Customer Reviews

Great Lie [VHS]

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This 1941 film release is a superlative melodrama with a classic cast. The stellar ensemble of Bette Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor, Hattie McDaniel, and Lucille Watson lights up the screen in this story of true love. It is Mary Astor, however, who sends it soaring and leaves little doubt as to why she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Mary Astor plays the role of Sandra, a temperamental concert pianist, who marries Peter (George Brent), the on again, off again beau of Sandra's rival, Maggie (Bette Davis). They get married while Peter is in an alcoholic stupor in New York. After spending the night together, it turns out that their marriage was not legal, as Sandra's divorce from her first husband was not final. When Sandra is faced with the choice of marrying him on the day the divorce is final or playing a concert, she makes a choice that leaves Peter free to marry Maggie.

Shortly after their marriage, Peter, an experienced aviator and cartographer, is called away on a governmental mission. In the interim, Sandra tells Maggie that she is carrying Peter's child and vows to use that fact to get him back. Peter's plane, however, is reported missing over a remote area of the Amazon jungle, and he is presumed dead. This, of course, throws a monkey wrench into Sandra's plans, as she does not want the baby without Peter. Maggie, who is not pregnant and has no hope now of ever having a child by Peter, strikes a deal with Sandra that will allow Maggie to pass off Sandra's and Peter's baby, as if it were hers and Peter's. It is like making a pact with the devil, as Maggie will soon find out.

This is an enormously entertaining film with great dialogue between the two protagonists, Sandra and Maggie. Ms. Astor does a decided star turn as the temperamental and brilliant, world acclaimed concert pianist. Ms. Astor plays her as a diva of the first order, and she deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance. The role of Maggie, who is the good girl from the south, has its moments in the hands of such an accomplished actress as Ms. Davis. The dialogue between the two is always crisp and interesting. George Brent is perfectly cast in the role of Peter, a wealthy chap who is desired by two gloriously different women. Lucille Watson has a small part as Maggie's aunt, and Hattie McDaniel plays Maggie's ever present mammy. The film is topped of by the powerful music of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto.

This is a film that lovers of classic melodramas will enjoy, as will lovers of classical music.

This is one of the long run of film successes Bette Davis enjoyed in her golden period at Warners in the Early 40's. The film is very interesting as it provides a strong role for another female, in this case the marvellous Mary Astor. The film develops into an emotional tug of war between these two strong women, first over the George Brent character and then Astor's son. Bette Davis in a refreshing change in pace plays the nice girl while Mary Astor has a field day in the role of the selfish concert pianist for which she rightly won the academy award that year as best supporting actress. I always enjoy Astor's film acting from "Midnight" to "The Maltese Falcon" to "Meet Me in St Louis" She was a superb actress who had a rather disjointed film career ranging from playing femme fatales to loving mothers. In "The Great Lie" she has never been better and more than holds her own up against Bette Davis in the acting honours. One would have thought there would be fireworks on the set of this production as there was between Bette and Miriam Hopkins during production of the superb "The Old Maid" but no the two got on very well together, worked beautifully together and Mary Astor ever after spoke highly of Davis's care towards her during production and publicly thanked her during her Oscar acceptance speech for her help during production of "The Great Lie"
The production itself shows all the care that went into a Bette Davis production during the 40's. The supporting cast from the Warner Bros stable namely George Brent is excellent as always. With superb actresses like Lucile Watson and the wonderful Hattie Mcdaniel (who has some really beautiful dialogue in the scenes after Davis "adapts" Astor's baby ) how could the production go wrong? The musical score is also one of the best of the early forties as well.
Soap Opera it may be but done with such finesse that the whole viewing is an engrossing experience. There are a number of amusing scenes included as well like the scene of Bette "pacing" up and done like an expectant father while Astor goes into labour which at the time was viewed as being "too Lesbian"!!! Also worth mentioning is Astor's "mad" scene as she gets fed up with living in the desert with Davis..it's a riot and her scream sounds like something out of "Whatever happened to Baby Jane"!! It's such a hoot
I recommend this great film strongly, firstly as a great showcase for two fine actresses working superbly off each other and secondly as a great example of Hollywood production and the excellent care that went into these films in the Golden era of Hollywood

