Mr. Skeffington

Plot synopsis:
In 1914, spoiled Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is a renowned beauty, with many suitors. She loves her brother Trippy (Richard Waring) and would do anything to help him. Fanny learns that Trippy has embezzled money from his stockbroker employer Job Skeffington (Claude Rains). To save her brother from prosecution, Fanny pursues and marries the lovestruck Skeffington. Disgusted by the arrangement, in part because of his prejudice against Skeffington being Jewish, Trippy leaves home to fight in the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I.
Job loves Fanny, but she is merely fond of him and largely ignores him. She becomes pregnant with his child, but, when Trippy dies in France, she states she is "stuck" with Job, and the marriage then becomes wholly loveless, continuing only for the child's sake. Job and George Trellis, Fanny's cousin, also enlist, but are stationed near home.
Fanny enjoys playing the wealthy socialite, stringing along a persistent quartet of suitors who are unfazed by her marriage, as well as much younger lovers. Lonely, Job finds solace with his secretaries. When Fanny finds out, she divorces him, conveniently ignoring her own behavior.
Fanny neglects her young daughter (also called Fanny), who understandably prefers her loving father and begs him to take her with him to Europe. Although Job fears for his child and tries unsuccessfully to explain to her the nature of prejudice she will encounter as a Jew abroad, he finally, tearfully and joyfully, says yes. Fanny is relieved to be free of the encumbrance of a child. Fanny has a series of affairs, living well on the extremely generous settlement Job has left her - half his fortune - and hardly giving a thought to her daughter, whom she does not see for many years.
She retains her beauty as she grows older (much to the envy of her women acquaintances), but when she catches diphtheria, it ravages her appearance. In denial, she invites her old lovers (and their wives) to a party. The men are shocked (and the women relieved) by how much Fanny has changed, leaving her distraught. Ironically, her latest young suitor, Johnny Mitchell, falls in love with her daughter (played as an adult by Marjorie Riordan), who has returned from Europe because of the rise of the Nazis. They marry after only a few months and leave for Seattle. Fanny's daughter explains that, while she wishes her mother well, she feels no real love for her, and pities her for discarding the one man who truly loves her. Shortly before her daughter's departure, Fanny suffers the ultimate humiliation when one of her old beaux makes what she at first believes to be a sincere marriage proposal, only to withdraw it when he begins to suspect, incorrectly, that she is no longer wealthy. Fanny is left alone with her maid, Manby.
Fanny's cousin George (Walter Abel) brings Job back to Fanny's home unannounced. The Nazis have left Job penniless and worse, George tells Fanny, and he calls on her to be generous. Fanny's vanity nearly prevents her from venturing down her home's grand staircase to see Job.
When she does finally enter the parlor, Job moves to her, stumbles and falls: he is blind. Fanny rushes to cradle him in her arms. As she takes his arm and guides him up the staircase, she tells the maid that "Mr. Skeffington has come home." Job had once, long ago, told Fanny that, "A woman is beautiful when she's loved, and only then." George tells Fanny that, at that moment, "she has never been more beautiful". At long last, she realizes the truth of it.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
If you see the short subject on this film, the director said Davis loved a challenge and she took on the role of the "too pretty" Fanny Trellis because she felt she could "pull it off"...
The scenes really do stand on their own almost like a set of montages.Bette Davis' performance is decidedly affected as she plays Fanny as a young girl, but the pure talent and visual power of this actress makes one believe that she is truly the beauty that she is supposed to be.
I would place this performance in Bette Davis' top tier, along with "Now, Voyager", "The Little Foxes", and "All About Eve".Claude Rains plays the title character with restraint, integrity, and great love for Fanny, but the sense of pathos that he communicates really helps to give the movie a lot of power.
Both their lives get forever intertwined with that of Claude Rains, Mr. Skeffington.Fanny Trellis Skeffington is one of Bette Davis's best screen performances.
And Rains was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way.Warner Brothers gave Davis a great group of supporting players and among the ones I like are Dorothy Peterson as her loyal maid, George Coulouris as a psychiatrist who gave her some words of wisdom like a Dutch Uncle, and Walter Abel as her wise cousin who is the catalyst for some positive change in her in the end.Mr. Skeffington is Bette Davis at her best and always finds a place in the top 10 of her screen roles..
In case you don't know who she is, check out her own film career 10 years later in her MGM films such as "It's Always Fair Weather." Bette's aging makeup presages her work in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" You won't want to miss "Mr. Skeffington." Bette's flamboyance and Rains' gravitas make this film totally enjoyable..
