Old Acquaintance(1943).

Old Acquaintance(1943). Drama directed by Vincent Sherman. Cast: Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins with Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Moran, Roscoe Karns and Anne Revere.

Bette Davis personally requested the casting of Norma Shearer in the role of Mildred Drake. Shearer refused the role and the part went to Miriam Hopkins. This film was the second collaboration of legendary arch-enemies Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, (Their previous collaboration had been The Old Maid.)

When, Prize-winning novelist Kit Marlowe, returns to her home town to give a lecture, she is greeted by her old friend, Millie Drake. Millie, is now married and pregnant with her first child. Millie, wonders why Kit does not seem happy to see her, but after Kit apologizes, Millie confesses that she too has written a book.



Eight years later, now as a successful writer, Millie, Preston and their eight-year-old daughter Deirdre are in New York City to attend the opening of Kit's play.

On the afternoon before opening night, Preston, who has been drinking, tells Kit that he is in love with her. Kit tries to fix her friend's marriage, but.. Preston, who has had enough wants out of his marriage to Millie.

Ten years later, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kit joins the Red Cross and while asking for donations over the radio. Preston, who is now in the army, hears Kit and telephones her to ask her to join him for a drink. There Preston surprises Kit, with his announcement of his engagement.

The next morning, Rudd, asks Kit to marry him. Because of their age difference, Kit turns him down and Rudd, decides to take a walk with the now-grown Deirdre. The two spend the day together and fall in love.

Kit, changes her mind about Rudd and the shares her plans to marry him to Millie. After, Preston tells Millie he is remarrying and wants to see Deirdre more often, he also confesses that he once loved Kit.

Out of jealousy, Millie tells Deirdre about Kit's marriage plans and then accuses Kit of stealing her husband. Kit, can not believe what she is hearing and gives Millie a good shaking.

That night Rudd breaks the news to Kit that he is going to marry Deirdre. Kit pretends to be happy for the young couple and wishes them the best.

Later, Millie stops by Kit's apartment to apologize and Kit forgives her. Millie then tells her about the new book, Old Acquaintance, a story about two old friends and the two women hold up their glasses and drink to it.

Davis and Miriam, are truly two of the finest actresses on the silver screen and both deliver Oscar-caliber performances in this film.

Dolores Moran (January 27, 1926 – February 5, 1982). Moran's brief career as a film actress began in 1942 with some uncredited roles in such films as, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

By 1943 she had become a popular pin-up girl and appeared on the cover of such magazines as Yank.

She was given supporting roles in films such as, Old Acquaintance (1943) with Bette Davis.

Warner promoting her along with Lauren Bacall as a new screen personality when they co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in, To Have and Have Not (1944).

The film made a star of Bacall, but Moran did not do as well and her later films did little to further her career, this probably had something to do with Howard Hawk's decision to boost Bacall's career.

The Horn Blows at Midnight, gave her a leading role, but her film appearances after this were sporadic, and she suffered ill health that reduced her ability to work. Her film career ended in 1954 with a featured role in the western film, Silver Lode.

She was married to the film producer Benedict E. Bogeaus in Salome, Arizona, in 1946. Their son, Brett Benedict, born August 30, 1948, in Hollywood, later became a successful businessman. They divorced in 1962, he died of a heart attack in 1968. Moran had an affair with director Howard Hawks while filming To Have and Have Not, which Hawks undertook mainly as revenge for his rejection by Bacall in favor of Bogart.

Wise Girl(1937).

Wise Girl(1937). Romantic/comedy. Cast: Miriam Hopkins and Ray Milland.

The story begins when the rich, socialite Susan, travels to the Greenwich Village incognito, to take two little girls' away from the charming artist and free spirit John O'Halloran, who is taking care of his dead brother's two young daughters, so they can be raised by her rich father.

Susan, tries to fit in by pretending to be an out-of-work actress and befriends John, the girls, a boxing sculptor Mike and Karl Stevens, an alcoholic painter.

Susan, soon falls in love with the eccentric John and she tries to talk him into participating in an art contest sponsored by her father, but .. he refuses out of pride.

After, John loses his sign painting job at Walker's department store and then unsuccessfully tries to sell vacuum cleaners door to door, Susan proposes to him and is about to tell him the truth about herself when authorities from the juvenile aid remove the girls from his home.

At the custody hearing, both Susan and John plead their cases to the judges, who grants custody to Susan and her father.

Although, they are well taken of, Katie and Joan miss John. Susan, then comes up with the plan to force John into painting an entry in her father's art contest, so he will have the money to support the girls. Will he come through with the winning painting?

Wise Girl, may not show Miriam Hopkins at her best, but it's a wonderful thirties comedy. Best scene is the chaos she causes at one of Guinn Williams' prizefights. Milland, has some fun scenes as well, especially trying to unsuccessfully sell vacuum cleaners door to door.

Margaret Dumont (October 20, 1882 - March 6, 1965), is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films. Groucho called her " the fifth Marx brother."

She was born Daisy Juliette Baker in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of William Baker and Harriet Anna Harong. As a child Daisy Baker lived in the southern states, where she was mainly raised by her godfather, the writer Joel Chandler Harris.

