Load of rubbish!!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This was John Huston's second film as director after The Maltese Falcon. In this one, he guided Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters with the usually male names of Stanley and Roy, respectively. Ms. Davis steals her sibling's husband (Dennis Morgan) while Roy then takes a shine to Stanley's former beau played by George Brent. Later on, some kind of accident occurs and someone gets blamed who was nowhere near the scene. I'll stop there and just say this was quite an exciting melodrama especially when Ms. Davis is on screen with her scenery chewing, so to speak! As the young African-American who gets in trouble through no fault of his own, Ernest Anderson holds his own against the other players. Oh, and what a nice reunion between Gone with the Wind co-stars de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel. In summary, In This Our Life was movie soap at its finest!

Now this one was a wild ride. I think this was the film that gave Bette Davis her reputation. Obviously she did many before this that were excellent but this one is just...wow. She's dead evil in this one.To say I was surprised at the end of this would be an understatement. I've seen quite a few of Davis' films but none have come close to evil/over-the-top of this character...IMO (maybe "The Anniversary" is close).This is certainly a well made film from cast to production. Enough can't be said about the supporting cast. They did an A+ job on getting their hands on this bunch. They all did quite well in this one.Basic premise is that Bette Davis is one of 2 sisters in a "once" rich family and she's obviously the star of the lot. She's spoiled beyond reason. If that's not bad enough, her uncle spoils her more than her father. And this relationship borders on creepy. She does whatever she wants and cares ZERO for the consequences. The whole thing starts off by her stealing her sister's husband and darting off outta town. After this it's all down hill. We get to see Davis in her absolute pinnacle of over-the-topness. You'll be stunned at the things this character does. She's shallow and cold-hearted and well...she's a Sociopath with a capital "S".Olivia de Havilland is OK. I've never been a huge fan of hers but she fills the void in her performance. With the exception of "The Snake Pit" and "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte"...she's pretty much the same in every role so you know what to expect in this.I'm not gonna go into the rest of the film because you have to see it to believe it. It's not on the level of "Little Foxes" but it's a good film. The title itself I think was wrong but I guess they couldn't call it..."Spoiled Brat".

The daring nature of this film becomes evident in an early scene where we learn that old Uncle William (Charles Coburn) has the hots for his niece "Stanley" (Bette Davis), and she plays him for all she can get financially...shades of Lillian Hellman! Director John Huston handles it well, getting this past the censors...I imagine that some movie-goers didn't quite get the implication. But watch the faces of the other characters in the early scene in the parlor! Charles Coburn, one of my favorite character actors, is a totally unlikable character here...not only a lecher, but clearly a business cheat. But he's awfully good at it, partly because he plays the role with suitable restraint to make it believable! But, in the end, the old man is devastated when he learns he has only months to live. Justice is done for one evil-doer in the story.Another actor playing against type is Dennis Morgan, who plays a non-singing, non-comedy role quite well as "Roy's" (Olivia deHavilland's) philandering husband...in love with Bette Davis (Olivia's sister), no less...who he runs away with and marries. Morgan has some atypically strong scenes in this film, but his character commits suicide as a result of depression because of the marriage. Justice is done again.Apparently Bette Davis wanted to play the good sister, but that role went to Olivia deHavilland, mirroring her type-casting after GWTW just 3 years earlier (although she is neutrally good and practical here).George Brent is fine playing the "good guy" married to Davis, the later dating the good sister, though this is not one of his more prominent roles, although he is featured more late in the film and the ultimate good guy lawyer who saves the young Black man.Bette Davis and Dennis Morgan get married, but of course, Bette Davis turns out to be just as bad a wife to Morgan as she was to George Brent, who begins dating Olivia deHavilland. Ultimately, and I do mean ultimately, Davis is in a hit-and-run car accident which results in the death of a child, but she accuses a "colored boy" -- actually a man -- who worked for their family for years and is now studying to be a lawyer and working in George Brent's law office. It has been said that those who live by the sword die by the sword. In this case we can paraphrase and say that those who kill by their speeding auto will die by their own speeding auto. Justice is done once again.Frank Craven is excellent as the father of Davis and DeHavilland. Ernest Anderson, as the young Black man is excellent, and though his role is relatively small, it is crucial to the plot. I would imagine Billie Burke was disappointed in her role as the invalided mother. Disappointingly, Hattie McDaniel's role here as not a maid but a mother is minor.There are some other interesting appearances in the film. Walter Huston, the director's father, has a cameo as a bartender. John Hamilton -- Perry White in television's Superman plays a police inspector.This is a good film with good acting by all concerned. And it's worth watching at least once. But it's not a pleasant film. Bette Davis' and Charles Coburn's characters are so unlikable that one cannot have any sympathy toward them. I enjoyed the film and think it was done well, and it's now on my DVD shelf. I enjoy it more since reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

I remember, in my former life, a long, long time ago, when a college professor told me that something that is created by another human being that gets your attention and stirs something inside you, and gets your visual attention, and captivates you, maybe is art.Well, this motion picture got my attention. Yes, it captivated me. The story, the actors and the moral was superb. Many times when I see these movies of an older era, I try to imagine in my mind, what the adult audience was thinking then, as they saw the story, the emotion, the characters. All the actors did a excellent job. Bettie Davis did it to me again. Her character made me hate her, and feel pity for her at the same time.I still don't understand why I still have a crush on her. Maybe it's that old false thinking that the right man, could change her, me! Through the years, the more I see her, the more I love her.All too often, many reviewers pick a motion picture or the actors apart on some of the most insignificant and minuet details. The director should have done this or it wasn't true to the book, or she or he could have acted a little better, blah, blah, blah. Even I have done that-- more than once. But, if things are done "reasonably" well and it holds your attention... Well, that's entertainment. That is what you pay the ticket at the box office window for. If I had paid for a ticket at the old box office for this movie, I could say that I got more than my monies worth in entertainment. And, I am still thinking about it after the movie is over.