Review - The Whales of August

 August 8, 2024
 
Whales of August, The – 1987, US
 

It’s almost a cliché to say of a movie that they don’t make them like that anymore, but in the case of The Whales of August, the saying seems perfectly appropriate, for rarely does Hollywood make serious films about people in what is likely the last stage of their lives. Far more likely is the film about elderly people having one last blast in the land of sin, for who can resist seeing Hollywood’s elderly statesmen getting drunk, taking drugs, and engaging in sex with much younger women? (If you look at the box office results of movies that match that description, the answer is apparently a lot of people, but I digress.)
 
The Whales of August brought together four living legends: Bette Davis, Lilian Gish, Vincent Price, and Ann Sothern. While Davis would make one other film before her death in 1989, The Whales of August would be the cinematic finale for both Gish and Sothern. Price would continue working until 1993, the year when both he and Gish passed away. Rounding out the cast is Harey Carey Jr., who, like Gish, has been appearing in movies since the Silent Era. Put together, those five individuals have just under 700 screen credits, a number I doubt we’ll ever see again in a single cast, especially in an age when A-Listers make far fewer movies than they used to.
 
The Whales of August, based on David Barry’s 1984 play of the same name, is about two sisters, Elizabeth “Libby” Strong (Davis) and Sarah Webber (Gish) who live in their childhood home on Cliff Island in Maine. In the film’s opening scene, we see them as young women running to the edge of a cliff to watch the annual arrival of the whales. There is joy in their expressions, and each one is anxious for her turn looking through the binoculars. The scene is short, but it perfectly exemplifies the innocence of youth and the excitement with which the young greet experiences that they will likely later regard as ordinary. There is a third lady with them. Later, she is revealed to be Tisha Doughty, a lifelong friend of Sarah’s, who later walks with a cane and many of whose actions may have an ulterior motive.
 
When we next see the two sisters, we observe that life has taken quite a toll on them. Libby is now blind, controlling, and bitter, while Sarah is sweet, yet unappreciated. She seems to be constantly at Libby’s beck and call, and her patient expressions are undercut by flashes of frustration. We learn they are both widows, Sarah’s husband having died in the Second World War, Libby’s much later. Sarah wears her emotions on her sleeve, and we feel the regret that she had so little time with her late husband. Watching her, I felt certain that she and her late husband had still been in the honeymoon stage of their relationship when he passed away. On the anniversary of their wedding, she turns a section of her house into a scene from a cinematic love story, even going so far as to fill a vase with a white rose for truth and a red rose for passion – two qualities that her husband had stressed were important in a relationship.
 
Into this domestic powder keg steps Baron Maranov (Price), a Russian emigrant with family ties to the deposed czar. Mr. Maranov is old school, chivalrous, and polite, and at several points in the film, he is referred to as the last living gentlemen. In other words, he is the kind of character who could come between two friends, especially given the loneliness we see in Sarah. He could easily be the villain of the piece, yet Barry wisely elects to make him a sympathetic character, an older man just looking for security and companionship. Consider what life has in store for him if he fails.
 
As I watched the film, I could understand the rationale for each of the characters in a way that I may not have been able to had I seen it in my twenties. I have learned over the years that there are choices we make to stave off loneliness and destitution – we may stay in unsatisfying relationships, remain at jobs we hate, reside in cities we have grown tired of, or put up with the kind of treatment that we may have walked away from in our earlier years. When we’re young, it is easier to start anew, for we’re filled with confidence and vigor. Later, there are other matters to consider, in particular, financial considerations.
 
Director Lindsay Anderson shows great patience as a director. He uses longer takes to give the cast time to flesh out their characters, and he edits conversations in a way that creates the illusion that we are watching a single take. Another important decision that both Anderson and Barry made was not to add flashbacks. We hear of marriages, deaths, and years apart, but we don’t see them. Anderson trusts that the audience will care enough about the characters to pick up the clues for themselves, and it is the right decision. All we need are close-ups of Gish, Davis, and Price to understand what has been lost and what they need to go on.
 
The Whales of August is an insightful film that I expect to remain relevant in the years to come because at some point we will all be one or all of these characters. Sadly, time spares no one. What Anderson has shown us though is that there is dignity in perseverance and that people deserve empathy on this journey. It is telling then that the film ends with Libby and Sarah looking out at the sea for the whales that have not been absent for years. There is still hope, and they will find a way to persevere. (on DVD and Blu-ray)
 
4 stars

Review - Ex-Lady

February 24, 2019

Ex-Lady – U.S., 1933

There’s was something about Bette Davis that just screamed rebel. You can see it in her eyes, even when she’s smiling, that expression that conveys an unwillingness to settle for whatever society expects of her as a result of her gender. In fact, if her character never offered a line of explanation, we would know it was there, acting as her impetus. Davis was so good in this role that if you were to describe a character in an old movie as driven and non-conforming in both her career and pre-marital relationships, Davis would likely be one of the first actresses you’d picture in the role.    

