Winter Meeting

Classic Bette Davis at her Classiest
I hadn't seen this movie in years since it used to play on Tv quite often. When the NY Times would give their one-line reviews in the TV listings they'd describe it as "talk, talk, talk..." Indeed it is a chatty film, if not slightly slow and a bit plodding. And the story is highly unfathomable.

Basically Bette plays a very soigne spinster living in an extremely stylish Manhattan brownstone beautifully furnished with family heirlooms. She's a poetess and works part-time in a publishing house, just to pass the time between stylish dinners in which she's dressed in severe black sequined evening clothes that scream softly with high style. Her famous Davis diction is the best ever, with perfect WASP yankee stage speech coating every word. Some of the dialogue is fabulous.

This repressed but awfully stylish spinster falls for a gorgeous hunk of a war hero who in the middle of their romance reveals that he's always wanted to be a priest! This scene allows...

SO SO FILM...GREAT CAST
This is a largely mediocre film with a story that is somewhat implausible. Bette Davis stars as Susan Grieve, a well to do poetess living in a very plush townhouse in New York City. She dresses divinely in black for all her social engagements and is articulate and low key in demeanor. She is a single woman in an era when such were called spinsters. She leads a well ordered life devoid of any romantic interests.

Enter a romantic war hero with the improbable name of Slick Novak, played by the boyishly good looking and earnest James Davis. It seems that our hero is invited out to dinner by an upper crust friend of Ms. Grieve named Stacey, wonderfully played by the urbane John Hoyt. Stacey also invites Ms. Grieve, as well as his secretary, played by the lusciously lovely Janis Paige. Stacey believes that Slick will fall for his secretary, when to his and everyone's surprise, Slick falls for the prim and proper Susan.

Susan awakens under the tender and romantic ministrations of Slick...

A VERY DIFFERENT FILM FOR BETTE DAVIS
Winter Meeting is a film unlike any you have every seen with Miss Davis. it is the story of an introverted New England poetess who meets a Navy hero at a dinner in New York. Despite their obvious differences, something clicks and they gravitate towards each other, more out of loneliness than anything else, atleast at first. Miss Davis is just superb in a very different and difficult role and James Davis is also just fine as the lonely and confused young man. Their many scenes together are talky and perhaps boring to some, but these 2 people are reaching out for something that even they are not sure of. The only sure thing is their own unhappiness, despite their apparent successes in their chosen field. The rest of the cast is quite insignificant, except for John Hoyt, who is quite entertaining in a Clifton Webb-type role. Janis Paige and Florence Bates, two wonderful supporting players, are pretty much wasted. This film, though, is way ahead of its time in its honest...

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