The Old Maid(1939)

The Old Maid (1939). Director: Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title by Zoë Akins, which was adapted from the 1924 Edith Wharton novella The Old Maid: the fifties.

On the day of Delia Lovell's wedding to socially prominent Jim Ralston, Clem Spender, to who Delia had once been engaged, reappears after being gone for two-years. Delia's cousin Charlotte, who was also in love with Clem, slips away to console him, coming home very late that night. The next day Clem enlists in the Union army and dies on the battlefield. Four years later, Charlotte has made a home for war orphans. Tina, Charlotte and Clem's own daughter comes to live with her. Charlotte lives with her secret until the day she is to marry Jim's brother Joe. Delia, who still loves Clem, decides to destroy Charlotte's chance to marry Joe and Charlotte goes into seclusion. She reappears several months after Jim has died in a riding accident, and accepts Delia's invitation to move into the Ralston mansion with Tina.

Over the years Tina, considers Delia to be her mother, while Charlotte has become a miserable woman. Delia adopts Tina legally to provide her with a name. On the eve of her wedding, Charlotte insists on telling Tina her true identity. Will Charlotte be able to keep her secret forever hidden?

I thought both Davis and Hopkins were amazing in this passionate film with many pull on your heart string scenes. Davis is wonderful in her transformation from beautiful debutante to embittered old maid. This movie reminded me of what a good actress Miriam Hopkins really was.

Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972). At the age of 20, she became a chorus girl in New York City. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Pictures, and made her official film debut in, Fast and Loose. Her first great success was in, Trouble in Paradise (1932). During the remainder of the decade, she appeared in such films as: The Smiling Lieutenant and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1931), Design for Living (1933), Becky Sharp (1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Barbary Coast (1935), These Three (1936) (the first of four films with director William Wyler) and The Old Maid (1939).

Hopkins had well-publicized fights with Bette Davis (Davis was having an affair with Hopkins' husband at the time, Anatole Litvak), when they co-starred in their two films The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance (1943). Davis admitted to enjoying very much a scene in Old Acquaintance in which she shakes Hopkins.

After Old Acquaintance, she did not work again in films until The Heiress (1949). In The Mating Season, she gave a comic performance as Gene Tierney's character's mother. She also acted in The Children's Hour, which is a remake of her film These Three (1936). In the remake, she played the aunt to Shirley MacLaine, while MacLaine took Hopkins' original role.

Pride and Prejudice(2005)

Pride & Prejudice(2005). Film based on the Jane Austen novel of the same name. This second major motion-picture was produced by Working Title Films, directed by Joe Wright and based on a screenplay by Deborah Moggach.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie: Elizabeth visits the Collinses at Rosings, the estate of Lady Catherine; they are invited to dine at the grand house and there meet Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam. Darcy begins to have interest in Elizabeth, especially when she replies to Lady Catherine's jabs with spirited wit. The next day, Colonel Fitzwilliam lets slip to Elizabeth that Darcy separated Bingley from Jane. Upset she runs out into the rain; Darcy tracks her down and to propose marriage. He claims that he loves her despite her 'lower rank.' Elizabeth refuses him because of his treatment of Jane and Bingley and of Wickham. Darcy leaves heartbroken.