Mr. Skeffington Movie

Mr. Skeffington
Rating:
Run Time: 147 min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1944
Directors: Vincent Sherman
Genre/Type: Drama
Romantic Drama
Marriage Drama
Producers: Julius J. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
From a novel of the same name by "Elizabeth", the film begins in 1914, with Bette Davis cast as vain, flighty society woman Fanny Trellis. Informed by Jewish-American financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) that her brother Trippy (Richard Waring) has stolen money to pay his gambling debts, Fanny marries Job, securing his promise that he won't prosecute her thieving sibling. Angered by Fanny's agreeing to this loveless union, Trippy runs off to join the army, and is killed during World War I. Fanny holds Skeffington responsible for her brother's death, and demands a divorce with a generous cash settlement. Despite Job's oft-repeated belief that "a woman is only beautiful when she is loved," Fanny uses her coquettish beauty to flit indiscriminately from man to man. While on a sailing trip with her latest beau, Fanny comes down with diphtheria. The disease destroys her facial beauty, and before long the shallow Fanny is left completely alone. Her self-centered efforts to reunite all of her old boyfriends for a party is a failure due to her pathetic middle-aged efforts to be kittenish, and the grotesqueness of the mounds of facial makeup she apples. Meanwhile, Skeffington, who has resettled in Europe with his daughter, is captured by the Nazis and placed in a concentration camp. He manages to escape, returning to the US totally blind and utterly penniless. A chastened Fanny comes back to her husband, promising to care for him for the rest of his life. Most TV prints of Mr. Skeffington run 127 minutes; the videocassette and cable TV versions have been restored to the original length.

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Popular and beautiful Fanny Trellis is forced into a loveless marriage with an older man, Jewish banker Job Skeffington, in order to save her beloved brother Trippy from an embezzlement charge and predictable complications result. full summ...
Walter Abel as George Trellis, Fanny's cousin Rory i dont kno
*Bette Davis as Frances Beatrice 'Fanny' Trellis Skeffington *Claude Rains as Job Skeffington *Walter Abel as George Trellis, Fanny's cousin *Richard Waring as Trippy Trellis, Fanny's brother
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Cast

Actors Character Born
Bette Davis "Fanny" Beatrice Trellis Skeffington Apr 5, 1908 in Lowell, MA
Claude Rains Job Skeffington Nov 10, 1889 in London, England, UK
Walter Abel George Trellis Jun 6, 1898 in St. Paul, MN
Richard Waring Trippy Trellis May 27, 1911 in Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, England
Jerome Cowan Edward Morrison Oct 6, 1897 in New York City, NY
George Coulouris Dr. Byles Oct 1, 1903 in Manchester, England
Johnny Mitchell Johnny Mitchell
Marjorie Riordan Young Fanny Jan 24, 1921 in Washington, DC
Robert Shayne MacMahon
John Alexander Jim Conderley
Dorothy Peterson Manby Dec 25, 1899
Peter Whitney Chester Forbish
Bill Kennedy Thatcher Jun 27, 1908 in Cleveland, OH
Tom Stevenson Rev. Hyslup
Halliwell Hobbes Soames, Fanny's 1st Butler Nov 16, 1877 in Stratford-on-Avon, England, UK
Sylvia Arslan Young Fanny at Age 10
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Back to the topReview

Review by Lucia Bozzola
Scripted by Philip Epstein and Julius Epstein form the novel by "Elizabeth", Bette Davis ages from beautiful New York coquette to a ravaged and chastened 50-year-old in the epic melodrama Mr. Skeffington (1944). Fearless about playing unlikable leads, Davis's Fanny Trellis Skeffington is an unstinting narcissist who cares only about the validation of her beauty by increasingly younger men. Photographed by Ernest Haller and costumed by Orry-Kelly to initially look her glamorous best, Davis ends up an over-made up gargoyle after Fanny's illness; fleeting close-ups of Fanny's ruined face reveal enough without lingering over her ugliness. As her rich husband Job, Claude Rains conveys his undying adoration for Fanny with masterful subtlety, lending quiet credence to his assertion that "a woman is beautiful only when she is loved." One of the first films to deal with anti-Semitism and Nazism, Job's Judaism makes him a less "suitable" match for socialite Fanny c. 1915; his concentration camp experience leaves him at Fanny's newly discovered mercy decades later. Smoothly directed by Vincent Sherman, Mr. Skeffington resulted in Davis's seventh Best Actress Oscar nomination, and a Supporting Actor nod for Rains. 20 minutes cut for time in 1944 were restored for the home video release.
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