Boring

A Masterpiece!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Director: EDMUND GOULDING. Screenplay: Edmund Goulding. Suggested by the 1914 stage play Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies. Photography: Ernest Haller. Film editor: Jack Killifer. Music: Max Steiner. Art director: Max Parker. Costumes designed by Orry-Kelly. Wardrobe master: Elmer Ellsworth. Wardrobe mistress: Mary Dery. Hair styles: Mary Donovan. Stills: Bert Six. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Grip: Stanley Young. Gaffer: Claude Hutchinson. Continuity girl: Alma Dwight. Property master: William L. Kuehl. Assistant director: Chuck Hansen. Unit manager: Robert Fellows. Sound recording: Dolph Thomas. Associate producer: Robert Lord.Copyright 26 July 1937 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 15 September 1937. U.S. release: 18 September 1937. 93 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Although loved by her employer, a successful lawyer, a gangster's widow marries the weakling son of a powerful tycoon who soon has her marriage annulled. COMMENT: A partial remake of "The Girl from 10th Avenue" (1935) with Ian Hunter virtually repeating his role from that film. Davis, however, is no longer the girl, but the woman. And a very glamorous woman at that, though still, of course, supremely self-sacrificing. In fact, it seems to have been Goulding's intention to load his screenplay with every cliché known to women's magazine fiction (including Madame Butterfly). Character, continuity, credibility - all simply go by the board. Not that Bette minds in the least. As long as Haller's camera stays firmly focuses upon her (which it does) and she's indulged in the full "star treatment", she's happy. Ian Hunter presumably didn't mind either. He could now play the part standing on his head. But Henry Fonda was heard to object that his role was a thankless one that would hardly induce picture-goers to cheer in the aisles. His objections were brushed aside. It's Davis's movie. Flatteringly costumed and photographed (often in radiant close-up), Bette has a field day.It's amazing how you can recognize Goulding's style (even if you come late and miss his name on the credits). Not only are close-ups liberally used to hold up the action throughout (always meticulously composed and beautifully lit), but the characters themselves are imbued with a larger-than-life quality (which I must admit some movie fans find attractive), which is further emphasized by somewhat stilted dialogue delivery and slow, mannered movements. Not only does Davis benefit from this style of actor-coddling direction, but also Ian Hunter, Donald Crisp and Dwayne Day. Fonda is obviously putting up a fight. In his earlier scenes, he has reams of dialogue which he reels off at a commendably breakneck pace which must have had Goulding in a fury. No doubt he was pacified by Miss Davis, for the quicker Fonda's scenes were over and done with, the more the camera could linger on her brave fortitude and inward tears. Yes, this is firmly Bette's movie. Aside from an occasional emphasis on the Ian Hunter character, and a bit of boring business with young Dwayne Day, plus a nod or two in the directions of Hugh O'Connell and Donald Crisp, the other players have little to do.Anita Louise's role is ridiculously small. And as for the big line- up of character players, aside from Mary Phillips and Frank Darien, if you blink you'll miss them!

I actually liked this picture. The story loosely parallels that of Madame Butterfly...and if you see it in that light, it doesn't seem all that over the top. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the writer had the idea of updating Madame Butterfly...I visually these guys in wrinkled shirtsleeves bending over their old Royal typewriters chomping on cigars..."Yeah...Madame Butterfly...that's the ticket...only she's not a prostitute, that won't work....but a fallen woman...but a noble one....she's a bootlegger's widow...yeah! that's the ticket...she marries a playboy, he dumps her, marries someone else...she waits for him....keep the faithful maid in the plot...has a kid....the husband comes back...remarried....she sends the kid off to live with her ex and then offs herself....yeah! It'll be a hit! Not a dry in the house."I actually realized the similarity only in the last 15 minutes of the film when I got that awful yet familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach which always anticipates a mother's pending self-sacrifice. When Butterfly sees the American wife for the first time standing outside her little house on hill in Japan and realizes who she is and why she's there...it's really heartbreaking.Anyway, despite the melodrama, the performances That Certain Woman are really very good, especially Davis's. She was a very intelligent actress, and understood what the camera would catch.So, maybe you don't need to OWN this video, but I wouldn't disregard it entirely. Then go out and rent Frédéric Mitterrand's beautiful 1995 film of the opera. Heart-wrenching...

First, I love Bette Davis. This movie is among the worst she ever made. Bette Davis wonderful at playing modern women, especially outspoken, bitchy or evil women. She showed little talent for playing mealy-mouthed, self-sacrificing women. I think most of her fans will be appalled by this film, especially by the ending, which will leave most modern audiences speechless. Thank God that the following year, Bette co-starred with Henry Fonda in a classic, "Jezebel," and got her career back on track.

Audiences will groan at the character of Mary Donnell. Bette Davis is normally looking out for number one--and she's definitely her good old self in the first half of the movie. The widow of a gangster, Donnell has become a super-competent legal secretary for a respected attorney in a big firm. She fends off unwanted press attention and generally handles herself quite well as a tough single girl in the big city.She becomes the mistress of her married boss at the law firm (although the Hays Office undoubtedly required the removal of any breath of sexual content here, it should be pretty obvious to all what is going on). In the second half of the movie, which focusses on Jack Merrick (Henry Fonda), whom Donnell has always loved, she achieves peaks of self-sacrifice that will send you staggering to the bathroom to throw up.This is the sort of film that gives soap opera a bad name.