Excellent but underrated film

Disappointment for a huge fan!

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The subject matter reflects the genre: a self-centered woman destroys all who dare to love her, and the camera work in the the final chase scene is indicative of the style, with Bette's eyes in the rear view mirror as her character runs from the consequences of her own selfish choices. What possessed the studio to cast Bette Davis (who is 8 years older than Olivia de Havilland) to play the younger sister? Was the studio bound by the novel the screenplay was based upon? Davis steals her brother-in-law (Morgan) leaving her fiancé (Brent) broken-hearted. Once married, Peter ruins his career through drink and he takes his own life. Olivia de Havilland plays Roy, the long suffering sister, with a cool detachment and Billie Burke has a small role as the neurotic mother who spends what few scenes she has chewing the scenery, but she can't hold a candle to the wild-eyed Davis as the willful daughter, Stanley. The frenetic pace of the film careens to its dramatic conclusion with Davis' character unrepentant to the end. One can only imagine the fictional family is as relieved to be rid of Stanley as the actors who played them are to be done with this film. It's a stinker.

Bette Davis once again takes us into a nice entertainment and pulls it off so well that you actually love to hate her in this movie as her character goes through the day to day interactions with others. Furthermore, there are good familiar support players in this making it all make sense including realistically portraying racial prejudice in the South at that time. Black people had no faith in the justice system so instead, they put their hope in God and heaven. Anyone who has ever suffered an injustice that is hanging around can relate to this. The story moves along nicely and we find out that money has its limitations in helping you become a better person. Instead in this movie it makes you into the opposite. Watch and be entertained and pay a visit with...

Bette Davis is trouble looking for a target. A Richmond girl bored with her declining family, running off with her sister's husband is only the beginning as she leaves a generally destructive trail behind her, though it's more recklessness than malice.As with The Little Foxes, the film links immorality and economics. Davis is aligned more with her shrewd businessman uncle - and a pretty lewd relationship that is - than with her own father, whose escutcheon, at the beginning, we see knocked off their former home. Davis may overdo it a tad with the wide-eyed hysteria but she's given the dramatic leeway - everyone else is rigid - and she's pure entertainment. Good sister Olivia de Havilland has a relatively dull part but makes something quite beautiful out of it.It's obscure to everyone why the two women have man's names (Stanley and Roy) and it certainly creates an odd effect. Huston's directing is immaculate, craftsmanlike, crisp and disciplined. The music is a also feature. If Davis isn't sashaying to the jukebox and the Victrola, she's being smothered by Max Steiner's symphonic score that has a fateful down-stepping motif like a staircase to hell.In the best Warners style it takes you by the lapels, slaps you about a bit, and pushes you back into a chair.

Drama dealing with two sisters. There's Roy (Olivia de Havilland) who's good and Stanley (Bette Davis) who's psychotic. Stanley steals Roy's husband Peter (Dennis Morgan) from her cruelly dumping her current boyfriend Craig (George Brent). Then there's a creepy uncle (Charles Coburn) who seems way too fond of Stanley.Fast-moving and well-done with a great script. Director John Huston blasted this film in later years but I can't see why. Most of the acting is great. de Havilland is given the thankless good girl role but pulls it off. Davis is given the prime role and she attacks it full-force--sometimes TOO full force! More than once I found her overacting more funny than dramatic. I wish Huston had reined her in. Still she's great. The only debits are Brent and Morgan who are pretty wooden. Still this is well worth seeing.