Winter Meeting [VHS]

Winter Meeting [VHS]
by Bretaigne Windust

Winter Meeting [VHS]
List Price: $19.98
Category: VHS Video
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Product details

Actor: Bette Davis, Florence Bates, Janis Paige, Jim Davis, John Hoyt
Director: Bretaigne Windust
Cinematographer: Ernest Haller
Editor: Owen Marks
Producer: Henry Blanke
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Writer: Catherine Turney
Writer: Grace Zaring Stone
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Running Time: 104 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)

VHS Movie Reviews of Winter Meeting [VHS]

Movie Review: BETTER THAN I THOUGHT
Summary: 4 Stars

I'm a huge Bette Davis fan but definately not blind to her bad movies.
I think she's horrible in The Star, pointless in Mr. Skeffington and wasted in June Bride and boring in A Stolen Life. Having said that she's quite good in this film and not too mannered. Nice to have religion thrown in the mix and forgiveness. I didn't like this movie when I was younger because it is so talky but as an older adult I can now appreciate the themes. And fashion being my primary love...well, the clothes are quite nice and I don't think the movie said who designed them.
Oh, and a quirky note. I think Bette is GREAT in Beyond the Forest----and I don't mean campy great either. I thought her anger and frustration were dead on.

Movie Review: A VERY DIFFERENT FILM FOR BETTE DAVIS
Summary: 4 Stars

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 examination of relationships between 2 very ordinary souls. An added bonus is a beautiful Max Steiner score. This one is well worth watching.

Movie Review: NOT BETTE'S BEST
Summary: 3 Stars

I cannot add anything to the plot synopses detailed here by other reviewers. All I have to say about this film is that it is indeed worth a look, if simply to see Bette Davis past her prime years at Warner Bros.

The film is talky and if you can sit through it all in one sitting without snoozing from time to time....(I had to watch it four times before I could see it all .....)....you are a great Bette Davis fan and my hat is off to you!

This film does have its memorable moments and it is interesting to watch Davis subdued and restrained. The last shot of the film is particularly moving.

It is no surprise that this film did not do well at the box office when it was released in 1948. Jack Warner, head of production at Warners was tired of Bette at this point and it would only take two more films before he was rid of her. Studio politics were rampant in Hollywood and forgetting all the millions she made for the studio in the past, relegated her to mediocrity in films like Winter Meeting.

However, the film does have its merits....the acting is good (Davis pulls it up to her level and Jim Davis is properly convincing as a war hero torn between a vocation for marriage and a vocation to the priesthood.)

Davis made far worse debacles in her career and this film is different because it features Bette in a 'quiet' role for a change.......not one full of hammy mannerisms that tended to taint a lot of her other performances. But as she once said, "MY acting hammy is what the public expects". It is interesting to see a different side of her.

Movie Review: A DAVIS CURIO.
Summary: 3 Stars

Based upon a novel by Ethel Vance, this movie has long been hailed as a "turkey" and the "talkiest piece of 1948". WINTER MEETING however, if anything, confirmed Davis as the best actress of her time. In her imperious moments, she is mannered, but in her quieter moments, there is no one as relaxed or able to suggest a "thinking woman". She plays a spinster publisher involved with a naval hero (Jim Davis, later known as Jock Ewing on TV's DALLAS), a relationship likely to be futile, since he wants to become a priest. This actor's lumbering integrity is quite convincing, but at the time, he shared in the opprobrium cast upon the film by reviewers, possibly bewildered by a SUGGESTION of depth and an almost complete lack of melodrama. The ending is trite, but under Bretaigne Windust's (what a name!) direction, the film is sharp on certain strata of New York society, and Catherine Turney's dialogue, if anything, avoids cliches. In other words, it's a rather implausible and mediocre curiousity for those in the mood to listen to some very classy (albeit very twenties - almost Noel Cowardish) dialogue eloquently spoken by La Davis.

Movie Review: SO SO FILM...GREAT CAST
Summary: 3 Stars

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 and finds herself falling in love. She is brought up short, however, when he discloses that he always wanted to be a priest and appears to be in some personal turmoil over it. Shortly after his disclosure, he suddenly pulls the rug out from under Susan. What follows is somewhat difficult to fathom and the movie, which had started out promisingly, begins to collapse. The only thing that saves the film are the wonderful performances by the cast.

Ms. Davis gives a memorable performance as a woman who comes out of her shell and becomes more three dimensional. James Davis is credible as an angst ridden war hero who falls in love with the reluctant Susan, who, as the viewer discovers, has her own secret, inner turmoil. John Hoyt is delightful as Susan's well to do, dapper and socially prominent confidant and friend. Janis Paige, as a young working woman on the make, succeeds in her role. Unfortunately, the screen play misses its mark and, what could have been a great movie, is merely mediocre, worthy only for the notable performances given by the cast. The performance by Ms. Davis, in particular, makes the film worth watching, despite the somewhat plodding script.

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