A Piano for Mrs. Cimino

What a trip to read about the movie with BD and Keenan Wynn filmed for 2 days at my house on Superba St/Blvd.in Venice, CA. for 2 days in the scene where Betty gets back together with Keenan Wynn. I remember how uptight Betty was when our black cat got out of the bedroom and ran across the set in the living room and she freaked out. When I left for work the first day of filming Keenan was outside and invited me to come sit with him, a sweet, sweet man. My late ex-wife was 6 months pregnant with our firstborn and the fees paid for our belated honeymoon in Kauai! I remember coming home from work and Keenan was making out with Betty on our sofa! Sweet Hollywood memories!

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.

The story has two story lines: the visual story and the underlying one. It opens as Davis is forcibly removed from her home and taken to a hospital, the result of deep depression after the death of her husband. She hasn't fully recovered when she returns home. Neither of her sons can take her into their home, and make decisions to sell her home, move her into a nursing home and put her music business in the hands of a banker. A grand-daughter is her only ally and searches for an assisted living home that is not institutional. The movie gives thoughtful looks at differences in elder care. One day Davis plays the Rec Hall piano and mentions that her piano was given away. Eventually she moves away from the area into an active retirement hotel in California (I think). At the home's Christmas Party she meets Wynn, the saxophone player she remembers from the days he played in her husband's band. They begin seeing each other and enjoying music. One night a storm prevents her from returning home and she spends the night at Wynn's, who gives her the bed yet sleeps on the couch. Her family is notified of her absence and assumes it is another example of her confusion and unreliability. All her finances are in the hands of others. She begins legal action to resolve the situation, whereupon the people handling her financial interests bring all her miss-steps to light in the most unfavorable light. I've worked with many elder people and find this story is VERY close to the truth. It's an excellent window on elder problems.

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.