AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Siflutter
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
sly311
Actors get the roles that match the people they truly are within. The roles Bette Davis has played match the character she truly is--shallow and vain. In each and every character she embodies. Bette's smoking aged her way beyond her years and she looks it in this part, even before they 'aged' her. While the movie and story line are great, the more I watch Bette over the years, the less I like her.
Tad Pole
. . . the U.S. War Department Film Censors of the World War Two Era, nor could it survive the Extreme Vetting that Leader Trump's ICE men will be able to do once his tie-breaker U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch (whom he trumped away from Barack Hussein Obama) overrules all of the latter's lowly so-called judges. MR. SKEVINZSKAVA confesses to American Intelligence Operative "Fanny Trellis" that he's assumed the name of "Skeffington" at 37:40. Bette Davis' "Fanny" then goes undercover (literally) to sleep with this MR. SKEVINZSKAVA (who is later reported to be one of Hitler's U.S. Fifth Columnist Minions), not unlike Ingrid Bergman's fate in NOTORIOUS. Bette goes Ingrid one better, getting knocked up with MR. SKEVINZSKAVA's child. The heroic Bette--then between her own Real Life abortions #5 and #6, according to her Trivia Page on this site--goes through a ROSEMARY'S BABY-type ordeal, in which this DEMONSEED makes her "all puffy and swollen and ugly" (58:30). Soon Bette, just 36 in Real Life, convinces us that she's a 50-year-old Fanny, pushing 97. Sadly, Bette's lizard-faced condition froze on her for the remainder of her career on the Big Screen, illustrating the sort of irreversible damage that can be done to our All-American Gene Pool if Homeland Security allows the MR. SKEVINZSKAVAs of this world to sow their Wild Oats--spreading STD's such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and diphtheria--among our delicate Fanny's.
nomoons11
This one is all Bette Davis' movie. As good a role as Claude Rains plays, he's the anchor of the film, he's secondary to Davis' performance.A lady back in the first world war, in her mid 20's, thinks she's the bee's knees. All the men come to court her but she has no interest in their affections. She just likes the attention. Her brother gets in trouble with stocks selling/buying and she proceeds to bail him out by marrying his rich boss...Mr. Skeffington.From their what you get is a woman who cares very little for the love her husband gives her, its just what he can give her and their stature in society. Problem is that he's a real nice guy and genuinely cares for her. Her main concern, her vanity.Time takes it toll through the years and her vanity and their marriage fails and she begins to see what she was really about throughout her life...her looks/appearance.This is not even close to my favorite Bette Davis film but she does give a winner of a performance. She's as "Bette Davis" in this film as she is in any other of her films. For a long melodrama, you can't go wrong with this one.
JLRMovieReviews
Quite possibly my favorite Bette Davis film (and Now, Voyager, too), and that's saying something, 'cause I love 'em all, is this saga about Fanny Trellis and her family and how she meets Mr. Skeffington (played by Claude Rains.) She is a rich society young lady who is doted on by a flock of suitors, of whom she keeps all on a string. Her brother works for Mr. Skeffington and through some unfortunate conditions, Mr. Skeffington is swept into her world.If you loved "Gone with the Wind" with its southern epic style, then this is for you. There are some loopholes you'd have to forgive in order to enjoy the film, particularly near the beginning. If it played out any other way, there wouldn't be a movie. Just sit back and enjoy pure melodrama at its best. If you've never liked melodrama or haven't seen an example of it, then see this and you'll see masters of their craft doing what they do best, giving performances of a lifetime.
