Main Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Donald Crisp, Jane Bryan
Release Year: 1939
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
When Zoë Akins' play The Old Maid (based on a novel by Edith Wharton) won the 1934-1935 Pulitzer Prize, the selection was roundly condemned by critics, who felt that Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour was more deserving, but had lost because of its lesbian theme. Certainly, Akins' story of the relationship between two Southern cousins in the years between 1833 and 1854 is nothing spectacular. Delia Lovell marries James Ralston, leaving her old beau Clem Spender out in the cold. Delia's cousin Charlotte comforts Clem by spending the night with him. Charlotte becomes pregnant, secretly farming out her daughter, Tina, to another family. The years pass; Charlotte sets up a day nursery so that she may remain close to her daughter (still in the dark as to the true identity of her mother). Meanwhile, Charlotte has become engaged to Ralston's brother Joseph. The troublesome Delia, who discovers her cousin's secret, contrives to prevent Charlotte from marrying Joseph, then arranges to have Charlotte raise Tina as her niece rather than her daughter. More years pass; Tina regards Delia as her mama and Charlotte as just an "old maid." At Tina's wedding, Charlotte almost reveals the truth to her daughter, but.....It's all slick romance-magazine stuff, and hardly worthy of the Pulitzer. On the other hand, the film version of The Old Maid, starring Bette Davis as Charlotte and Miriam Hopkins as Delia, is a classic of its kind, and one of Davis' best vehicles. The story is given additional substance by moving the early scenes up to the time of the Civil War, making Clem Spender (George Brent) less of a cad by killing him off at Vicksburg, thus rendering it impossible for Clem to make an honest woman of Charlotte. From the vantage point of the 1990s, when film stars find it difficult to turn out more than one picture a year, it is incredible that The Old Maid was but one of four first-rate Bette Davis films to be released in 1939; the others were Dark Victory, Juarez, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of four superior Bette Davis vehicles from 1939, The Old Maid features Davis at her embittered best as a Civil War-era spinster and mother squaring off with her selfish cousin over the child's love. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Zoe Akins play from Edith Wharton's novel, Davis and co-star Miriam Hopkins's fractious off-screen relationship lent an extra dash of realism to the onscreen rivalry between Davis's wallflower Charlotte and Hopkins's flighty, conniving Delia over Charlotte's daughter by Delia's spurned suitor Clem. A victim of societal limits as well as Delia's jealousy, Charlotte's transformation into a harsh old maid to preserve illegitimate daughter Tina's reputation amply displays Davis's actorly range, from the palpable rage in her confrontations with the simperingly malicious Hopkins, to the restrained grief over her daughter's cruelty. Edmund Goulding's elegant direction keeps the Davis-Hopkins cat fight in control without losing any of the melodramatic punch, heightening the emotional payoff of the final rapprochement between mother, daughter and rival mother. Praised for its polished production and Davis's poignant, complex performance, The Old Maid became a popular hit and might have garnered Davis an Oscar nomination-but that honor came for Dark Victory (1939) instead. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Old Maid, The (1935), a play by Zoë Akins. [ Empire Theatre, 305 perf.; Pulitzer Prize.] When Charlotte Lovell (Helen Menken) has an illegitimate daughter, her married cousin, Delia Ralston (Judith Anderson), agrees to raise her as her own. Delia also prevents Charlotte from marrying her brother‐in‐law. Years later, Charlotte has moved in with her cousin; and the child, Tina (Margaret Anderson), has grown into an attractive woman who loves her supposed mother and has little time for her prim, dour maiden aunt. At Tina's wedding to rich Lanning Halsey (John Cromwell), Charlotte decides to reveal the true story, but finds she cannot summon up the courage to do so. Understanding her agony, Delia quietly tells Tina to give her last kiss to Cousin Charlotte. Based on Edith Wharton's novel, the play divided New York's critics. But their division turned to unity in their dismay at the play's being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. This dissatisfaction, coupled with the Pulitzer committee's bypassing Winterset the next season, led to the establishment of the New York Drama Critics Circle and its own award.
Set during the American Civil War, The Old Maid tells the story of two women, Charlotte Lovell (Bette Davis) and her cousin Delia (Miriam Hopkins). Delia and Clem Spender (George Brent) were engaged, when he goes away for two years. He returns to find Delia about to marry a wealthy man named Joe Ralston (Jerome Cowan). Delia rejects Clem and goes forward with her wedding, and Charlotte comforts Clem as she has always loved him. He returns to fighting in the war, after promising to marry Charlotte upon his return, but is killed. Charlotte discovers that she is pregnant with his child and to avoid the shame of unmarried motherhood, feigns illness and flees to the West to give birth to her baby, a girl she names Tina, short of Clementina.
After the war, Charlotte returns to Philadelphia and opens an orphanage. By this time, Delia has two children with her husband Joe, and Charlotte becomes engaged to Joe's brother Jim. On her wedding day, Charlotte reveals to Delia that one of the children in the orphanage is her own illegitimate daughter, Tina. Delia prevents Jim Ralston from marrying Charlotte by telling him that she is in poor health. Charlotte initially thinks he didn't marry her because Delia told him about her illegitimate child, but later finds out the lie that Delia had told Jim. This act causes an estrangement between the cousins, but when Joe is killed in an accident, Delia asks Charlotte and Tina move in with her and her children. Tina, unaware that Charlotte is her mother and believing herself to be an orphan, assumes the role of one of Delia's daughters, and calls her "Mummy," while she calls Charlotte her aunt.
Years pass, and Tina grows into a young woman (Jane Bryan) who hopes to marry the wealthy Lanning Halsey (William Lundigan), however the match is made difficult by the stigma associated with Tina as an orphan. Still unaware that Charlotte is her mother, she begins to resent what she considers her interference in her life, and when Delia offers to formally adopt Tina, Tina accepts. Charlotte agrees reluctantly but intends to tell Tina the truth before the wedding, but finds herself unable to do so. The resentment between the cousins reached its peak, when Charlotte bitterly states to Delia that both Clem and Tina have always loved Delia than they did Charlotte. Delia tells Tina that Charlotte had made a sacrifice by giving up on marrying, because her husband-to-be didn't want to raise Tina. So per Delia's instructions, Tina should kiss Charlotte last when she is about to depart with her new husband.
After the wedding, Tina, following Delia's instructions, kisses Charlotte last when she leaves with her husband. Touched by this act, Charlotte is finally happy. She takes her cousin Delia's hand and both of them go inside the house, no longer as adversaries.
