• Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Marriage Drama, Romantic Drama
• Themes: Journey of Self-Discovery, Foibles of Marriage, Redemption
• Director: Vincent Sherman
• Main Cast: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel, Richard Waring, George Coulouris, Jerome Cowan
• Release Year: 1944
• Country: US
• Run Time: 147 minutes

Plot

From a novel of the same name by "Elizabeth", the film begins in 1914, with Bette Davis cast as vain, flighty society woman Fanny Trellis. Informed by Jewish-American financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) that her brother Trippy (Richard Waring) has stolen money to pay his gambling debts, Fanny marries Job, securing his promise that he won't prosecute her thieving sibling. Angered by Fanny's agreeing to this loveless union, Trippy runs off to join the army, and is killed during World War I. Fanny holds Skeffington responsible for her brother's death, and demands a divorce with a generous cash settlement. Despite Job's oft-repeated belief that "a woman is only beautiful when she is loved," Fanny uses her coquettish beauty to flit indiscriminately from man to man. While on a sailing trip with her latest beau, Fanny comes down with diphtheria. The disease destroys her facial beauty, and before long the shallow Fanny is left completely alone. Her self-centered efforts to reunite all of her old boyfriends for a party is a failure due to her pathetic middle-aged efforts to be kittenish, and the grotesqueness of the mounds of facial makeup she apples. Meanwhile, Skeffington, who has resettled in Europe with his daughter, is captured by the Nazis and placed in a concentration camp. He manages to escape, returning to the US totally blind and utterly penniless. A chastened Fanny comes back to her husband, promising to care for him for the rest of his life. Most TV prints of Mr. Skeffington run 127 minutes; the videocassette and cable TV versions have been restored to the original length. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

Scripted by Philip Epstein and Julius Epstein form the novel by "Elizabeth", Bette Davis ages from beautiful New York coquette to a ravaged and chastened 50-year-old in the epic melodrama Mr. Skeffington (1944). Fearless about playing unlikable leads, Davis's Fanny Trellis Skeffington is an unstinting narcissist who cares only about the validation of her beauty by increasingly younger men. Photographed by Ernest Haller and costumed by Orry-Kelly to initially look her glamorous best, Davis ends up an over-made up gargoyle after Fanny's illness; fleeting close-ups of Fanny's ruined face reveal enough without lingering over her ugliness. As her rich husband Job, Claude Rains conveys his undying adoration for Fanny with masterful subtlety, lending quiet credence to his assertion that "a woman is beautiful only when she is loved." One of the first films to deal with anti-Semitism and Nazism, Job's Judaism makes him a less "suitable" match for socialite Fanny c. 1915; his concentration camp experience leaves him at Fanny's newly discovered mercy decades later. Smoothly directed by Vincent Sherman, Mr. Skeffington resulted in Davis's seventh Best Actress Oscar nomination, and a Supporting Actor nod for Rains. 20 minutes cut for time in 1944 were restored for the home video release. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Bette Davis - "Fanny" Beatrice Trellis Skeffington
• Claude Rains - Job Skeffington
• Walter Abel - George Trellis
• Richard Waring - Trippy Trellis
• George Coulouris - Dr. Byles
• Jerome Cowan - Edward Morrison

Charles Drake - Johnny Mitchell; Marjorie Riordan - Young Fanny; Robert Shayne - MacMahon; John Alexander - Jim Conderley; Dorothy Peterson - Manby; Peter Whitney - Chester Forbish; Bill Kennedy - Thatcher; Tom Stevenson - Rev. Hyslup; Halliwell Hobbes - Soames, Fanny's 1st Butler; Sylvia Arslan - Young Fanny at Age 10; Bunny Sunshine - Young Fanny at 5; Dolores Gray - Singer; Walter Kingsford - Dr. Melton; Molly Lamont - Miss Morris, Secretary; Harry C. Bradley - The Rector; Georgia Caine - Mrs. Newton; Ann Codee - French Modiste; Joe Devlin - Boat Employee; Ann Doran - Marie, Nursemaid; Edward Fielding - Justice of the Peace; Bess Flowers - Mrs. Thatcher; William Forrest - Clinton, Fanny's 2nd Butler; Sol (Saul) Gorss - Plainclothesman; Creighton Hale - Casey, Employee; Vera Lewis - Justice's Wife; Matt McHugh - Drunk; Johnny Mitchell - Johnny Mitchell; Dagmar Oakland - Woman; Gigi Perreau - Young Fanny at Age 25; Cyril Ring - Perry Lanks; Erskine Sanford - Dr. Fawcette; Will Stanton - Drunk; Lelah Tyler - Mrs. Forbish; Minerva Urecal - Woman in Beauty Shop; John Vosper - Artist; Regina Wallace - Mrs. Conderly; Crane Whitley - Louie, Speakeasy Owner; Richard Erdman - Western Union Boy; Mary Field - Mrs. Hyslup; Frances Sage - Skeffington's First Secretary; Jack George - Henri; Janet Barrett - Witness

Credit

Ralph Dawson - Editor; Julius J. Epstein - Producer; Julius J. Epstein - Screenwriter; Philip G. Epstein - Producer; Philip G. Epstein - Screenwriter; Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision; Robert M. Haas - Production Designer; Ernest Haller - Cinematographer; James Leicester - Special Effects; Fred MacLean - Set Designer; Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer; Vincent Sherman - Director; Jack L. Warner - Executive Producer; Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score); Perc Westmore - Makeup; Robert B. Lee - Sound/Sound Designer; Elizabeth - Book Author

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