Robert Florey’s Ex-Lady, Davis’s fifteenth film, finds her playing a headstrong artist named Helen Bauer. In two early scenes, we watch as Helen explains to her boyfriend and then to her father that she has no interest in marriage and its trappings. In her words, she wants to stay her a bit longer. Of course, such a bold decision leaves her vulnerable to the advances of..well, pretty much every man she meets, be he single or married. Interestingly, she is able to rebuff double entendres and indecent proposals so skillfully that her pursuers never really feel personally rejected.

Helen’s beau is Don Peterson (Gene Raymond), and he is not quite as opposed to marriage as Helen. And for good reason. While there’s intrigue and excitement in a secret relationship initially, after a while what was once glorious can begin to lose its luster. After all, Don probably reasons, why must two people as truly in love as they obviously are keep their feelings a secret?  So, after a rather casual proposal of marriage is turned down, Don ends their relationship and storms out. This can’t last, of course – they miss each other too much for that, so soon we see them back in each other’s arms and agreeing to get married. In true rebel fashion, though, it is Helen who does the proposing this time. The rest of the film focuses on one central question: Was Helen’s initial rejection of marriage the right decision after all?

At just 67 minutes, Ex-Lady doesn’t have a moment to spare, and as a result, much of what follows their marriage feels rushed. We go from a newspaper announcement of their wedding (accompanied by a photo in which Helen feigns being a traditional wife) to a time when job stress and financial pressures have taken a toll on the couple’s witty banter and strong connection. This is realistic, but I would like to have seen what brought it on. In no time at all, we see Don brazenly flirting with another woman, and we’re left to wonder just what happened to his and Helen’s relationship. Later, we can be forgiven for wondering how they got it back, for just as quickly as temptation rears its rather attractive head, the two of them are back in each other’s arms whispering sweet-nothing’s in the other’s ear. Perhaps it is as simple as that old axiom absence makes the heart grow fonder.

However, if that is indeed the film’s message, it is a bit of a cop-out, a band aid placed on a sore that is quick bigger and more deeply bruised than one might care to admit. Let’s start with Helen’s abhorrence of marriage. Just where did it originate? Does it have something to do with her seemingly weak and submissive mother? Maybe, but we only have one very brief scene to justify that impression on  As for Don’s sudden change of heart on marriage, the film offers no explanation either. And just why does Helen, as liberated a character as I can remember in a film from this time period, seem to accept Don’s disrespect and disloyalty? It seems more in character for her to just walk away, while confidently proclaiming that a man who doesn’t respect her doesn’t deserve her.

I have a theory about this, of course, and it goes something like this. For all their breaking of cinematic taboos regarding content and immorality, the films from the Pre-Code days could still be rather conventional in that they gave viewers what they felt they wanted in the end – happy endings for heroes, death or capture for villains, love and marriage for the attractive leads, justice for the morally fallen. Perhaps America wasn’t ready to hear other messages – that sometimes marriages fall apart, that criminals aren’t always caught and brought to justice, and that not everyone yearns to fit society’s conventions. Maybe that is why Ex-Lady spends over an hour establishing a character for whom traditional relationships may not be the answer, only for her to accept one at the very end and smile in such a way as to reinforce the old adage that all a woman needs to be happy and safe is a husband. As I said, it’s a cop-out, but an understandable one. You can’t expect today’s such personal narrative complexities in a film from an earlier, much more innocent time – cinematically speaking, that is.

In the end, Ex-Lady is a decent film about a pair of likable characters in a rather compelling situation. Florey gets great performances from Davis and Raymond, who have real chemistry in early scenes, and he perfectly convey the strain they are under later on. He also demonstrates a knack for shooting meaningful close-ups, ones in which characters’ silence, subtle glances, and stillness are incredible revealing. He doesn’t get everything right. There are a few eccentric characters that I could have done without, in particular, Don’s friend Ben. However, there’s a gravity to the film. As its dramatic climax demonstrates, the world was not always decent to single woman, and marriage did provide cover from some of its dangers. Still, by ending with such a crowd-pleasing manner, the film negates much of what was most interesting about it earlier, settling finally on a message that is decidedly neutered. A product of its time perhaps, yet a pretty good one regardless. (on DVD as part of Forbidden Hollywood Volume 7)

3 and a half stars