The Great Lie (1941) - Astor and Davis shine in Goulding's over-the-top melodrama

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Star Bette Davis looks mysterious and far away up against co-star George Brent on this poster for Edmund Goulding's The Great Lie

A chivalrous pilot in a drunken bout marries a troublesome pianist, - but does that then for sure means that they are married? And what about the virtuous Maggie, which it seems he really loves...?

 

The Great Lie is written by Lenore J. Coffee (Honor of the Family (1931)), adapting January Heights (1936) by Polan Banks, and directed by Edmund Goulding (Sun-Up (1925)).

The plot, which includes a fake child, a plane accident and the most incredible developments imaginable, is positively ludicrous, - residing in the category that may be called 'melodrama bonkers', - and the film must be seen partly for this quality, but also for the outstanding, skilled performances from Mary Astor (Across the Pacific (1942)) - as the pianist, - and Bette Davis (The Scapegoat (1959)) as the good girl Maggie. The Great Lie also has Hattie MacDaniel (Sky Racket (1937)) as a laughably sentimental black house mama. 

Related post:

Edmund Goulding: Grand Hotel (1932) - Loose star vehicle with some charm and two magnificent dames

 

Watch a 4-minute excerpt from the film here

 

Cost: 689k $

Box office: Unknown, reportedly a "solid hit"

= Uncertain

[The Great Lie premiered 5 April (Littleton, New Hampshire) and runs 108 minutes. Davis was unexcited about the part but took it to play a sympathetic character, which her fans had beckoned her to do. She fought hard to get Astor cast, and the two reportedly found the screenplay to "stink", eliminating several "soap opera elements" while adding new things for their characters instead. Davis was reportedly paid 4,500 $ a week during shooting, which took place from October - December 1940 in California. Astor was a capable pianist but mimicked playing anyway. The box office information about the film is regrettably unavailable online. A Goulding biographer calls the film a "solid hit" without backing it up with any numbers. It was only released in several countries 2-3 years after WWII, that is in 1947 and 1948. Astor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, and the film also won a National Board of Review award. Goulding returned with Forever and a Day (1943). Davis returned with an uncredited cameo in Shining Victory (1941) and front-and-center in The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941). 3,472 IMDb users have given The Great Lie a 7.2/10 average rating.]

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Grand Hotel (1932) - Loose star vehicle with some charm and two magnificent dames

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The stars align in this splashy poster for Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel

At Berlin's Grand Hotel several exciting people reside; the presumptuous diva dancer, the free stenographer, the baron, who has lost everything and steals from everybody; the stupid factory owner, and the dying worker, Kringelein.

Grand Hotel is written by William Absalom Drake (Strange Justice (1932)), adapting his own same-titled 1930 play, which in turn was based on Vicki Baum's (Die Welt ohne Sünde (1923)) novel Menschen im Hotel (1929). It is directed by Edmund Goulding (Sun-Up (1925)).

Written as an ensemble star vehicle, and a spearhead for this particular discipline in films, Grand Hotel is without a larger, unifying plot. It can seem to be splashing a bit in different directions. There is for instance rather a lot of talk about a merger, which seems highly unimportant for the stories. There is a good amount of drama tied to death, but the perishing accountant character Kringelein is somehow too thinly sketched as a character; has the man no family, friends, and no apparent history?

Grand Hotel still retains a good deal of irrefutable charm as the major production it was. It especially lives on due to the fascinating, vivid portraits drawn by its two big female stars as two very opposite-directed characters: Greta Garbo (Eros (1926)) as the tempestuous diva, and Joan Crawford (Today We Live (1933)) as the romantic 'dove' stenographer.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 750k $

Box office: 2.5 mil. $ 

= Box office success (returned 3.33 times its cost)

[Grand Hotel premiered 12 April (New York) and runs 112 minutes. Producer Irving Thalberg had bought the rights to the novel for 13k $, and contracted Drake again after success on the stage for a film version. Shooting took place in MGM's Culver City studio in California. The film won the Best Picture Oscar, the first and only film to date to win the award without getting nominated in any of the other categories. The ledger of producer and 'fixer' Eddie Mannix details that the film made 1.2 mil. $ domestically and 1.3 mil. $ elsewhere for a 2.5 mil. $ gross. It was remade as the successful Week-End at the Waldorf (1945). Goulding returned with Blondie of the Follies (1932). Garbo returned in As You Desire Me (1932); Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932); and John Barrymore (Counsellor at Law (1933)) in State's Attorney (1932). Grand Hotel is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.58/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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