Product Description

AN AUTHENTIC REGION 1 DVD FROM WARNER BROTHERS. SYNOPSIS: What Stanley Timberlake wants, she takes. So, on the eve of her marriage to another, she runs off with her sister's husband, the first of many betrayals that lead to disaster... and to a compulsively watchable brew of deceit, racial bigotry, latent incest and violent death. Two-time Best Actress Oscar winners and lifelong friends Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland square off as sisters (guess whos the bad one) in In This Our Life, a must-see for fans of melodrama at its juiciest. Director John Huston, fresh from his The Maltese Falcon success, includes a cameo role for his father Walter, just as he did in Falcon. And Max Steiners powerful music underscores the films driving emotional force. BONUS FEATURES: * Commentary by film historian Jeannine Basinger * Warner Night at the Movies 1942 short subjects gallery: o Vintage newsreel o Technicolor patriotic short March On, America! o Technicolor musical short Spanish Fiesta * Classic cartoon Whos Who in the Zoo * Trailers of In This Our Life and 1942s Desperate Journey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74965 in DVD
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Customer Reviews

In This Our Life
GREAT Bette Davis movie..very risque for it's time but
not now. It's one of those movies where something is going
on all the time and all relates in some way. You can get
quite involved with the plot...this is CLASSIC Bette Davis!

BETTE AT HER WORST!
No one is better, more entertaining or more riveting than Bette Davis when she is playing a truly bad to the bone woman. To borrow a line from Mae West that certainly applies to Miss Davis as she tears up the screen and the first few rows of the theater in "In This Our Life", "When I'm good, I'm good. But when I am bad I'm better." Very few characters in film history are worse than Stanley Timberlake (Davis).

"In This Our Life" is a standard 1940's family melodrama cock full of wonderful performances by both major players and a myriad of great character actors. Olivia De Havilland as Bette's sister Roy Timberlake is her usual sweet self but buy the end of the film the evil that Bette has unleashed on her family and anyone with in a fifty mile radius of New Orleans turns her as hard as steel. This is a great performance by Miss De Havilland in an often over shadowed role. But come on! It is understandable that Bette takes the cake, the table, the groom and the church away from De Havilland in this movie.

Charles Colburn is so utterly slimy, creepy and perfect as Stanley's manipulative uncle. And the truly evil core of his nature is bone chillingly fun to watch as he plays out his scenes with his favorite nice. But wait...wait until the end. One of the screens greatest moments comes when a desperate Davis beseeches Colburn to save her sorry skin. It is like dying and going to movie heaven when this scene rolls up like a hissing snake in a long black hearse.

Also on hand is the incomparable Hattie McDaniel. She is a joy to behold in any film she inhabits and demonstrates her great talent, humor and grace as she plays her ever-loyal servant role who knows all the skeletons of the family to perfection. George Brent appears as a stalwart George Brent ever ready to support the queen of the Warner's lot. Billy Burke is fun as always as Bette and Olivia's bedridden mother. And rounding out a great supporting cast is the brilliant Lee Patrick who should be remembered more than she is as a brilliant player in films.

But the film belongs to Davis as she scales the heights of melodrama to a near fatal altitude. An absolutely fun movie that will entertain you long after it has collapsed in complete exhaustion at it's over the top and utterly satisfying ending.

Great flick!
Another outstanding performance by the greatest actress of all time! I don't think I have ever seen a 'bad' B.D. movie, but I have seen a few where the only thing good about the script was watching Bette Davis breathe life into it. The story line in this script was way ahead of its time, with many lessons to be learned, and Bette does us proud by playing the morally twisted, vain, self absorbed sister who poisons everything she touches. When she runs away with her sister's husband, life comes full circle. Great flick and, as always, Bette keeps things entertainingly true to life. FIVE STARS