Simply A Masterpiece

As Good As It Gets

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Can it really be Bette Davis - earlier the same year she was a very mousey, nothing special "girl" in "Hell's House". Now blonded, sparkling and vivacious - Bette Davis has sex appeal.Even though it's main claim to fame is sultry Bette Davis and her "legendary" line "I'd like to kiss ya but I just washed ma hair" - this film is much more.It was one of Warner Brother's "social" dramas, focusing on the clashes between the wealthy planters and the sharecroppers (called peckerwoods). Richard Barthelmass plays Marvin Blake, a share cropper's son who aspires to higher things. Dorothy Peterson plays his mother. When his father dies from over work, Norwood, the planter (Berton Churchill) encourages Marvin to stay at school and later on gives him a job looking after the plantation accounts. The honesty and purity of Marvin's personality keep him in limbo. He feels he doesn't belong to any group. He wants his people to accept him but they are suspicious of his involvement with Norwood. Dorothy Jordan, a popular ingénue in the early 30s, plays Betty, the sharecropper girl who always believes in him. He, in turn, feels loyalty for Madge because he thinks she loves him but he is just a plaything for her.Although not as hard hitting as other Warner's social dramas, it improved in the last half - with an impassioned speech by veteran silent actor Henry B. Walthall as an old sharecropper trying to explain to Marvin what they are fighting for. In the court case at the end of the film Marvin gives an emotional speech about the planters and share croppers working together. Clarence Muse makes a few notable appearances as a blind singer.

The lead (37 when the movie was made) is obviously too old for the part.He is gauche,clumsy,nothing of a working class hero.He's supposed to be clever and educated but we do not feel it.Fortunately the supporting cast is up to scratch ,with a superb Bette Davis at her bitchiest.It's a wonder she can be seduced by such an oaf.Marvin is a smart young man who knows that the way to get out of poverty in the cotton fields is education.Note that his dad passes away as he is reading an article in a newspaper which advocates the right of peoples to education ,be they rich or poor ..During all the movie,Marvin will be caught in the crossfire: his boss,a land owner(Madge's (Davis) father),after laughing when Marvin's father tells him his sonny wants to study quickly understands the whiz kid could be a marvelous informer.When the young man becomes a gentleman ,the tenants feel they are betrayed by one of them..Curtiz superbly places side by side the two worlds during Betty's and Madge's parties.Marvin is ill-at-ease in both.In Betty's house ,he has become out of place in his Sunday's best.In Madge's desirable mansion,during the ball with a jazz band (that costs a arm and a leg,as Marvin tells to his brothers in his final speech), those vulgar popular dances are held up to ridicule by the wealthy man's daughter's guests.The conclusion is the reconciliation between capital and labor (the cooperation) a la "Metropolis" where Marvin is the arbitrator.Curtiz never forgot to tell a story and this old film,despite the reservation expressed about the male lead,can still grab today's audience.Anyway,the numerous Davis' fans would not like to miss one of her early films.

Interesting film about the plight of planters vs. share croppers in 1930s South. Richard Barthelmess plays a share cropper's son who is good at school and is sponsored by a planter (Berton Churchill). Although the boy becomes a bookkeeper for him he 's caught between the two worlds and the two girls from each side of town: the planter's daughter (Bette Davis) and a share cropper's neighbor (Dorothy Jordan).As the war between the planters and croppers increases, Barthelmess is caught in a moral dilemma. He knows the croppers are stealing cotton and he knows they burned down the local mercantile (owned by the planter) because they think they've destroyed the the records. But Barthelmess has an extra set.The film is a little slow and maybe too old fashioned but the subject matter is interesting and of course the film features Davis' famous line, "I'd like to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair. Bye!" Aside from that the film offers Barthelmess in his last starring role and good performances by Churchill and Henry B. Walthall as a crippled cropper.Also co-stars David Landau, Virginia Hammond, Russell Simpson, Tully Marshall, Dorothy Peterson, Hardie Albright, and Clarence Muse.Worth a look

With all the emphasis on Bette Davis in this film, it is easy to overlook the musical interest. I counted four different musical groups, each assigned to a different "class". There was the marching band at the funeral (black used at a poor white event), the jug band (white, at the poor white party), the jazz band (black, at the rich white party), and the blues singer. This is a surprisingly rich array of styles.Interestingly, only the blues singer (Clarence Muse) is credited.