IF you're expecting a stunning tour-de-force by Davis, forget it. In this creamy, beautifully photographed creation from Warners in l940, it's Mary Astor who really jumps out with her sparkling portrayal of the brilliant but really bitchy Sandra Novak, a world-wide famous pianist. Although Davis is quiet, subdued, almost mousy, you still like her. I just wish she had flashed some anger now and then and slapped Sandra around. The music is great, especially when the Warner Brothers logo appears and you're thrilled to hear Tschaikovsky and you see Sandra Novak playing those dynamic chords in beautifully lit medium shots of her hands. A dreamy fantasy from l940 which is perfect viewing on a cool, autumn night.

After her great triumph in a bravura role as the murderess in THE LETTER, Bette Davis decided she would portray a sympathic heroine in her next picture, THE GREAT LIE. The plot is admittedly soap opera, but director Edmund Goulding stages it with style, and the basically artificial, contrived story comes across with surprising believability. Davis play her role with great sincerity and Astor's performance a Sandra, the bitchy concert pianist is a personal triumph. She is beautiful and authoritive and offers a stunning portrayal of a temperamental musical artist; she entirely deserved her best supporting actress AA. An accomplished pianist in real life, Astor played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto brilliantly and the realism adds much to the picture as a whole. The film revived a renewed interest in Tchaikovsky's haunting melody and it again swept the country via radio broadcasts and records galore.

George Brent is having a hard time managing the women in his life. He spends years in love with Bette Davis, but she won't marry him because he isn't ready to settle down. He marries fiery concert pianist Mary Astor, only to discover her divorce from her first husband isn't finalized. When she won't bend to his will, he goes back to Davis and marries her, only to disappear in the Brazilian jungle, leaving behind a broken-hearted Davis and a pregnant Astor. The story behind The Great Lie is, needless to say, a bit farfetched. It relies a lot on the viewer suspending their disbelief. What really keeps this film moving is the sparring between Davis and Astor. I've always enjoyed and appreciated Mary Astor, and in this film she's given a character right up her alley. She sinks into the roll, throwing out her lines with obvious relish and taking control of every scene she's in. Davis is good in a quieter performance, letting Astor have the spotlight. Brent is his usual self, and Hattie McDaniel is given more dialogue and character to work with than her standard maid role, and she is very strong. The music is a bit overpowering and over the top, but then again, so is the whole scenario of the story. The strength of this melodrama is Mary Astor in one of her best performances. The film is never believable, but she makes it fun to watch.

By the time Bette Davis made THE GREAT LIE in 1941, she had already established herself as one of Hollywood's most formidable actresses whose edgy style of dramatics made her the logical choice to play Maggie, a wealthy woman who passes off another woman's baby as her own. The plot is pure melodrama, of course, but it is not for that which stamps this movie as a near great. Once the audience gets past the logical improbabilities of the coincidences needed to make one scene lead to the next, what causes that audience to remain fixed on the unfolding events is the titanic clash between Bette Davis and Mary Astor (Sandra). And caught in the middle is George Brent, who first marries Sandra (Astor), gets her pregnant, flies off to the Amazon, crashes his plane, and remains off screen for the middle part of the movie. Brent is Pete the aviator who recreates his essential screen persona of blandness, which does not allow him to seriously challenge his leading ladies as the dramatic center. He and Miss Davis had similar parts in DARK VICTORY where he merely acted as a celluloid echo chamber for Davis to vent steam. Here, he does much the same, but this time he vacillates between Davis and Astor, both of whom see him as far more interesting than does the audience.

