My Reputation

My Reputation
Directed by	Curtis Bernhardt
Produced by	Jack L. Warner Henry Blanke
Written by	Catherine Tunney (screenplay)
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	James Wong Howe
Editing by	David Weisbart
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	January 25, 1946
Running time	94 min.
Language	English

My Reputation is a 1946 wartime love story, directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Barbara Stanwyck portrayed Jessica Drummond, an upper-class widow from Chicago who innocently falls in love with an army officer (George Brent), much to the consternation of her gossipy friends and domineering mother (Lucile Watson). Her romance also pits her against her two teenage sons (Scotty Beckett and Bobby Cooper). This film was an adaptation from Clare Jaynes' 1942 novel Instruct My Sorrows by screenwriter and novelist Catherine Turney.

Plot

Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) is comforted by the executor of her husband's estate, lawyer Frank Everett (Warner Anderson), who's been a family friend for years and, later, shows an interest in dating "Jess". Her mother (Watson) has worn black for decades, since her husband passed, and would love for her daughter to follow her example. Jess has two young boys: Kim (Scotty Beckett), who is fourteen, and Keith (Bobby Cooper), who's twelve. Both go off to school leaving their newly widowed mother at home alone to deal with her loneliness. She tries to reconnect with the "old gang" that she and her husband socialized with while he was alive, but finds they remind her too much of him. She's even accosted by one of them, George Van Orman (Jerome Cowan), when he brings her home one night. Fortunately, she has a real friend in Gina Abbott (Eve Arden), whom she runs to, and stays with, the night she was accosted. Gina and her husband Cary (John Ridgely) invite Jess to spend a week's vacation at Lake Tahoe with them.

When Jess finds herself lost somewhere on the slopes with a broken ski, she meets Major Scott Landis (Brent). He helps her back to the Abbott's lodge where she introduces them to Scott. After an evening of socializing, he spends the night downstairs on the sofa. That week, Jess and Scott get to know each other better, but she spurns his advances. Given her conservative upbringing, she accuses him of spoiling their good time, and she directs him to leave without an appropriate goodbye or discussion about any future.

Back in Lake Forest, just outside Chicago, Jess finds herself alone again except for her longtime housekeeper & cook Anna (Esther Dale). Frank comes to call and is invited to join them for dinner. However, just then the phone rings and it's Gina, who tells Jess than she and Cary are out at a club where they've spotted Major Landis. So, Jess asks Frank if they can go out instead of eating at home, and then goes to get all dressed up. Once at the club, Jess initiates bumping into Scott and finds out that he's been stationed in Chicago before he gets his orders for overseas, which could come at any time.

Another day, Scott asks Jess to meet him at his apartment before going out to dinner. And finally, after 50 minutes of the movie, we have idea of where it got its name. A friend of Jess's mother, Stella Thompson (Cecil Cunningham) sees Jess enter the Major's apartment, which later she evidently spreads as gossip. Of course, this becomes a subject of discussion among Jess's (and her former husband's) social friends, including Riette Van Orman (Leona Maricle), the lecherous George's wife, and eventually their children. In fact, upon returning for the holidays, Kim & Keith learn of their mother's "affairs" at the Van Orman's daughter Gretchen's (Ann E. Todd) party. There is a priceless scene in which Jess's mother confronts Scott on Christmas Eve while everyone, including Frank and the Abbotts, are busy trimming the tree. All the while, however, Jess's relationship with Scott could best be described as platonic, though Jess has begun to return some of Scott's affections for her, initially out of spite for the rumor mill. She later confronts it head-on, in the person of Ms. Van Orman.

Release

The film was made in 1944, on the heels of Stanwyck's great success, Double Indemnity, but was not released in the US until 1946. It was released to members of the Armed Forces first.

External links

• My Reputation at the Internet Movie Database