It's well documented that Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins were far from enamoured of each other off screen for a variety of reasons not least Davis' affair with Hopkins' husband, Anatole Litvak. Nonetheless they contrived to play opposite each other in both Old Acquaintance and this one, in which Davis takes on the eponymous role. Knocked up by George Brent who then thoughtfully gets himself killed in the War Between The States (the American Civil War if you're British) before the child is born, Davis contrives to open an orphanage in which she conceals her own illegitimate daughter, who grows up to be Jane Bryan, a prototype of Ann Blythe's Vida to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce - anything Davis has Crawford must have too. By now cousin Miriam Hopkins has persuaded Davis to allow her, Hopkins, to adopt the child thus relegating Davis to 'old maid' status in which persona she is cruelly taunted by Bryan. As soaps go this produces a fine, luxurious lather with Davis, again playing opposite a strong actress, close to her best, which is saying something.
Review of The Old Maid