 Dumont trained as an operatic singer and actress in her teens, and began performing on stage in both America and Europe, under the name Daisy Dumont and later as Margaret (or Marguerite) Dumont.

Her theatrical debut was in Beauty and the Beast at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia, and  she also appeared as a singer/comedienne in a vaudeville act in Atlantic City.

She was best known for her vocal and comedic talents in: The Girl Behind the Counter (1908), The Belle of Brittany (1909), and The Summer Widower (1910).

In 1910, she married millionaire sugar heir and industrialist John Moller Jr. and retired from stage work, although she had a small uncredited role as an aristocrat in the film, A Tale of Two Cities(1917).

After her husband's sudden death in 1918, she returned  to the Broadway stage, and soon gained a strong reputation in musical comedy productions. Her Broadway career included roles in the musical comedies and plays: The Fan (1921), Go Easy, Mabel (1922), The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923/24), and The Fourflusher (1925), and she had an uncredited role in the film, Enemies of Women(1923).

She then came to the attention of writer George S. Kaufman, who hired her to play Mrs. Potter, alongside the Four Marx Brothers in their Broadway production of, The Cocoanuts (1925).

In October 1928, the Broadway show, Animal Crackers, opened, and Dumont was again cast as the wealthy society straight woman Mrs. Rittenhouse, in Animal Crackers (1930), Mrs. Gloria Teasdale in Duck Soup (1933), Mrs. Claypool in A Night at the Opera (1935), Emily Upjohn in A Day at the Races (1937), Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury in At the Circus (1939), and Martha Phelps in The Big Store (1941). Her work in A Day at the Races earned her a Best Supporting Actress Award.

She also played the same dignified dowager in other movies, with W.C. Fields (Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, 1941) and (Tales of Manhattan, 1942), Abbott and Costello (Little Giant, 1946), Laurel and Hardy (The Dancing Masters, 1943), Red Skelton (Bathing Beauty, 1944), Jack Benny (The Horn Blows at Midnight, 1945), Wheeler and Woolsey and George "Spanky" McFarland (Kentucky Kernels, 1934) and (High Flyers, 1937, with Lupe Vélez thrown in for good measure), radio comedian Joe Penner (The Life of the Party, 1937), George "Gabby" Hayes (Sunset in El Dorado), and Danny Kaye (Up In Arms, 1944), and on television with Martin and Lewis (The Colgate Comedy Hour, December 1951).

Dumont also played some dramatic parts, such as Youth on Parole (1937) and Dramatic School (1938). She also appeared in Stop, You're Killing Me (1952), Three for Bedroom C (1952), Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956), and Zotz! (1962).

Her last movie was What a Way to Go! (1964), in which she played Shirley MacLaine's mother, Mrs. Foster. Eight days before her death she made her final acting appearance on the television program The Hollywood Palace on February 26, 1965, where she was reunited onstage with Groucho—that week's guest host—one final time. They performed material adapted from Captain Spaulding's introductory scene in Animal Crackers. The taped show was aired on April 17, several weeks after her death.

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.

Pre-Code: Trouble in Paradise (1932).

Trouble in Paradise(1932). Pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall, and features Charles Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton and C. Aubrey Smith.

In Venice, during dinner, Lily accuses Gaston(who is posing as a baron) of being a thief and he in turn, accuses her of being a pickpocket. But when he presents her garter to her, she falls instantly in love with him and they decide to join forces. They are almost caught while robbing aristocrat Francois Fileba's room.



A year later, in Paris, Gaston and Lily are still in love and working together when, at the opera, Gaston steals a diamond-studded purse from Mariette Colet, owner of Paris's perfumerie, Colet and Co. Posing as Monsieur LuValle, Gaston returns the bag to collect the reward and lands a job as her secretary.

It is not long before Gaston, begins making plans to embezzle money from the company. Lily, works as Gaston's assistant and pretends to be devoted to Mariette even though she is jealous of her and Gaston's relationship.

After a few weeks, Mariette introduces Gaston to her friends and Fileba, asks him if he has ever been in Venice, of course Gaston denies it. Now, fearful that Fileba, will expose them, Gaston and Lily must leave Paris. Fileba, soon remembers Gaston, was the man who robbed him in Venice and warns Mariette, but she does not really seem to care.

When Lily, realizes the reason why Gaston, wants to leave in the morning, is because he made plans to meet with Mariette, she steals the money from the safe. Now, that everyone knows his true identity, how will Gaston get out of this love triangle?



What I loved most about this romantic comedy, was the many beautiful sets and costumes.

Kay Francis (January 13, 1905 - August 26, 1968). She costarred with William Powell many times and performed in as many as six to eight movies a year, making a total of 21 films between 1929 and 1931. With her dark beauty and her deep voice perfectly suited for early sound- films made Francis one of the top film stars of the early 1930s.

She performed in the films, Girls About Town (1931) and Twenty-Four Hours (1931). After Kay's career skyrocketed at Warners, she would return to Paramount for the film, Trouble in Paradise (1932).

In 1932, Warner Brothers persuaded both Francis and Powell to join the ranks of Warners stars. In exchange, Francis was given roles that allowed her a more sympathetic screen persona.