The Great Lie

The Great Lie

Director: Edmund Goulding Cast: Bette Davis
Bette Davis
, Mary Astor
Mary Astor
, George Brent
George Brent
, Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell
Edmund Goulding
The Great Lie

The Great Lie

Director: Edmund Goulding Cast: Bette Davis
Bette Davis
, Mary Astor
Mary Astor
, George Brent
George Brent
, Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell
Edmund Goulding

DVD (Full Frame)

$17.99 
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Overview

The Great Lie is Soap Opera Deluxe from Bette Davis' peak period at Warner Bros. Davis plays a socialite who is madly in love with playboy aviator George Brent. Brilliant but bitchy concert pianist Mary Astor (who won a well-deserved Academy Award for her chain-smoking histrionics) is also in love with Brent, going so far as to marry him in a secret ceremony. When it appears that the marriage may be invalid, Astor is too devoted to her art to take the necessary corrective steps, so Brent returns to Davis, who is too proud to be picked up on the rebound. While flying an important government mission, Brent disappears and is presumed killed. Davis meets Astor, who had been impregnated by Brent before the question of their marriage's validity came up. Since her first marriage had been in secret, Astor is terrified that her career will be ruined by the sudden appearance of an unexplained child, so Davis, out of love for Brent, agrees to claim the baby as her own. When Brent, who of course has not been killed after all, resurfaces, Astor demands that the child be returned to her, hoping that the child will forever bind Brent to her. Davis tells Brent the whole sad story, whereupon our long-absent hero declares his love for Davis and his willingness to give up the child to Astor. At the last moment, Astor returns the kid to Davis and Brent, and the film ends on a splendiferous musical chord courtesy of overworked Warner Bros. composer Max Steiner. In lesser hands, The Great Lie would have been outrageous hokum, but somehow Bette Davis and Mary Astor (and, to a lesser extent, George Brent) make you want to believe that the story has some resemblance to Real Life. The film was based on the novel January Heights by Polan Blanks, which was not governed by Hollywood censorship and thus didn't have to bend over backwards to "legitimize" the baby in the story.

Product Details

Release Date: 08/23/2016
UPC: 0888574432539
Original Release: 1941
Rating: NR
Source: Warner Archives
Presentation: [B&W]
Sound: [Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language: English
Time: 1:47:00
Sales rank: 5,942

Special Features

Warner Night at the Movies 1941 Short Subjects Gallery: Vintage Newsreel; Broadway Brevities; Short At the Stroke of Twelve; Oscar-Nominated Technicolor Sports Parade Short Kings of the Turf; Hollywood Novelty Short Polo with the Stars; Classic Cartoon Porky's Pooch; Trailers of The Great Lie and 1941's The Strawberry Blonde

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Bette Davis Maggie Van Allen
Mary Astor Sandra Kovac
George Brent Pete Van Allen
Grant Mitchell Joshua Mason
Lucile Watson Aunt Ada
Hattie McDaniel Violet,Jefferson
Jerome Cowan Jock Thompson
Thurston Hall Worthington James
Russell Hicks Col. Harrison
Olin Howlin Ed
J. Farrell MacDonald Dr. Ferguson
Doris Lloyd Bertha
Alphonse Martell Waiter
Georgia Caine Mrs. Pine
Charlotte Wynters Mrs. Anderson
Cyril Ring Harry Anderson
George Reed Butler,Butler
Georges Renavent Maitre d'Hotel
Napoleon Simpson Parker
Charles Trowbridge Sen. Greenfield
Virginia Brissac Sadie
George Kirby Minister
Addison Richards Mr. Talbot
Richard Clayton Page Boy
Max Steiner Composer

Technical Credits
Edmund Goulding Director
Lenore J. Coffee Screenwriter
Henry Blanke Producer
Robert Burks Special Effects
Byron Haskin Special Effects
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