Long before ‘Beaches’ and numerous other female ‘weepie’ pictures comes this story of two life-long friends who become rivals in both their professional and personal lives and throughout the hardships of life, they realize they might only have each other to lean and depend on.
The two life-long friends are played by Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins who starred together in 1939’s “The Old Maid” four years earlier and admittedly loathed each other and became bitter rivals back when they were still struggling New York stage actresses, a rivalry that was made long before a similar feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Interestingly, the Davis/Hopkins rivalry probably did much to enhance this picture as much as the Davis/Crawford feud added that extra layer of menace to 1962’s “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” - a film similar in narrative to ‘Old Acquaintance’ if not in tone.
Adapted from John van Druten’s (Gaslight) play in which Warner Brothers paid a tidy $75,000 for the rights and directed by Vincent Sherman (Mr. Skeffington), the two stars apparently put aside their differences to make the film recognizing good roles when they see them. It’s unclear whether the two stars chose their respective roles as Miriam Hopkins took the self-absorbed, showier, over-the-top role and Bette Davis took the nice, quite, nuanced role, a type of role somewhat uncharacteristic for Bette Davis. Maybe she thought it was time to flip audience expectations on it’s ear.
The film opens in 1924 and we meet Millie Drake (Miriam Hopkins), an easily excitable gal and immediately recognizable as being on the selfish side, and her husband Preston (John Loder), an extremely affable fellow who we immediately recognize as deserving better. Their rushing around preparing for the visit of her childhood friend Kit Marlowe (Bette Davis), who has come upon some success as a serious literary writer. When Kit Marlowe arrives, an instant chemistry is seen between her and Preston, a chemistry not seen by Millie, of course, because she is caught up only in herself.
Jealous of her friend’s success, Millie decides to write some of her own stuff, but instead of writing for herself and attempting to write something meaningful, she writes trashy, romance novels with eyes only on the money and not on any artistic merit. Her first very successful novel is published the same day that her daughter Deirdre is born.
We cut ahead 8 years to 1932 where Millie has become a huge success from romance potboilers and who churns out one a year like clockwork. Her husband Preston still suffers by her side choosing to suffer indignities to be a good dad to his daughter Deidre. Kit is still very much part of the Drake’s life being a surrogate mother to Deidre and still writing acclaimed but financially unsuccessful works. The rapport between Kit and Preston has continued unabated all this time and finally Preston has had enough of Millie and decides to leave her and profess his love for Kit. Kit returns his love but cannot “do that” to a friend, even a friend like Millie and Kit sends Preston away.
10 more years pass away and we find ourselves in the heat of World War II. Preston, now in the military, hears a military radio address from Kit and calls her up. Kit, who is now in a relationship with Rudd Kendall (Gig Young), a nice man ten years her junior, decides to meet with Preston and brings along her new beau and Deidre (Dolores Moran all grown up) who Preston hasn’t seen since he left the three women in his life ten years earlier. At the suggestion of Kit, Preston decides to call up Millie, who hasn’t changed in 10 years.
Hoping to reconcile and mistaking his interest in meeting her in his wanting to get back together, their reunion ends up with his admittance that he loved Kit years earlier and that the only reason he and Kit were not married was Kit’s reluctance to do that to a friend. Only hearing what she wants to hear, Millie becomes enraged which results in the one of the greatest sequences of the film.
A scene between Kit and Millie, and more likely a scene between Davis and Hopkins, culminates in a glorious end where Kit finally does what everybody in the audience has been wanting to do to Millie since the beginning of the picture, and that’s to grab the hysterical Millie and shake her uncontrollably…shake some sense into her. Melodrama continues as Rudd, who feeling spurned by Kit after her nonchalant reaction to his marriage proposal, becomes entranced by Deidre. As the men in the picture become obsolete, the two friends finally realize the importance the other might play in each other’s future in a great culminating sequence where they share a glass of champagne with “Auld Lang Syne” playing in the background.
A solid, literate picture filled with some great dialogue and one of the few “weepie” pictures that doesn’t draw too much on melodrama and tragedy. The loss in this picture comes across as mostly realistic. The men in the picture are somewhat one-dimensional (as they usually are in these type of pictures) but John Loder is particularly good, displaying a character of sadness and longing, a character one feels sorry for. Miriam Hopkins as Millie Perkins is good in the showier role and is successful in gaining the audiences’ disdain and being particularly unpleasant throughout the film. Bette Davis plays the admirable, honest character and does a great job capturing the sympathy of the audience. The film was remade badly in 1981 as “Rich and Famous” with Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen.
The film is presented in it’s original aspect ratio of 4:3 full frame. Special Features include an audio commentary by Director Vincent Sherman and ‘Bette Davis Speaks’ author Boze Hadleigh. This commentary is worth a listen due to the involvement of one of the few golden-age directors to still survive. Vincent Sherman turned 100 this year and was able to offer some real insight on the making of the picture and the two stars and it’s intriguing to listen to somebody that was actually there instead of to a historian or biographer. A 10-minute featurette ‘Old Acquaintance: A Classic Woman’s Picture’ is also included which features some minor input from various film critics and historians and sadly doesn’t delve too much into the Davis/Hopkins rivalry. A vintage short ‘Stars on Horseback’, a classic cartoon ‘Fin’n Catty’ and the films theatrical trailer is also provided.
A fairly intelligent, well-acted film with Davis being handed the mature role and Hopkins playing the spoiled brat all pulled together by the talented Vincent Sherman. A role that Bette Davis fans would no doubt like to see her in (and a role Bette Davis always said was closest to her real personality) as she was good-hearted, sophisticated and strong in character, which is also a nice description of the film as well.
Old Acquaintance is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information. The film is part of the Bette Davis Collection Vol. 2 DVD box set now available at Amazon .
Your Talkback on this Story