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The Old Maid (1939)
In director Edmund Goulding's family-based, melodramatic
mother-daughter tear-jerker set during the Civil War period (and
after), adapted from Edith Wharton's 1924 novella, and Zoë Akins'
1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with a magnificent Max Steiner
score:
- in the film's opening set in the early 1860s in
Philadelphia, PA, Delia
Lovell Ralston (Miriam Hopkins) spurned cad, ex-fiancee, and impulsive
playboyish suitor Clem Spender (George Brent) who had returned
after a two year, heavy-drinking absence in Paris; instead, she
proceeded marry socially-respectable but stuffy munitions manufacturer
James "Jim" Ralston
(James Stephenson)
- Delia's worried wall-flower cousin Charlotte Lovell
(Bette Davis), who had always liked Clem and served as a bridesmaid
at Delia's wedding, commiserated and slept (off-screen) that evening
with Delia's rejected, hot-headed and ex-beau when she spent a
late night with him - and became pregnant
Delia's Marriage Announcement to Socially-Respectable
James Ralston
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On Her Wedding Day, Delia Spurned Ex-Beau Clem Spender
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Worried Charlotte Returning Late at Night After
Commiserating - and Sleeping With Clem
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- soon after on the next day, Lt. Clem Spender departed
from the train station (after leaving a tearful Charlotte) to fight
as a Union soldier in the Civil War; he died on the battlefield
at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863
- meanwhile, Charlotte secretly
became an unmarried mother, and journeyed West to have her baby; about
4 years later in 1866 in Philadelphia, Delia
was now the mother of two children with James
- Charlotte returned and refurbished the family's home
stables as the Charlotte Lovell Nursery for War Orphans - a
day orphanage for over 20 children of working mothers; there, she
could secretly hide her dreadful and scandalous secret and care for
her illegitimate daughter - love child and "foundling" Clementina "Tina" (Marlene
Burnett as young child) (named after Clem!)
- on the day of Charlotte's wedding
in June of 1866 to be held at the Ralston mansion, she was about
to marry Joseph "Joe" Ralston (Jerome Cowan), Jim's brother
(Delia's husband); she became concerned about giving up her nursery
to be dutiful and obey her future husband; she decided to confess
to Delia the existence of her love child in the nursery: "I
will not give up my own baby....I call my own baby my baby...I had
to hide her. What else could I do?";
Delia was worried that Charlotte's fiancee would not accept the news
of an illegitimate child: "What reason could I give?...He'd
never forgive you. You know it. If it comes to that, what decent
man do we know who would?"
- Charlotte admitted her sinful decision
to sleep with Clem - a man she had loved since childhood: "I loved
him. I'm not pretending it wasn't a sin. He was lonely and unhappy
before he went away...he never knew. You see, he never came back.
He never will"; Delia suddenly realized that Charlotte had sexual
relations with her cast-off suitor Clem who died at Vicksburg, and
had named her 'Tina' after him; Delia was sarcastically spiteful: "Our
little Charlotte with her good deeds. Her haven for destitute children.
