OVP: A Stolen Life (1946)

Film: A Stolen Life (1946)

Stars: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Dane Clark, Walter Brennan, Charlie Ruggles

Director: Curtis Bernhardt

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Special Effects)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Walter Brennan: click here to learn more about Mr. Brennan (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Walter Brennan worked his whole life, but weirdly Oscar gave up on him after 1941.  This is unusual not necessarily because Brennan has a lot of performances that warranted nominations in the years that followed.  After all, while Brennan was always a sturdy, scene-stealing presence in film he wasn't necessarily someone who, in my opinion, was given a lot of super plum roles in movies that demanded Academy attention in the way that say, Claude Rains was.  But it is odd because after Sergeant York, Brennan appeared in some really, really good movies, much better than any of the films that he actually won an Oscar for.  This week we're focusing on a film from 1946, and next week we're going to jump ahead a few decades (Brennan's long career demands some edits), so it's worth noting that between Sergeant York and into his run as a TV star on The Real McCoys, he appeared in film classics like To Have and Have Not, My Darling Clementine, Red River, and Rio Bravo, all of which are superb (and frequently clumped with the word "masterpiece").  None of these movies got Brennan another Oscar nomination, however, and while it's hard to say the man wasn't getting his due from the Academy (three statues is more than enough for even the greatest of thespians), this drought feels odd.  As I have seen all of Brennan's biggest classics from this era, we're going to focus today on another high-profile film, this one he did with Bette Davis & Glenn Ford: A Stolen Life.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie follows Kate Bosworth (Davis...and only upon proofreading this review did I realize she shares a name with the Blue Crush actress), a wealthy heiress who is making a go of it as an artist (unsuccessfully) who goes to stay with her sister Pat (also Davis), but on the way falls for a young man named Bill Emerson (Ford) who gives her a ride to the island that Pat lives on.  To try and get closer to Bill, Kate offers to paint Bill's friend Eben Folger (Brennan), who is a cranky lighthouse operator who doesn't love being part of the matchmaking (though he secretly respects Kate).  Pat, however, is a bit man-hungry and also wants whatever her sister has, and goes after Bill as well, and as she's showier & more glamorous, she gets him.  Kate takes up briefly with a poor artist named Karnock (Clark), whom she clearly has some feeling for, primarily because he's the only guy willing to tell her she's not a good artist, but it goes nowhere-she still loves Bill.

This is where the film goes into the deep end, literally and figuratively.  Pat & Kate go out on a boat, and while they're out on the sea, the boat capsizes, and Pat drowns.  However, as she's trying to save her, Kate gets Pat's wedding ring and manages to slip it on...with everyone assuming since they're twins that Kate is Pat, and Kate, desperate for Bill, goes along with the ruse.  This ends up being a fool's errand when she realizes that Pat & Bill's marriage is basically kaput, as Pat has been cheating on him, and though they eventually end up together (when Pat reveals that she's Kate), we get multiple scenes with Kate learning uncomfortable truths about her late sister.

The film strains credulity, obviously.  The idea that a man couldn't tell his own wife apart from her sister (never mind that ANYONE else couldn't tell them apart either, even though they have polar opposite personalities) is absurd.  But if you get past that, it's kind of a silly fun melodrama.  This was during the nadir of Davis career, or at least one of them (Davis, like most long-lasting Classical Hollywood stars, had a lot of ebbs-and-flows in her career), when most of the best roles on the Warner Brothers lot were going to Joan Crawford post her Mildred Pierce Oscar win.  This film made a fortune when it first came out (there was still demand for Davis), but it was not well-received by critics, and would be followed by a series of flops for the performer, who would have to wait another four years before the crown jewel of her career, All About Eve.  But with enough distance, I liked this-it's stupid, but Davis is great in both roles & a joy to watch.  Weirdly, this is one of two films that stars Davis as her own sister-anyone else think I should check out Dead Ringer?

Two quick notes before we go.  You'll notice I didn't mention Brennan, and that's because he's barely in the movie.  He plays the curmudgeonly old man well (it's Walter Brennan, that's his raison d'être) but he disappears from the back half of the movie and has little impact on the plot, so there's not a lot to say about him.  And the film won one Oscar nomination, for Best Special Effects, and while it's a relatively singular effect, the one scene early in the film when both sisters are introduced and Davis shares the screen with herself is quite impressive.  Particularly given this had to be done entirely with trick photography rather than CGI, you see no seams onscreen indicating when Davis is working with no one or a body double.  It didn't win, but the nomination was well worth it.