Bette Davis must have been relieved to know that once she was done filming THE OLD MAID, chances were she didn't have to work with Miriam Hopkins again. I can only imagine her expression in having to deal with Hopkins for one more movie after suggestions to re-team with pal Mary Astor didn't fall through. She must have thought it was some kind of sick joke. Or karma. Who knows. To the end of her life she stated that while she respected Hopkins as an actress and even went to say that Hopkins didn't have to take on supporting parts so quickly, she was a congenial person, but working with her was another story.
It's not hard to see why: Hopkins tries insanely hard to steal every scene she's in from the moment the camera focuses on her back and she talks to Bette Davis' character over the phone in the opening scene. It's as if she were constantly aware of being under the camera lights and she needed to make sure that the viewer would see her as well. It only adds to her insecurity that her shrill performance, while very good, is not the focus of the movie -- indeed, she's off screen for a good chunk of the movie later on -- as it is Davis' character's story.
Still, it makes for great watching: at every turn there is a chance for one of them to try and out-act the other. However, you wouldn't know that they couldn't stand each other here, just like in THE OLD MAID. The opening scenes are quite funny in establishing who Kit Marlowe and Millie Drake are as friends. Kit is the more understanding, the more tolerant of the two: she knows how to deal with her flighty friend and has come to see her quirks as basically that. Millie, while a drama queen who wants to give her friend the biggest reception ever, ever so slightly suggests an envy of Kit's career, but really has no malice towards her. You could tell they're really friends that have since fallen into the rut of duty.
It's an outsider that begins to see the real nature of this friendship. John Loder, playing Preston Drake, is clearly unhappy in his marriage to Millie but stays by her regardless until he meets the woman he should have married in Kit. He can't see how being so diametrically opposed women they could even be in the same room together -- Millie is just too needy, too over-the-top to the more sensible Kit. However, it's said that every person has his or her complement and the two women, more sisters than friends, seem to be just that.
It's when Millie begins to succeed as a romance writer -- a Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts of her time -- that the friendship starts to show signs of fraying at the seams. Millie shows her claws in hints, and Kit moves on, serving the war and doing more relevant things with her life. But for a movie that has two such stars, it's only fitting that somehow they remain together because after all... they're "friends", and this is a soap opera about longtime "friends" after all.
OLD ACQUAINTANCE is a good woman's picture. It has good pacing and despite covering over twenty-odd years between the lives of these two women, it doesn't feel slow or repetitive. Interesting is the relationship that develops between Kit and Deirdre (Dolores Moran), Millie's daughter, who at times reacts to Kit as if she were her own mother and not Millie. Of note, as well, is how Davis looks in her role -- one only has to see how she'd look ten years later to see how accurate the make-up department got it. Where the movie goes into its only dramatic moment is the confrontation scene -- dragged out with takes upon takes since Hopkins was overacting, trying to make Davis' character more vicious but only succeeding in making herself look more the vicious woman caught -- and the reconciliation scene, which is highly unlikely. But in ending the movie on this note, it's a striking irony that for the second and last time both actresses who detested each other and had major demands on set gave their best performances. The result is the movie that became OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
It's not hard to see why: Hopkins tries insanely hard to steal every scene she's in from the moment the camera focuses on her back and she talks to Bette Davis' character over the phone in the opening scene. It's as if she were constantly aware of being under the camera lights and she needed to make sure that the viewer would see her as well. It only adds to her insecurity that her shrill performance, while very good, is not the focus of the movie -- indeed, she's off screen for a good chunk of the movie later on -- as it is Davis' character's story.
Still, it makes for great watching: at every turn there is a chance for one of them to try and out-act the other. However, you wouldn't know that they couldn't stand each other here, just like in THE OLD MAID. The opening scenes are quite funny in establishing who Kit Marlowe and Millie Drake are as friends. Kit is the more understanding, the more tolerant of the two: she knows how to deal with her flighty friend and has come to see her quirks as basically that. Millie, while a drama queen who wants to give her friend the biggest reception ever, ever so slightly suggests an envy of Kit's career, but really has no malice towards her. You could tell they're really friends that have since fallen into the rut of duty.
It's an outsider that begins to see the real nature of this friendship. John Loder, playing Preston Drake, is clearly unhappy in his marriage to Millie but stays by her regardless until he meets the woman he should have married in Kit. He can't see how being so diametrically opposed women they could even be in the same room together -- Millie is just too needy, too over-the-top to the more sensible Kit. However, it's said that every person has his or her complement and the two women, more sisters than friends, seem to be just that.
It's when Millie begins to succeed as a romance writer -- a Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts of her time -- that the friendship starts to show signs of fraying at the seams. Millie shows her claws in hints, and Kit moves on, serving the war and doing more relevant things with her life. But for a movie that has two such stars, it's only fitting that somehow they remain together because after all... they're "friends", and this is a soap opera about longtime "friends" after all.
OLD ACQUAINTANCE is a good woman's picture. It has good pacing and despite covering over twenty-odd years between the lives of these two women, it doesn't feel slow or repetitive. Interesting is the relationship that develops between Kit and Deirdre (Dolores Moran), Millie's daughter, who at times reacts to Kit as if she were her own mother and not Millie. Of note, as well, is how Davis looks in her role -- one only has to see how she'd look ten years later to see how accurate the make-up department got it. Where the movie goes into its only dramatic moment is the confrontation scene -- dragged out with takes upon takes since Hopkins was overacting, trying to make Davis' character more vicious but only succeeding in making herself look more the vicious woman caught -- and the reconciliation scene, which is highly unlikely. But in ending the movie on this note, it's a striking irony that for the second and last time both actresses who detested each other and had major demands on set gave their best performances. The result is the movie that became OLD ACQUAINTANCE.