You never know quite what to expect, with a Bette Davis film. She had a wide range of acting skills. A film like The Old Maid, allows her to go back and forth. She plays Charlotte Lovell, the long suffering cousin of Delia, (Miriam Hopkins). She was always good in these types of films.
Charlotte is of course not the family favorite. That honor is reserved for Delia. She is about to get married, when her former fiancé, Clem Spender, (George Brent), comes back. Delia tells him she couldn’t wait. She marries Jim Ralston, (James Stevenson), and Clem goes off to fight in The Civil War. He unfortunately becomes a casualty. Delia becomes a socialite, and her sister Charlotte becomes a spinster.
Delia lives a happy life with Jim, raising their children. Charlotte raises children, by running an orphanage. Delia’s happy life ends when her husband is killed in a riding accident. She carries on, and raises her children. She also takes a liking, to one of the children, in the orphanage, Tina, (Jane Bryan). Delia cares so much about Tina, that she adopts her, to give her social standing. There is one thing, that Delia finds out later. Tina is the product of a tryst between Charlotte and Clem Spender. Delia is so bitter that she tells Charlotte’s fiancé. This destroys her wedding plans, and Charlotte goes into hiding.
Charlotte comes back just in time for her daughter’s wedding. Her heart is filled with bitterness, and she tells Delia she is going to tell Tina the truth. Delia pleads with her, but Charlotte goes to tell her daughter the truth. It is then that she knows how much she loves her daughter. Charlotte elects to let Tina believe she is her aunt, and doesn’t ruin her happiness.
Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins both play flawed people. It is Davis’ Charlotte that understands what love for a child is. She sacrifices her happiness for her daughter’s. It is then that she becomes the better person. The film for the most part is melodrama at its finest. It could become a movie of this type among the many made during Hollywood’s golden age. It is because of the sad but happy ending, that it is not. The fact that the two lead actresses hated each other, allows for their enmity on screen. Both Davis and Hopkins found a lot of work during the 1930’s but Davis career flourished, and she became a top notch actress for a very long time.