Mr. Skeffington (1944)

Warner Bros.

Director: Vincent Sherman

Starring: Bette Davis, Claude Rains

Always the daring actress in Hollywood, Bette Davis stars in this motion picture as a woman of great beauty not painted in the most flattering of lights. Somewhat of a prestige picture for Warner Bros. Studios, Mr. Skeffington is an elaborate film that appeared to be hijacked by its headlining star, who made it one of the most difficult productions anyone associated with the picture could remember. In the end it landed the actress high praise in the form of an Oscar nomination.

Mr. Skeffington is a drama chronicling the tale of a narcissistic socialite who way are self- serving as she neglects to reciprocate the one true person that loves her, her husband. In 1914 Franny Trellis (Bette Davis) is known as the most desirable woman in all of New York, a spoiled, beautiful socialite who has every man clamoring for her hand in marriage. Her marriage to stockbroker Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) was made as a calculated decision to save face of herself and her family, which was secretly hiding their lack of fortune at the time. Despite the two having a daughter, it is increasingly clear Fanny has no interest in Job as she continues to entertain multiple suitors for her own entertainment. Ultimately the two divorce and Fanny continues to used her beauty as her social status, neglecting even the affection of her own daughter, who has grown to adulthood without her mother. A painful illness ravages Fanny’s beauty and with it the affections of her former admirers. Broken, Fanny is left bitter and alone with no one to love her, not even her own daughter. It is here she is reintroduced to Job, blinded in his older age, but continues to love his dear wife, allowing Fanny feel as beautiful as he always remembered her.

The film is a long, drawn out picture, one a bit difficult to watch at times due to the lack of redeeming qualities for its main character. However it is the drama surrounding the desperate need for being desired that creates the draw of this drama. A black and white period piece of primarily the 1910s and 1920s does lend to the sensation that its source material is that of a novel (a 1940 novel of the same title by Elizabeth von Arnim) with the slow meandering of its plot. The story is filled is many moments that leave the audience scratching their heads asking if people actually acted in the ways depicted in the feature. With its wealthy social scene of the early 1900s in nothing but tuxedos and gowns and the manifestation that status was achieved by marriage and lineage alone makes all the characters seem a bit silly.  All that aside the film does provide some trying, but reasonable acting, and despite Bette Davis’ nomination, was perhaps not her best performance.

Bette Davis is the beginning, end, and the entirety of the nucleus of production within this motion picture at Warner Bros. Despite not being the initial choice of the main actress of the film, once Davis was aboard, it becomes abundantly clear that Davis was in control of this picture. Directing the film was a man with whom Davis had shared an affair, former actor and B-movie director Vincent Sherman. She literally hand-picked Claude Rains as the titular character because she always felt she worked well on screen with him. Despite all things appearing to be formed to fit Davis as production began things on set turned sour for the film’s star.

During the early stages of production Bette Davis’ second husband collapsed and died sending Davis into a troubled and distraught state. After a brief hiatus due to Davis’ tragedy production continued and Davis, but her inability to coup with her distressed state led to great difficulties on set. She refused to film certain scenes, demanded rewrites from the screenwriters, she adlibbed without notice which confused her fellow actors, demanded sets to be reconstructed, and many times simply lashed out on cast and crew over pretty much anything. She was a terror on set and absolutely everyone felt it. Her troubling ways caused production to last nearly four times longer than expected and producers were very worried at times if they needed to shut down production completely.

Davis’ actions took so much of a toll on the cast and crew that it produced one alleged tale where the eye wash of Bette Davis was fond on using was poisoned in her dressing room. Tales of screams rising up from her dressing room that day from the ocular pain would live on for years. No offender was fingered for the malice act, but when director Vincent Sherman was asked about the incident he explained that if the entire cast and crew were asked who did it every hand would have gone up that day.

In the end Bette Davis’ performance appears a bit trying at times, much more forced that what we have become accustomed to in the previous works of this great actress. Her “ugly” or “elderly” make-up was atrocious, a thick layer of pancake make-up that appears absolutely unrealistic. Davis’ work on Mr. Skeffington would play to mixed reviews by critics, but due perhaps to the dramatic heartbreaking tale the film ends up being, she lands herself a nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards that year.

She would not be the only nomination as Claude Rains found himself up for Best Supporting Actor as well. His performance was soft, yet stern, but difficult to see as sincere for how one could love such a woman. When the dramatic scenes do ramp up Rains knocks his performance out of the park, especially in the closing scene when he is blind. For those few beautiful moments you believe that this blind, withering man does honestly see his wife only as the youthful beauty she was and will forever be in his head.

Mr. Skeffington is not one of the most memorable motion pictures in the catalogue of the Bette Davis pictures as she struggled with her performance and the plot remains overall weak with moments of gold buried within.  Despite the film’s title being Mr. Skeffington, Claude Rains’ character, the picture remains clearly on Davis. Interestingly the Mr. Skeffington character on the novel is never an active character, but only mentioned, making his appearance throughout the picture an original take on the story.

In the end the film is piece of drama that manifests a difficult period in the career of one of Hollywood’s more interesting actresses which affected both her and her craft for this moment in her life. Mr. Skeffington has simply faded into the background of her history for the most part, a curious nugget for those that discover it.