Powerful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

"The Sisters" was Bette Davis first film after "Jezabel" and she was definitely on her way, into the territory of romantic women's films ie "The Old Maid", "The Letter" and "In This Our Life". They were glossy and highly dramatic films to showcase Warner's top female star. They were very entertaining as well. Davis must have been very pleased when she was given the role of the quiet, dependable Louise Elliot, who along with her two sisters, flirty Helen ( beautiful Anita Louise) and young and enthusiastic Grace (Jane Bryan) are preparing for the 1904 election night ball. They also meet their future husbands at the ball. Louise is almost engaged to boorish Tom'(Dick Foran) when she meets restless but exciting Frank Medlin. Errol Flynn is so heartbreakingly handsome in this early role. It is love at first sight for both of them.Vain Helen opts for security and marries genial Sam (Alan Hale). Grace, who has always admired Tom, is around to pick up the pieces when Louise elopes with Frank to San Francisco. Life is tough for Louise. Money is tight and Frank takes to drinking heavily when responsibility catches up with him. When Louise loses her baby, she finds a job in a department store to help pay bills, while Frank sinks into a depression, and decides to walk out and "find" himself.Then comes the San Francisco earthquake. Louise wanders the city looking for Frank, but finds her neighbour Flora (Lee Patrick), who is staying with her mother (Laura Hope Crewes), who in turn is running a brothel. They nurse her back to health and when Frank doesn't turn up she returns to work and makes herself indispensable to Benson (Ian Hunter).Two years pass - Helen, who has enjoyed an "open" marriage with Sam, is now a widow. Louise goes back to Silver Bow to help save Grace's marriage to Tom. He is running around with the town tramp Isabel Taylorthe sisters help run her out of town.The 1908 election ball is on. Helen is going with soon to be husband No. 3, Grace has reconciled with Tom and Frank goes to Silver Bow for a reconciliation with Louise. It all ends with the three sisters united in happiness.Beulah Bondi is excellent as usual as their mother.Highly Recommended.

Upon seeing this relatively forgotten film, I kept getting flashes of the type of movie adaptations of E. M. Forster's novels "Howard's End" and "Where Angels Fear to Tread", both made into successful movies during the early 1990s.Despite being a story heavily entrenched in Americana, beginning and ending with the election of presidents and the symbolic position of the three Eliott sisters and their relation to their husbands and their parents, there is an interesting feel that this would have eventually been picked up by the BBC and turned into a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries. The reason for this being that while Bette Davis' character Louise Elliot gets the lion's share of the story of the three sisters, I felt that the other two -- Grace and Helen -- are left somewhat adrift and under-developed, and this leaves the title of the movie a little misleading. There is so much that could have been done had the entire Elliot family been fleshed out, but due to an expiration date of 100 minutes and the presence of Davis, Errol Flynn and Ian Hunter (all stars in their own right and needing screen time), this would have been nearly impossible and back then, ensemble movies were rare.However, THE SISTERS is a very good movie that holds up well. The San Francisco earthquake scene is handled well using a mix of stock footage and a shaking set, making the viewing experience real, even when it's clear that the background "skyline" is as still as Ayer's Rock. It's also a part of the films Bette Davis made during the time when she was getting better parts and high-profile projects and was about to become BETTE DAVIS. She looks remarkably similar -- minus the pencil-thin line she draws on her mouth -- to Regina Giddens in THE LITTLE FOXES, without the harshness. Errol Flynn is well-matched with Davis although she stated not liking working with him and fought to have her name over his in the opening credits due to the fact the plot revolved around her and not him. She would get this, though, the next time they'd work together in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX, and by then she'd be an even bigger, stronger star than Flynn.

