Civil War-era cousins (Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins) seem to have a close relationship while living with their wealthy grandmother in Philadelphia, but one of the gals is hiding a secret: she's conceived a child out of wedlock with her cousin's ex-fiancé and has gone West to have the baby. Edith Wharton's book became a Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Zoe Akins before Warner Bros. Got hold of it and turned the whole enterprise into a glossy stew for the ladies. It moves along at a fast clip, yet doesn't quite give Davis a strong enough showcase (she was never very good interacting with children, and the character of Charlotte is a bit of a puzzle). Hopkins, the unofficial queen of knuckle-biting, knows nothing of subtlety, though her fluttery dramatics goose the narrative and give the picture some camp appeal. The men are stiff and colorless; however, the production is handsome and director Edmund Goulding sorts out the overly-involved plotting for us in a satisfactory manner. Davis won Best Actress from the National Board of Review (shared with her work in "Dark Victory"). **1/2 from ****
Review of The Old Maid