Twenty children to hide one child,"
causing Charlotte to wish she had never divulged her secret
Charlotte's Confession on Wedding Day about Having
Raised Clem's Illegitimate Daughter - "Foundling"
Tina
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"I
call my own baby my baby"
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Delia Stunned at the News of Charlotte's Baby
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Delia - Realizing Charlotte Had Been Impregnated
By Her Ex-Suitor Clem
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- the conniving and selfish-minded Delia, who still
loved Clem, became spiteful; she set about to derail Charlotte's
wedding to her fiancee Joe, by divulging Charlotte's secret for
the sake of the Ralston's reputation: ("Better lose him than
deceive a man into a marriage. A man you don't even love");
- Charlotte vowed: "I'll
be a good wife to him. He'll never be sorry he married me" -
but Delia was intent on cornering Joe (and his brother Jim, her
husband) and insisting that he not marry her:
"Charlotte isn't entering into this marriage honorably...She
can't marry you. She can't marry anyone now"; instead of revealing
the real reason, Delia stressed the common rumor that Charlotte
was "sick" and "unhealthy" after
a trip West five years earlier, when she had contracted "lung
trouble" and was now coughing: ("That sickness has come
back on her. That's why she can't ever marry anyone"); even
Delia's husband concurred: "You can't marry her. It wouldn't
be a marriage. You'd both be miserable and you wouldn't dare to have
children. You'd better face it, Joe" - Joe called off the marriage without ever
knowing about Charlotte's illegitimate child
Delia to Joe: "Charlotte Isn't Entering Into
This Marriage Honorably"
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Joe Calling Off the Marriage: "Charlotte,
I release you"
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- with her marital plans ruined, Charlotte retreated
into seclusion ("shut...away from the world"), reappearing
only six months later when a letter informed her about Jim's (Delia's husband) serious horse-riding accident
- while speaking to Joe
at the Ralston mansion about her health, Charlotte realized that
he had been talked out of marriage to her - due to Delia's spreading
of false fears; she glared at Delia with contempt for robbing her
of romance, but Charlotte misinterpreted Joe's words and thought
that Delia had informed Joe of her illegitimate child: "I've
just found out from Joe about Tina...When you found out about Clem,
you hated me, didn't you? I could have gone to Joe myself and told
him. He loved me. He might have let me keep Tina. But you lied
to make sure I wouldn't have a chance, didn't you? He wanted to
see me, but I refused because I was so ashamed. It was wicked of
you"
- then came the tragic news of Jim's death
from a skull fracture; Charlotte (with Tina) accepted the widowed
Delia's awkward living arrangement invitation - to move into the
large Ralston mansion: (Delia: "But why should you,
because you're guilty of a child's existence, allow your remorse
to color her life? It's your duty to put her into a normal life
with toys and games and companions. You'll always do your best
for her, but here she'd have everything....Whatever you do will
be of your own free will, but it isn't fair to bring up that child
alone and you know it");
at first, Charlotte rejected the idea, but finally agreed; Delia
would take care of 'Tina' - acting as her mother, while Charlotte
was to be regarded as Aunt Charlotte for her unknowing, patronizing
niece
- fifteen years later (signaled by a montage), Aunt
Charlotte appeared - now with wisps of gray hair, and acting like
a serious, bitter, sullen, stern-faced, spinster-like 'old maid';
her daughter - free-spirited teenaged Tina (Jane Bryan as young adult)
was romantically interested in her handsome young boyfriend Lanning
Halsey (William Lundigan) from a prominent family
- in a brief scene, Charlotte
was dancing alone in an upstairs bedroom (while a dance was in progress
downstairs), to the tune of "My
Darling Clementine" - she realized that she was growing old,
sat down and exclaimed, "Oh Clem"
- Tina delivered disrespectful words to Delia (her "Mommy")
about how Aunt Charlotte was critical, cruel, old-fashioned, and
unfair - and a 'ridiculous, narrow-minded old maid': "You think
Mommy spoils me but she doesn't. She understands me while you don't.
Mommy knows what it is to be young and have people fond of her. While
you, you've never been young"; shortly later, Charlotte explained
to Delia how she was "deliberately" creating the impression
for Tina that she was an "old maid"
rather than acting like her real mother
- an anguished Charlotte eavesdropped
in horror behind a drawing-room door to the whispered love and kisses
of Tina for Lanning when they returned late from a date, and Tina
expressed her devotion: "That's the first (kiss), and I'll never
kiss anyone but you, ever!"; Charlotte appeared and reprimanded
Tina for encouraging Lanning to enter the house: "Any man would've
done the same had she permitted it"; Tina was exasperated with
Charlotte: "You've driven Lanning away...I'll never forgive
you, never!"