It is the onscreen duel between Maggie and Sandra that keeps the audience thoroughly rooted in the seats. From the moment that they agree to allow Maggie to raise Sandra's child as her own, the audience can sense Hollywood's Golden Rule # 1: any such agreement must wind up in catastrophe. When Pete magically reappears in both their lives, Maggie and Sandra trade sarcasms and catty remarks. But lurking beneath this all is the fear that both share--that they will lose both man and child that they thought they had, then could lose. Mary Astor plays Sandra first as a chronic drunk then as one who is fiercely determined to claim her own. Miss Davis had the more difficult task of portraying Maggie as one who walks a fine line between being equally determined but not coming off as a heartless schemer. By the time the film ends, director Edmund Goulding presents a too pat ending that suggests that one of the female leads can overcome her ego to enter the realm of magnanimity. Yet, it is the slow growth of personal vision of both women that permits audiences to remain entranced even decades later as to who will give in first. Few films exhibit such relentless probing of female primordial urgings as well as this one and that is why I call THE GREAT LIE a near great film.

Reading the recent biography of Edmund Goulding inspired me to see as many of his films as I can. During 30 Days of Oscar on Turner, they showed THE GREAT LIE which I have not seen in probably over three years. Age has not slowed it down much. For many moderns, it's hard to understand the box office appeal of a man like George Brent. (I put to one side the somewhat different reasons why we might be excused from wondering how Bette Davis and Mary Astor ever became stars.) Brent plays a horndog in THE GREAT LIE who marries Mary Astor while he's drunk, and then lives to regret it once he realizes his "true" love is for Bette Davis, who happens to be Astor's friend. See, it's a sordid little story, raised to true heights of elevation when Astor announces she's pregnant with Brent's baby and then Brent's plane goes down into the Amazon!

Thinking he's dead, Astor panics and with the baby's best interests at heart, Davis offers to bring up the baby as her own. It's funny how in this film Astor plays the hard-hearted playgirl (a variation on her Brigid Shaughnessy role in THE MALTESE FALCON) while Bette Davis does surprisingly well as the "nice girl" from down South, when in truth she could have played the other part very well.

Hattie McDaniel is also in this movie--one of her better parts, though really they're all the same, however in this film both Astor and Davis treat her almost as if she was an equal, it's rather refreshing. And Hattie's brother, Sam, is in the movie too, it's always twice the fun when this talented pair of siblings got to co-star.

There's lots and lots of music, as befits a Goulding film, for Sandra (Mary Astor) is supposed to be a concert pianist and actually looks as though she's playing some of the passages. Did you know Goulding wrote most of the music for most of the films he directed? His talents knew no bounds.

I can watch this movie over and over again.I am going to get this on dvd.Wow the chemistry between George Brent and Betty Davis is great i love it , Mary Astor was oscar worthy in her role .I put this Davis movie with my favorites All about Eve and Now Voyager.

The Great Lie is an excellent melodrama with a wonderful cast. The story revolves around Peter (George Brent), Sandra (Mary Astor), and Maggie (Bette Davis), who are involved in a love triangle. We learn that Peter and Sandra have married on drunken impulse, but they are not legally married because Sandra's divorce from her previous husband is not final. Peter suddenly finds himself questioning whether he actually wants to have Sandra as his wife, as he's been chasing country girl Maggie for years. He goes to see her and decides that it is she that he wants to be with. The two marry and Sandra's jealousy poses a problem. She claims to Maggie that she was pregnant with Peter's child.

The acting is wonderful, especially by Bette Davis, whose emotions outwardly register quickly but not too overtly. Mary Astor is less likable in her arch-enemy type role, but she serves her purpose as the selfish rival. Brent's role is less demanding; he is a straight character and supplies the necessary believability for the role. Hattie McDaniel, who plays the maid Violet, has a decent part which allows her to be a matronly figure. She is lovable and sweet.

The story is filled with twists and turns in this elegant soap-opera-like extravaganza.

If not for the impressive performances of these two outstanding actresses, the refulgent beauty of Mary Astor and the enigmatic look of Bette Davis, the movie could have been forgotten for the great audiences. But both of them assumed the compromise and shone with effective radiance.

A gentleman lives his own affective crossroad: his actual wife (Mary Astor) is a consummated and renowned pianist, but simply the marriage does not work out, he has an ambitious mistress that pushes on him to divorce.

The dramatic nucleus will unfold since her ex wife is pregnant and he disappeares between the Amazon jungle.

A brilliant chamber work with memorable performances and excellent direction. Edmund Golding is the same director of Nightmare Alley.