It's the 1920's, in New York, when Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) marries into a loveless marriage--to one of many gentlemen friends of hers, Job Skeffington (Claude Rains), an older, well-off, Jewish banker.
This is Claude Rains, the consummate gentleman.Because of Fanny's seductive beauty power & the scenes with male suitors who keep calling upon her after she's married, the movie is a melo-comedy.
In 1914, in New York, Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is a shallow futile selfish woman surrounded by suitors and without any other preoccupation but her beauty.
Many years later, when Fanny has diphtheria and loses her beauty, she realizes that a woman is beautiful only when she is loved."Mr. Skeffington" is a good melodramatic love story, silly and dated in many parts, but also very beautiful and touching.
The story about a selfish woman that is only concerned with her beauty and does not learn how to grow-up and age has many memorable scenes, mostly because of the performance of Bette Davis and the make-up of the actors and actresses.
Watching "Mr. Skeffington" again, after not having seen the film for a while, one thing comes perfectly clear, the adage about love being blind never made more sense than what we witness Job Skeffington feel for his wife Fanny.
The music score one hears in the background by Franz Waxman enhances the movie.Bette Davis and Claude Rains had an easy way to compliment one another's work.
Bette Davis, with her enormous and expressive eyes is at the center of the story; a society beauty that was much in demand in her youth, sees her good looks fade as she ages in front of our eyes.
Claude Rains is the generous man who falls in love with Fanny, even though her brother has swindled money from his firm in order to keep living in the style the Trellis family has been used to.
Bette at her best, (and most cruel) Mr. Skeffington is a movie I had at first avoided watching as it seemed like a comedy of manners or a "period film" frozen in time.
'Mr Skeffington', by Elizabeth, came to the screen in 1944 with Claude Rains in the title role, Bette Davis as Fanny, Richard Waring as Trippy, Jerome Cowan as Edward, and others.An absorbing and entertaining novel could only be buoyed up by the playing of Bette Davis as the self-absorbed Miss Trellis, who has no knowledge of the real world as it affects her friends and her family.
Fanny losing her beauty would be her greatest calamity ...As Job Skeffington, Trippy's understanding boss, Claude Rains adds a touch of dryness and dignity to the role.
The teaming between Rains and Davis gives plenty of zip to the film and makes the whole thing hugely enjoyable - there is a tragic undercurrent to this story that both actors could carry off completely.'Mr Skeffington' is excellent and one of those great 1940s wallows they just don't make anymore [sigh]..
Bette Davis is given a role she can really sink her teeth into in this "women's picture" from 1944.Davis plays Fanny Trellis, a spoiled young woman who marries the boring but very wealthy Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) as a way to save her wayward brother from bankruptcy.
But when diphtheria leaves her physically ravaged, she sees how superficial her platoon of socialite friends and suitors really are, and it's old Job, who comes hobbling back from a Nazi concentration camp, who loves her for who she is and not what she looks like.My goodness, these 1940s melodramas could really cover a lot of territory.
Rains is terrific too, and the real-life friendship that he and Davis shared off screen shows in the chemistry they have together on.Director Vincent Sherman keeps things moving briskly along, and it's not until the very end of the film that I began to feel its 145 minute running time.Grade: A.
The final scenes are further examples of the movies subtly (or not so subtly) pressing the case for American involvement in the war.As wonderful as Rains is in his somewhat restrained role (it is commented on that he never smiles and has sad eyes, both true), this is a Bette Davis movie.
In a first class production, Davis and Rains provide two more character portraits: Fanny Trellis, vain and superficial, and Job Skeffington, patient and loving.
Entertaining, handsomely made soap opera tells the story of a flirtatious socialite Davis, who marries stockbroker Rains in circa 1914 New York for security, but realizes her true love for him thirty years later.
Quite possibly my favorite Bette Davis film (and Now, Voyager, too), and that's saying something, 'cause I love 'em all, is this saga about Fanny Trellis and her family and how she meets Mr. Skeffington (played by Claude Rains.) She is a rich society young lady who is doted on by a flock of suitors, of whom she keeps all on a string.
Another great Oscar nominated performance by Bette Davis.In this one, she plays Fanny, a selfish woman who thinks of nothing but her beauty.
The film loses momentum about half way through however.There are a couple of world wars going on in the background and hints of anti-semitism but the mindset of the movie is the Bette Davis character's, who sails through life pleasing herself, being admired and worshipped and forever breaking lunch engagements with the always unseen Janey Clarkson.
