In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow.
Plot
Asa and Lavinia Timberlake are the parents of two daughters christened with male names. Roy, a successful interior decorator, is married to Dr. Peter Kingsmill, while Stanley is engaged to attorney Craig Fleming. The night before their wedding, Stanley runs off with Peter, who eventually is divorced by his wife, leaving him free to marry her sister.
Roy begins dating the jilted Craig, who hires Parry Clay, the son of Timberlake maid Minerva, to work in his office while Parry attends law school. William Fitzroy, Lavinia's brother and Asa's former partner in a tobacco business, dotes on his niece Stanley with an affection that borders on the unnatural. He suggests he is willing to retain Craig as his attorney if he will stop representing the poor. When Craig refuses Roy, impressed by his ethics, agrees to marry him.
In Baltimore, Stanley and Peter's marriage is plagued by her wasteful spending and his heavy drinking. After Peter commits suicide, Stanley returns to her home town with the intention of winning back Craig. During a visit to his office to discuss Peter's life insurance, Stanley asks Craig to join her for dinner at a local restaurant. When he fails to keep their date, she becomes drunk and hits and kills a child while driving home.
Witnesses recognize Stanley's car, but when she is questioned by the police she insists she had lent her car to Parry on the night of the accident. Minerva tells Roy her son was home with her all evening, and when Stanley refuses to admit the truth, Craig tells her he questioned the bartender at the restaurant where they had planned to meet and ke knows she left there intoxicated. Craig plans to take Stanley to the district attorney, but she escapes to her uncle's house and implores him to help her. William, however, has just discovered he has only six months to live and is too distraught to pay attention to her. The police arrive at William's house and Stanley once again tries to escape but crashes her car and is killed.
Production
The Ellen Glasgow novel, for which Warner Bros. paid $40,000 for the screen rights, [1] included William's blatantly incestuous desire for his niece Stanley and a considerable amount of racial discrimination, two elements screenwriter Howard Koch, who had been recommended by director John Huston, needed to tone down in order to satisfy the demands of the Motion Picture Production Code. [2] Bette Davis, eventually cast as villainous Stanley Timberlake despite her desire to play good sister Roy instead, [3] was unhappy with the outcome. "The book by Miss Glasgow was brilliant," she later recalled. "I never felt the script lived up to the book." [2] Nor did Glasgow. "She minced no words about the film," Davis said. "She was disgusted with the outcome. I couldn't have agreed with her more. A real story had been turned into a phony film." [2]
Contributing to her displeasure with the film were several events that transpired during the making of it. Denied a vacation between the completion of The Man Who Came to Dinner and the start of In This Our Life, Davis was in the midst of costume and wig fittings when she was notified her husband Arthur Farnsworth had been admitted to a Minneapolis hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. Her friend Howard Hughes arranged air transportation for her, and the journey, plagued by fog and storms, proved to be a treacherous one that took two days. Almost immediately studio head Jack L. Warner began cabling her with demands she return immediately. Due to his incessant pressure and her concern for her husband's condition, Davis' own health deteriorated to the point she was ordered to return to Los Angeles by train so she could spend a few restful days before returning to work. [3]
Still distressed she was being forced to play Stanley rather than Roy - "I was not young enough for the part," Davis insisted [2] - the actress rebelled and argued with producers about every aspect of her character. She had Perc Westmore style her hair with unbecoming bangs and give her an exaggerated cupid's-bow mouth and insisted Orry-Kelly redesign his costumes, resulting in a generally unflattering wardrobe. [3] In one respect she proved to be a tremendous asset to the project. John Huston had spoken to the few African American actors who were suitable for the role of Parry Clay but had been satisfied with none of them. One day, while eating in the studio commissary, Davis noticed Ernest Anderson, who was working as a waiter, and she felt he had the right look and demeanor for the role. She encouraged Huston to screen test him, and he subsequently was cast. [2] He went on to win the National Board of Review Award for his performance.
Three days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Huston was forced to leave the production to fulfill an assignment for the War Department, and Raoul Walsh was called in to complete the film, although he received no screen credit for his contributions. He and Davis immediately clashed, and she refused to follow his direction or refilm scenes already completed. She developed laryngitis and remained away from the set for several days. After she returned, producer Hal B. Wallis frequently was forced to act as mediator between Davis and Walsh, who kept threatening to quit. There were so many delays in filming the project was not completed until mid-January 1942, well over schedule. The first preview was a disaster, with audience comments especially critical about Davis' hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Glad to have the experience behind her, and already preparing for Now, Voyager, she was unfazed by the negative feedback. [3] As far as she was concerned, the finished product was "mediocre," although she appreciated the fact Parry Clay was "performed as an educated person. This caused a great deal of joy among Negroes. They were tired of the Stepin Fetchit vision of their people." [2] However, when the film was reviewed by the Office of Censorship prior to its foreign release in 1943, it was disapproved because "it is made abundantly clear that a Negro's testimony in court is almost certain to be disregarded if in conflict with the testimony of a white person." [1]
Cast
Critical reception
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called it "neither a pleasant nor edifying film." He felt "the one exceptional component of the film" is the "brief but frank allusion to racial discrimination" which "is presented in a realistic manner, uncommon to Hollywood, by the definition of the Negro as an educated and comprehending character. Otherwise the story is pretty much of a downhill run." He added, "Director John Huston, unfortunately, has not given this story sufficient distinction . . . The telling of it is commonplace, the movement uncomfortably stiff. Olivia de Havilland gives a warm and easy performance as the good sister who wins out in the end . . . But Miss Davis, by whom the whole thing pretty much stands or falls, is much too obviously mannered for this spectator's taste . . . It is likewise very hard to see her as the sort of sultry dame that good men can't resist. In short, her evil is so theatrical and so completely inexplicable that her eventual demise in an auto accident is the happiest moment in the film." [4]
Variety noted, "John Huston, in his second directorial assignment, provides deft delineations in the varied characters in the script. Davis is dramatically impressive in the lead but gets major assistance from Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Billie Burke and Hattie McDaniel. Script succeeds in presenting the inner thoughts of the scheming girl, and carries along with slick dialog and situations. Strength is added in several dramatic spots by Huston's direction." [5]
DVD release
On April 1, 2008, Warner Home Video released the film as part of the box set The Bette Davis Collection, Volume 3, which also includes The Old Maid, All This, and Heaven Too, Watch on the Rhine, and Deception.
References
External links
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