Bette Davis, Claude Rains, George Coulouris

Fanny Skeffington, an incorrigible society flirt of the WWI era, was one of the meatiest roles and most exasperating women Bette Davis ever played. Flighty Fanny loves the attention of her male suitor...( read more  read more... )s, but marries the steadfast Jewish financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) for security; long after their wedding day, she still enjoys receiving gentlemen callers. Time catches up with Fanny, of course, and the bills are due by the time World War II rolls around.

Mr. Skeffington is a vintage Warner Bros. workout for Davis, who never shied away from playing unsympathetic or physically unappealing roles. (Her main worry here was looking pretty enough in the early reels to justify Fanny's reputation.) Her theatrical performance and Rains's impeccable work carry the handsomely dressed story through its many melodramatic shifts. The dialogue by Julius and Philip Epstein (who were doing Casablanca around this time) has the sprung rhythm of screwball comedy, although director Vincent Sherman and the cast don't always seem to have noticed this. There's also the growing issue of anti-Semitism--a subject rare in Hollywood prior to this--especially as it concerns Fanny and Job's daughter. But mostly the film has Bette Davis, who strides headfirst into the gray areas (her indifferent treatment of her daughter is especially unappetizing), a fearless attitude that looks like the polar opposite of Fanny Skeffington's vanity. --Robert Horton

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84% liked it

1,992 ratings

Critics

67% liked it

6 critics

Unrated

Directed by: Vincent Sherman

Release Date: May 25, 1944

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DVD Release Date: June 14, 2005

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Flixster Reviews (112)


  • May 9, 2009
    A wonderful showcase for the talents of Bette Davis and yet another opportunity for her to play a most distasteful character.
  • August 5, 2008
    bette davis is a wide eyed, breathy caricature of herself but claude rains is outstanding as the husband she doesn't love
  • April 23, 2008
    i didn't even know this one was out there, but absolutely loved it when i first saw it. one of the great "undiscovered" films with one of the most underappreciated actors in film history, senor mister rains.
  • December 2, 2008
    Great film about a beautiful women who marries for security and 25 years later when her looks fade she begins to see what a vain shallow person she really is. Bette Davis and Claude Rains are fantastic in this and the supporting cast is at times dramatic and funny.Great direction...( read more) and the script is very realistic. A nice film, worth a watch.
  • August 5, 2008
    Wow!!!
  • November 3, 2009
    Davis is totally outstanding in her performance, as well as Rains, and Sherman does a perfect job as he fluidly conducts us through more than twenty years of their characters' lives.
  • September 3, 2009
    Claude Rains can definitely hold his own with Bette Davis. Davis' performance seems to forshadow her excellent work in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
  • August 24, 2009
    Bette is wonderful, as usual, in this great drama!
  • August 6, 2008
    Lovely old classic with Bette Davis playing a vain socialite who married for security and can display nothing but indifference toward her husband (memorably played by Claude Rains) and their daughter but continues to keep men around her simply for the attention. There are enough...( read more) light-hearted moments in this to take the edge off this very heavy film that sometimes is so emotionally excruiating in the way she treats her husband and daughter it's hard to watch; but there is no doubt this is a classic that earned it's reputation by the grand performances of both Bette Davis and Claude Rains and nice supporting role by Walter Able.
  • August 4, 2008
    another great Bette Davis performance but the rest of cast is great too

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