During one cocktail hour gathering, Davis discovers her ne'er-do-well brother Richard Waring (as Trippy Trellis) has been embezzling funds from Jewish banker Claude Rains (as Job Skeffington).
Rains, like most men, has worshiped Davis from afar; but, she is unable to change her coquettish lifestyle."The most difficult aspect of the character Fanny was (that) she was a famous beauty of her day," Davis observed, "I was far from being beautiful." Yet, Davis, with her strength of personality and acting prowess, pulls off the role; she is, as always, a great one to watch.
The film might have been cited for its decade spanning make-up work, if the category had existed back then.******* Mr. Skeffington (1944) Vincent Sherman ~ Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel.
The true "gentleman" of the piece is Job Skeffington, a short, coarse, low-born Jew. He brings out the beauty in his high-born wife.His sacrifice in supporting her, and her sacrifice to save her brother, are also moving plot elements.Davis is, as ever, flamboyant, and it is wonderful to watch Rains never, ever rise to her invitation to overact, especially in the scene in Skeffington's office, where Davis flutters away in fright from a stuffed eagle.
Both the character, Fannie Trellis, and the actor, Bette Davis, in this scene are begging Job Skeffington / Claude Rains to overact, to be as histrionic and artificial as she is, but Rains never takes the bait.
So huffs Bette Davis, in a high affected voice, as the shallow Mrs. of Claude Rains' stately Jewish banker, as she realizes--too late!--that she has a responsibility to the good man who genuinely loves her.
Bette Davis gives a high-wire act of a performance as Fanny Trellis, a flirtatious New Yorker in the early 1900s with no money in the bank, a brother to support, and potential suitors lined up at the foot of her staircase.
Beauty Vanishes with Age. Betty Davis,(Fanny Skeffington),"The Little Foxes",'41, was perfect in this role as a woman who loved herself and everything that life could give her.
Claude Rains,(Job Skeffington),"The Wolf Man",'41, was one of those men who fell madly in love with Fanny and managed to get her complete attention long enough to settle her down for a brief period of time.
Her character is so unlikeable throughout the movie that when in the final scene she is reciting her husband's mantra that no woman is so beautiful as when she is loved, you can't help but want to scream at the screen, "Oh yea, how about when she tries to love in return." Yes, this is pure soap, but it's not helped any by Bette's squeaky high voice.
I would like to know of real life examples of the character portrayed by Bette Davis in this film.
Vincent Sherman's drama begins in the immediate pre-World War I years, where Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) holds court in her chic New York house to a gaggle of male suitors.
In another sequence, Mr. Skeffington's secretary gives as good as she gets in the delivery of put-downs, and for once renders Davis speechless.The ending of this rather long movie (146 minutes) is perhaps a little too sentimental for what has previously proved a hard-edged viewing experience, but we have to remember that at the time of its release, the United States was still engaged in World War II.
At first you might think there isn't much to this but when Fanny marries older and richer Job Skeffington, (a superb Claude Rains), the film deepens and darkens.
Fanny loves Job the way you might love a pet and treats him accordingly.The movie was directed by Vincent Sherman, not the most profound of film-makers but a consummate director of women's pictures and his star is Bette Davis, (who else?), at her very finest.
As good a role as Claude Rains plays, he's the anchor of the film, he's secondary to Davis' performance.A lady back in the first world war, in her mid 20's, thinks she's the bee's knees.
Her main concern, her vanity.Time takes it toll through the years and her vanity and their marriage fails and she begins to see what she was really about throughout her life...her looks/appearance.This is not even close to my favorite Bette Davis film but she does give a winner of a performance.
Make-up artists do such a fantastic job on Bette Davis for the early scenes in "Mr. Skeffington" that you can almost believe she is the ravishing beauty the script tells us she is.
Later, when she is supposed to be ravaged by illness, the chalk-white skin is a bit overdone along with the sagging lines--but still, one has to admire the expertise of the Warner makeup department to give us two such contrasting views of the actress.Other than that, "Skeffington" is a rather long-winded soap opera that gives both Davis and Claude Rains (her favorite co-star) ample opportunity to display their talents.
Bette Davis stars as Fanny Skeffington, whose self-absorption leads to the destruction of her devoted husband, Job (Claude Rains).
But Fanny realizes that looks are not important, because of what Job said many years before: "A woman is beautiful only when she is loved"."Mr. Skeffington" is a classic.
"Mr. Skeffington", directed by Vincent Sherman and starring the incomparable Bette Davis and the always-charming Claude Rains, is one of those good, solid melodramas.With a setting that begins during the inception of World War I and ends after World War II, "Mr. Skeffington" introduces us first to Fanny Trellis (Davis), the most sought-after debutante in New York who has so many suitors that she routinely has at least four men wooing her and proposing at a time.
