The Old Maid

Details

Release year: 1939

Storyline

The arrival of an ex-lover on a young woman's wedding day sets in motion a chain of events which will alter her and her cousin's lives forever.

Top credits

Did you know

• There was much bad blood between Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis, who had won an Oscar for Jezebel (1938), a role that Hopkins had played on Broadway and expected to play in the movie. Making things worse, Davis had had an affair with Hopkins' director husband Anatole Litvak while making The Sisters (1938).

• To get the effects of aging, Bette Davis wore no lipstick or eyeshadow, and makeup artist Perc Westmore used a pale, ashen base on her face.

• On her first day on the set, Miriam Hopkins wore an exact duplicate of the dress Bette Davis had worn in Jezebel (1938). Davis reflected on this time with Hopkins in her autobiography with the following observations: "Miriam used and, I must give her credit, knew every trick in the book. I became fascinated watching them appear one by one. When she was supposed to be listening to me, her eyes would wander off into some other world in which she was the sweetest of them all. Her restless little spirit was impatiently awaiting her next line, her golden curls quivering with expectancy."

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Technical specs

Sound mix

Mono

Aspect ratio

1.37 : 1

Color

Black and White