In This Our Life (1942)

Directed by John Huston. Starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Charles Coburn, Dennis Morgan, Billie Burke, Frank Craven, Hattie McDaniel, Ernest Anderson, Lee Patrick.

Artificial melodrama bowdlerized from a Pulitzer-winning novel by Ellen Glasgow. Davis plays it consistently at a theatrical fever pitch as de Havilland’s unscrupulous younger sister, running off with her sibling’s husband (Morgan), and far worse than that later on; the actress knew she never should have been cast in the role of a young Southern belle-type, but still, who better than Bette to go full she-devil? The racial inequity elements of the second half are more interesting than the played-out family drama, but they would have been better off in a worthier, more-sensitive picture. De Havilland is favored by the camera but recedes in almost all of her scenes as penalty for being the “good sister,” while Anderson excels as a wrongfully-accused black man clinging to dignity. Max Steiner provides the overcooked score. Director Huston’s sophomore effort following his enthusiastically-received The Maltese Falcon; he left the production early for assignment with the War Department after Pearl Harbor, so Raoul Walsh finished the film in his place (his work went uncredited).

54/100