Errol Flynn had been in movies since 1935 in the U.S., and his films for Warner Brothers were mostly swashbucklers and adventure films. With his slightly British (actually Australian - Irish) accent, he fit so well into exciting period films. Occasionally he did modern films, like the comedy FOURS A CROWD, but these were considered secondary for his fans. They wanted more of Captain Peter Blood or Robin Hood. Flynn himself wanted to have more regular roles, but found his requests met with limited success. Jack Warner knew that the key to it all was Flynn's box office, and that depended on adventure stories. So he was amazed by the offer from Warner to appear opposite Bette Davis in THE SISTERS. His role: a newspaper reporter who marries Bette, moves with her to San Francisco, and proves less good at domesticity than she wanted. It was a complete change for Flynn, and he would try to do the role justice. And he failed to do so.I keep thinking Warner, a very cagey film producer, was doing two things in giving Flynn the role. First he was testing the waters to see if Flynn and Davis were good together as a film team. Warner had plans to make GONE WITH THE WIND, and wanted Davis to play Scarlett O'Hara, but he wanted Flynn to be Rhett Butler. Davis is on record as having told Warner (more or less) that she did not believe him (he apparently blurted out his plan to stop her when she left the studio in 1936 to fight her contract in England). But later, when she returned to the studio, she told Warner that she wanted someone who could act, and she did not think that Flynn was an actor.The other reason was to give Flynn an opportunity to "get it all out of his system". Flynn wanted to be a serious actor - well here was his chance. It was like Daryl Zanuck and Tyrone Power, when the latter wanted to do a serious part. Zanuck gave Power NIGHTMARE ALLEY to "get it out of his system". The difference was that Zanuck did not pick NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Power did), and Power's performance was marvelous as a result (but the film did poorly at the box office). So Power got it out of his system, but showed what he could do. Flynn did not pick THE SISTERS, but was given it by Warner. So for all his determination to perform the part well, he lacked the excitement of playing a role he wanted.The story begins in November 1904 when the citizens of a small town in Colorado are celebrating the election of President Theodore Roosevelt for a full term of his own over the Democratic Candidate (one of the two least recalled defeated candidates of the 20th Century: Justice Alton B.Parker of New York State's Court of Appeals). Davis and her two sisters (Anita Louise and Jane Bryant) are shown in their being courted by different men (Flynn, Alan Hale Sr., and Dick Foran), and how they all prosper or don't prosper. Davis and Flynn end up living in San Francisco, and Flynn's wanderlust keeps interfering with his duty as a breadwinner. Due to this and various circumstances, he is on a boat to China when the San Francisco Earthquake occurs (halfway through the film). Louise has a brief marriage to Hale, which leaves her very wealthy - and constantly squired around by men. Bryant and Foran seem to have a fairly routine marriage in comparison. The film ends with Flynn and Davis reunited (but will it last?) at the celebration of the election in November 1908 of William Howard Taft over William Jennings Bryan (paging Robert Culp in THE GREAT SCOUT AND CATFISH THURSDAY). While not a bomb, THE SISTERS was no bell ringer at the box office. Davis got most of the critical acclaim (for a relatively quiet role for her - the loss of her baby was the best scene she had). Hale had a more interesting part as a millionaire drunk than Flynn did. Flynn did well - but no more than that. Davis' views of Flynn as a co-star hardened, and she fought (unsuccessfully) to keep him from being the Earl of Essex to her Queen Elizabeth I in ELIZABETH THE QUEEN within a year. But they never did make GONE WITH THE WIND together.

This is a most excellent drama, set in San Francisco from 1904 to 1908, with the great earthquake of 1906 at its center. While the business failure of Flynn's character is a little unrealistic, both he and Bette Davis play sympathetic characters; they made me feel the disappointment of people who expect a lot out of Life and then suffer through its hardships.The scenes of the earthquake are terrific - don't miss the seemingly ENDLESS shaking and destruction of Bette's rented room, as her neighbor comes screaming into the room looking for comfort, and the indoors gives way to the OUTDOORS! Very nice effects for 1938, 60+ years before computer imaging! That part of the story seems all the more poignant to me, now that we know the death figures were faked - at least 10 times as many died as the officials admitted.I won't give away the ending, but it was satisfying and made me glad to have seen the film. Do catch it on Turner, which runs it a couple times per year.