★★★★★
Unfairly criticised on its release for being lachrymose and soppy, this Bette Davis makeover movie has only become more affecting over time. Davis gives a captivating career-high turn as Charlotte Vale, the downtrodden daughter of the Boston super-snob Windle Vale (Gladys Cooper) who, through the course of the drama, must escape her traumatic past.
Yes, there is tentative romance with the sexy married father Jerry (Paul Henreid), but this is fundamentally a film about Freudian family dynamics. A perfect companion piece to Hitchcock’s Psycho (also about powerful mothers), it features the standout scene where Charlotte finally screams, “I’m my mother’s well-loved daughter! Her companion! Her servant! My mother! My mother! My mother!” The newly restored print also looks stunning.
PG, 117min
In cinemas
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