The film was made in 1944, when Davis was in her mid-30's, but she still looked stunning, as opposed to the makeup job they did on her for the later years (they made 50 years old look like 75) which was an eerie premonition of her role 20 years later in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" I always chuckle when someone is deemed to be "the most beautiful woman" or "the most wanted woman" because in reality you're kind of wondering what you're not seeing there, but with melodrama you do have to give a little leeway.
Its performances and adequately compelling story are enough to recommend it to classic film lovers, particularly those who are fans of Bette Davis or Claude Rains.
But that is after a shock hits Fanny's self-image...and sets the stage for a final reconciliation with Job.All the performances in the film, Davis, Rains, Richard Waring, Walter Abel, Jerome Cowan, are excellent.
These two shared a terrific screen rapport, and MR SKEFFINGTON is perhaps the best example of their playing together.Davis stars as Fanny Trellis, an extremely vain woman who values her looks above everything else.
Another great Bette Davis Warner Brother's classic with a wonderful, understated performance by Claude Rains.
But I believe that she only does this because he is blind and can't see that the devastating effects of her illness have aged her beyond her years.The movie is a bit long and I think Bette's performance is a little melodramatic, but it's a wonderful, poignant film and a great morality play on the sin of vanity.
Mr.Skeffington is directed by Vincent Sherman,produced by Jack L.Warner and the Epstein brother Julius and Phillip(who also both wrote the screenplay)based on the novel by Elizabeth Von Arnim, has music by Franz Waxman and stars Bette Davis,Claude Rains,Walter Abel and Richard Waring.Without a doubt this is one of the saddest love stories ever filmed,mostly due to the heartbreaking performance by the wonderful Claude Rains.In his hands Mr.Skeffington is a kind,large hearted,all round good man who's love of his life does not love him back.He's all hurt expressions and puppy dog eyes,making him so adorable you want to gather him up into your arms and hug him.Bette holds her own against Rains sympathetic Skeffington,switching from girlish charm one moment,to cold-hearted and cruel woman the next.Yet she manages a neat trick in that we never actually fully hate her despite the things she does.Mr.Skeffington is much more than just a tale of unrequited love,it takes in both world wars and prohibition as well.Beginning in New York in 1914,Mr.Skeffington tells the story of famous,society beauty,Fanny Trellis(Bette Davis)and her adored brother Trippy(Richard Waring).They are going broke following their fathers death,however both keep up the facade they are still wealthy.Unbeknown to Fanny Trippy has been embezzling funds from his boss,Job Skeffington(Claude Rains).Mr.Skeffington calls on the pair one night and quite gently tells Fanny that he'll allow Trippy to pay him back and keep it out of the public eye.Fanny isn't quite satisfied with that and turns on the charm full volume and ends up making Skeffington fall in love with her.He adores her more than anything else,not realising she has only done it so she can protect Trippy and give him money from her new wealth as Mrs.Skeffington.Trippy however hates Skeffington and he leaves to join the air corps at the outbreak of World War One.Soon the Skeffington marriage becomes intolerable with Fanny seeing other men and ignoring their daughter,who ends up basically being raised by Job and Fanny's cousin George(Walter Abel).Job never stops loving her and when illness leaves her disfigured she remembers his words "A woman is beautiful when she's loved...and only then".Deeply moving with two unforgettable lead performances,this is a tearjerker of the highest order,well worth watching..
The only reason I can think of as to why Bette Davis chose to star in this movie is that she would be able to not only tackle another unsympathetic (but not villainous) role and in the second half of the film, age credibly as her character sinks into the results of her shallowness.MR.
SKEFFINGTON is an odd title for this movie, since for the most it is about Fanny Trellis (played by Bette Davis) who's in every frame of the film where nothing of relevance happens for a time, other than seeing her with suitor after suitor, looking striking, and neglecting her husband Mr. Skeffington (Claude Rains).
Bette Davis stars a beautiful but vein woman who is EXTREMELY slow to realise that Claude Rains, her husband, loves her, and actually has enough patience to put up with her.Shot in black and white, Davis hams up her role very well, and gets a lot of great support from her co stars.
Claude Rains' performance was, as usual, excellent and Bette Davis was wonderful as this impossible to like lady.
First, to accept that Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is a beautiful woman that makes all men go crazy.
Bette Davis gives a great performance and confirms what we all know: When you lose your beauty you will be the same only to those who really love you..