulp fiction (Miriam Hopkins). The two share the ups and downs of a rocky relationship when the lesser writer becomes famous for her trash and loses her ignored husband (John Loder). A very young Gig Young provides some romantic interest for Davis--until she sensibly concludes that he is too young for her. At the end, the two women are left facing middle-age together and, as they sit before a roaring fireplace, toast each other to the fadeout strains of Franz Waxman's music.

All of this plays like a Cosmopolitan magazine story of the '40s but is made to seem intelligent and likeable by the sheer magnetism of Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, never better than here. Hopkins sinks her teeth into the role of a nasty bitch--and Davis is unusually even-tempered until the scene where she shakes the living daylights out of Hopkins.

Forget the 1982 remake directed by George Cukor--like most remakes, it lacked the ingredients that made the original such a treat.

Just why this unusually literate, fairly intelligent and very well-acted film isn't yet available on video is a mystery. Bette Davis does a beautiful job playing writer Kit Marlowe and Miriam Hopkins, while a little overripe at times, does a fine job as her best friend and sometime nemesis, Millie Drake. The supporting cast is first-rate: Gig Young is very appealing and handsome in one of his earliest film roles, Dolores Moran is both sensitive and cheeky as Hopkin's confused daughter, and Esther Dale is splendid as Ms Marlowe's maid. The film revolves around Davis and Hopkins, their mutual friendship, jealousies via a love triangle, and their rivalry as authors: Davis is the noble, staid serious writer of quality literature, whereas Hopkins becomes wildly successful as the writer of sensational trashy love stories. The rather bland John Loder plays Millie's husband who takes a shine to Kit.