- during the dramatic confrontation,
Tina chastised Charlotte: "You've got to know that I'm sick
of your spying, fault-finding and meddling.... she's just a sour
old maid who hates me because I'm young and attractive and in love,
while she's old and hideous and dried up and has never known anything
about love"
- the fact that Tina had "no position, no name" because
she was a "foundling" caused Delia to be allowed by Charlotte
to legally adopt Tina to provide her with legitimate social status:
("the Ralston name and part of the Ralston fortune"), so that she
would be "desirable"
as a marital partner with Lanning: (Delia: "If Tina's to be happy,
her position must be made unassailable, financially and socially")
- Charlotte and Delia faced each other
in a quarrel on the stairs on the eve of Tina's wedding day in June
1881, when Charlotte threatened to divulge
the truth of Tina's identity and parentage to her: "We'll see
which one of us is her mother...You made me an old maid. You divided
my child from me. You adopted her. You even took away my legal right
to her. You taught her to call you mother. Well, tonight, just tonight,
she belongs to me. That's not too much to ask. Tonight, I want her
to call me mother"
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Charlotte to Delia: "Tonight, I want her
to call me mother"
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- however, once Aunt Charlotte entered Tina's bedroom,
she was conciliatory and kind in a very tearjerking sequence -
she couldn't bring herself to destroy her daughter's happiness;
she offered tender words to Tina at her bedside, offering congratulations
and explaining her strict and critical love, instead of divulging
Tina's true parentage: "I just came in to say good night and
to wish you happiness. God bless you, my child....If I've been
severe with you at times, I haven't meant it. I love you very much"
- in a rapprochement scene with
Delia, Charlotte accepted the fact that both Clem and Tina loved
Delia more than they did her: "If
she never really belonged to me, perhaps it's because her father
never really belonged to me either. They're both yours. He loved
you and she loves you too. You're the mother she wants. Go in to
her, Delia. It's not your fault or mine. Don't feel sorry for me.
After all, she was mine when she was little"
- to assuage Charlotte, Delia informed Tina that Charlotte,
her old maid aunt, had sacrificed her own happiness by refusing to
marry a man who did not want to raise Tina as his own: "She
didn't marry a man who loved her very much and who would have given
her everything she wanted...Because she wouldn't give you up. That's
why she's an old maid" - and
then she made a very special request of Tina - before leaving on
her honeymoon, she must save her very last kiss for Charlotte: "You
remember and try to make her glad tomorrow of the choice she made
without letting her know I told you so...When you go away tomorrow
at the very last moment, you understand, after you've said goodbye
to me and to everybody else...just as Lanning puts you into the carriage,
lean down and give your last kiss to Aunt Charlotte, will you?...Don't
forget, the very last"
- the final scene was of the new bride's last kiss
given to her special Aunt - fulfilling the special request of Delia
- never knowing that Charlotte was her real mother; the very satisfied
Charlotte caressed the cheek that Tina had just lovingly kissed
Delia's Special Request of Tina - The Last Kiss
for Aunt Charlotte After Her Wedding
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Delia Lovell Ralston (Miriam Hopkins)
Charlotte Lovell (Bette Davis)
Clem Spender (George Brent)
Charlotte's Tearful Goodbye to Lt. Spender at Train Station
Lt. Spender's Death in Civil War
Charlotte: Head of Day Orphanage/Nursery with 'Tina'
Charlotte Realizing How Joe Had Been Duped by Delia About
Her Not Being Marriageable
Charlotte Glaring at Delia with Contempt
Tina to Delia: "Goodnight, Mommy!" Tina
to Charlotte: "Goodnight, Aunt Charlotte"
Tina (Jane Bryan as young adult)
Charlotte Dancing Alone Upstairs - Realizing She
Was Old
Tina's Frustration with Aunt Charlotte's Severe
Criticisms
Eavesdropping on Lanning and Tina
Tina's Chastisement of Charlotte For Being "Hideous
and Dried Up"
Charlotte At Tina's Bedside: "If I've been
severe with you at times, I haven't meant it. I love you very much"
Charlotte to Delia: "Don't feel sorry
for me"
Delia to Tina: "That's why she's an old
maid" - With A Very Special Request
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