May 10 Anatole Litvak

Happy Birthday Fred Astaire and Anatole Litvak

TCM celebrated Anatole Litvak’s birthday with marathon of films. I watched The Sisters, which he directed. At the beginning of each section of the film, the book is open to a new chapter to introduce the action. Bette Davis plays one of the sisters. The story starts off in a small Midwestern town on election night of Theodore Roosevelt. The town has a dance to wait for the election results. While at the dance San Francisco newspaperman, Errol Flynn sees Bette and is instantly attracted. There is a great scene Bette and her beau, Donald Crisp are square dancing and she is directly in front of him. As she dances she stands directly in front of him and they just look at each other. While she finishes the dance he runs onto the floor to the few people that he knows to get them to introduce him. They have a whirlwind courtship. When he comes to supper Errol proposes. She goes with him that night to San Francisco.

The other two sisters also marry. The youngest Beulah Bondi and Donald Crisp and the middle Anita Louise to an older man Alan Hale who will take care of her and possibly give her the freedom to be who she wants to be a dancer in New York. With the natural progression of life both Bette and her younger sister are pregnant. Thanks to Max Steiner you know that Bette is not going to make it up the stairs to her apartment. She collapses and looses the baby. The youngest sister has a healthy child. The middle sister with her new husband and angry step daughter go to London England. The husband dies. Bette gets a job as a secretary so that Errol can work on his novel. They decide that she will quit and he will find work. No one will hire him. While in a bar he decides to go to China. He goes to see Bette at her office but does not tell her he is leaving. She finds a note when she gets home. She goes down to the dock but could not find him. She doesn’t believe his is gone.

The big quake hits. The shaking and falling of the debris lasts a long time. Word gets to the boat but they are not going to turn back. Errol goes crazy and tries to jump ship. Bette sits in the rubble of her apartment and refuses to leave even when they are going to dynamite. She is dragged out. She goes to a friends mothers house, which seems like a Bordello, but that is never pointed out. Her father goes to San Francisco. He and her boss find her. She stays in San Francisco. Several years pass and Errol comes back. Bette has gone home for the election ball. He and her boss go to her home town.

The youngest daughter’s husband is a workaholic who neglects his family. The middle daughter has remarried and is going to divorce and marry someone else. At the ball the couple reunite.

It was really a good film. I was able to watch this film before I went to work in real time. I have decided that I cannot do that any longer. I love watching films, but when I watch a film to celebrate a birthday the rest of the day just drags. The day is long enough already. Even though I have lots of films to watch and Robert Osborn to look forward too it is not the same.