That Certain Woman | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edmund Goulding |
Written by | Edmund Goulding |
Produced by | Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner |
Starring | Bette Davis Henry Fonda Anita Louise |
Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
Edited by | Jack Killifer |
Music by | Max Steiner |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1 million |
That Certain Woman is a 1937 American melodramatic film written and directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, Henry Fonda and Anita Louise. It is a remake of Goulding's 1929 film The Trespasser , Gloria Swanson's first sound film.
Mary Donnell is a naive young woman married to Al Haines, a bootlegger who is killed during the St. Valentine's Day massacre. To support herself, she has taken a job as a secretary to married attorney Lloyd Rogers, who is attracted to her but keeps his feelings secret. Jack Merrick, Jr., the playboy son of a wealthy client, elopes with Mary, but his disapproving father interferes and has the marriage annulled. Soon after, Mary discovers that she is pregnant and decides to have the child without informing Jack.
Jack later marries Florence ”Flip” Carson, a woman of his own social class, who is later crippled in an automobile accident. Mary returns to working for Lloyd.
Lloyd dies several years later at Mary's apartment, leaving the bulk of his estate to Mary. A press uproar ensues that exposes information about Mary's past. Jack appears and offers to adopt Mary's son, and he discovers that he is the boy's father. Lloyd's wife, believing that Mary's son is her husband's illegitimate child, attempts to overturn the will.
When Jack's father learns that the boy is his grandson, the elder Merrick institutes proceedings to have Mary declared unfit and the child removed from her custody. Jack is furious and argues all night with his father. Florence visits Mary the next morning and, to her surprise, Mary finds Florence kind and sympathetic. Mary insists that Jack stay with Florence and allows Jack and Florence to have the child. Mary leaves for Europe. When Florence later dies, Jack locates Mary and proclaims that he is coming to join her.
Bette Davis said:
"[it] was certainly not one of my favorite scripts. There was a falseness to the whole project. But I did meet and work with Edmund Goulding for the first time. He concentrated on attractive shots of me—in other words, gave me the star treatment. It was the first time I had this. I was always a member of the cast—a leading member—but not made special in the way Goulding made me special in this film." [1]
Davis and Goulding would later collaborate on three more films: Dark Victory (1939), The Old Maid (1939) and The Great Lie (1941).
In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Frank S. Nugent wrote: "For all the heaviness of its theme, for the hopeless monotony of its heroine's ill-fortune, the picture has dramatic value ... Miss Davis performs valiantly as usual, giving color to a role which, in lesser hands, might have been colorless." [2]
Time magazine described the film as "what is known as a players' picture; everyone gets the call, and everyone responds with all the theatrical craft he can summon up." [3]
Variety wrote: "The production has class and atmosphere ... a finely made picture which deserves and will get extended first runs and which shoves Bette Davis a round or two higher as box office lure ... [It] demands more of her talent than any film in which she has appeared ... She displays screen acting of the highest order." [1]
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. It is based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr, although Orr does not receive a screen credit.
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations.
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.
The Trespasser is a 1929 American pre-Code film written and directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Gloria Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B. Walthall, and Wally Albright. The film was released by United Artists in both silent and sound versions.
Now, Voyager is a 1942 American drama film starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, and directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty.
Mary Astor was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
Marked Woman is a 1937 American dramatic crime film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli and Allen Jenkins. Set in the underworld of Manhattan, Marked Woman tells the story of a woman who dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.
George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory.
The Great Lie is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel January Heights by Polan Banks.
John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.
Jean Rogers was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the science-fiction serials Flash Gordon (1936) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).
The Old Maid is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Zoë Akins, which was adapted from the 1924 Edith Wharton novella The Old Maid: the Fifties.
The Bride Came C.O.D. is a 1941 American screwball romantic comedy starring James Cagney as an airplane pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress, and directed by William Keighley. Although the film was publicized as the first screen pairing of Warner Bros.' two biggest stars, they had actually made Jimmy the Gent together in 1934, and had wanted to find another opportunity to work together.
Hold Your Man is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by an uncredited Sam Wood and starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, the third of their six films together. The screenplay by Anita Loos and Howard Emmett Rogers was based on a story by Loos.
Carol Nugent is an American actress who began her career as a child. Nugent appeared in over 20 feature films and 11 television programs during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Her 1959 marriage to actor Nick Adams ended with his death in 1968, before their divorce had been finalized.
Of Human Bondage is a 1946 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker and Alexis Smith. The second screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel, this Warner Bros. sanitized version was written by Catherine Turney. The central characters are Philip Carey, a clubfooted medical student, and Mildred Rogers, a low-class waitress with whom he becomes obsessed.
June Bride is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Bretaigne Windust. The screenplay, which was based on the unproduced play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer, was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The film starred Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery. The Warner Bros. release marked the screen debut of Debbie Reynolds, although her appearance was uncredited.
The Women is a 1939 American comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who had to make the film acceptable for the Production Code for it to be released.
The Hard Way is a 1943 Warner Bros. musical drama film starring Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, and Joan Leslie. Directed by Vincent Sherman, it is based on a story by Irwin Shaw which was reportedly based on Ginger Rogers' relationship with her first husband, Jack Pepper and her own mother, Lela.
Fathers and Daughters is a 2015 drama film directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, and Kylie Rogers. It is based on a 2012 script written by Brad Desch, which was included in the 2012 Black List survey. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. It grossed over $5.1 million against a $22.4 million production budget.