Yesterday, I recorded two Bette Davis movies from Turner Classic Movies: The Sisters and All This and Heaven Too. I've seen both films several times but not recently.
I re-watched The Sisters. Bette plays the quintessential good girl, Louise Elliot Medlin. At the beginning of the film, she plays a mother figure to their two younger sisters, although they have a real mother in their lives. For example, she discusses the acceptable amount of powder to be worn by a girl of sister Helen's age.
Louise is living her life day-to-day, passively awaiting the next phase. When asked when she's going to marry Tom (Dick Foran playing the banker's son) she and her father both respond he hasn't asked her yet.
She is such a good girl that when she ditches Tom at the Election Night party and spends most of the night with San Francisco sports reporter, Frank Medlin (Errol Flynn) her father refuses to even consider that Louise could do something wrong. Even when Louise runs off with Frank after only knowing him for a week, they get married. Louise is obviously a respectable lady.
There is no explanation for Louise's behavior except Helen's proclamation that Louise is in love. Louise goes to live with Frank in San Francisco. Helen marries an older man (Alan Hale) the father of a friend. Grace, the youngest sister, who has long admired Tom, marries him.
I watch this film first for Bette. But I also love the supporting cast. Beulah Bondi and Henry Travers play the Medlin parents. The other sisters are Anita Louise as Helen and Jane Bryan as Grace (who played Bette's sister, daughter and rival in various Warner productions.) Did Errol Flynn have a contract clause that required Alan Hale as a costar? Donald Crisp supported as a newspaper associate of Frank; Lee Patrick was a neighbor Flora who may have been a floozy. Harry Davenport and Laura Hope Crews also make appearances. The scene with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was quite impressive (according to Wikipedia, Warners spent $200,000 on sets and included scenes from the 1927 film Old San Francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sisters_(1938_film)
After seeing this movie several times, I started to wonder about the plot line in which the sisters force the woman who is allegedly having an affair with Tom out of town. We see the typical set up of movie proof of an affair: Tom has been buying himself new suits; he overreacts when an employee of milliner, Isabel Taylor, stops by the house during Tom Junior's birthday party. Soon the employee tells all; apparently Isabel is working on Tom to keep her property safe from foreclosure.
Grace writes to Louise; Louise and Helen immediately return home to help. Although Grace criticizes Tom for not living up to his marriage vows, the sisters don't confront him directly. Instead they discreetly and delicately threaten pillars of the community to get rid of Isabel or the sisters will turn to the men's wives for help.
I had viewed this scene as a triumph of the three sisters banding together to protect one of their own. Now, I wonder about Isabel--whatever happened to her? I think of Claire Trevor in Stagecoach--did she share a similar fate? Did she deserve it? Was she the amoral corrupter of gentle classes or was she just an target for their advances? After all, did she have anyone to protect her? Is she so different from Flora--who became Louise's only friend in San Francisco?
A few pages from the original novel appear on screen as transitions between scenes. Isabel was summarized as "Tom's problem."
Isabel. Less than a minor character--she doesn't even appear in the film--she was just a plot point, an obstacle.
I like to think Isabel was more than that.
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