The basics of the story is what happens when you fall for the wrong girl, It's about a man called Phillip (played by Leslie Howard) who is in love with waitress Mildred (played by Bette Davis) who is this very vulgar and unlike the sort of woman Phillip would go for. Mildred shows no liking to him, as much as Phillip would show it. Mildred fell for Emil, meanwhile Phillip falls for Norah and tries to get over Mildred. Emil leaves Mildred pregnant and distraught she goes to Phillip for help.
This story is so modern as Bette Davis as an actress at the time was so dynamic and brilliant, and usually she plays alot of cold, brass women. That's something I love and I find very modern as back then in society it was very much man can be the crazy, angry one, woman can only be sweet, and kind and thats it. So in storytelling I find it fascinating that this character felt so 3D and I just wonder how this story affected the world and women.
I love the use of the characters like Phillip as he is so sweet and nice, for some reason he loved Mildred. Mildred throughout the film really did like him, she just released her true colours as she moved in with him. Norah said at one point how humans have bondages over people, people they just find themselves attach to, like Philip is to Mildred and that will always happen. One thing that I love about Bette Davis is her voice its so unique and different, again I wonder the huge affect she had on the world at that time in the 1930s.
The reason I say its a story of what happens when you fall for the wrong girl, its also a case of don't be taken for a mug. Phillip is Mildred's knight in shining armour constantly, from when Mildred's pregnancy, and being abandoned twice by the same man. She is a horrible woman, but I love watching her, and yet I still want her sarcastic, twisted sense of humour, but that's down to the fantastic script writers,
The camera angles of the film are one of the reasons as to why I love this so much. I love how it goes from one shot directly on the face when its a dinner conversation or just a conversation. Especially for facial expressions, as it just made me love the film even more because I don't think many films do that, not even now its all about the shot being on both, capturing both expressions of the actors. Its crazy that this film was made in 1934 with it being so modern and everything, but its even crazier that its based of a book by W. Somerset Maugham which was written in 1915.
There will be a Bette Davis post watch this space, as I need to talk about her, she is just so brilliant I want to be her. Anyway sorry its a bit late but, better late than never and I shall speak to you all tomorrow!
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