Two Great Actresses Find Scope In "Old Maid"

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 282, 23 August 1940, Page 6

Two Great Actresses Find Scope In "Old Maid"

(~)NE of the latest productions of War- ” ner Brothers’ studios, ■’The Old .Maid.” was screened privately in Wellington this week ami was revealed as a film of unusually high merit and wide appeal. Its strength lies in the tact that it is a vehicle for the talent, of t wo of the most eminent dramalie screen actresses in America, Miriam Hopkins and Belle Davis. Their acting makes worth while a theme that is rather like the plot of more than one old melodrama. The work of the remainder of the east and the production is done with the usual Warner competence.

Bette Davis has the central role of an unmarried mother of good social position in the Victorian era. The father of her daughter is killed in the American Civil War and noil her tlie child nor anybody else, except a doctor and her sister (Miriam Hopkins), knows her secret. The enormity of Unit secret is greater than it would bo. in these days. As the girl grows up she comes to regard her aunt as a mother anil her mother as a severe old spinster “aunt” living with them. This, with the circumstance that, the sisters bad been rivals in love, creates a strained situation between I lie two women full of dramatic currents. In the climax Bette Davis attempts to claim her daughter on the girl’s wedding eve, but fails when she realizes that the young woman lias come to lielong to her sister. However, the film does not end on a note of defeat, for the attempt warms relations between the “old maid” and her daughter and one feels that it is all for the best. WALTER BRENNAN has been engaged by Frank Capra for “The Life of John Doe.”