Mr. Skeffington

Mr. Skeffington (1944)

She was lucky that Mr. Skeffington was such a gentleman!

A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.

Date of release
1944-05-25
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (78)
Runtime
2h 25m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Vincent Sherman

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Mr. Skeffington is a 1944 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman, based on the 1940 novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim.

Production

Julius Epstein said "They had four or five scripts that had never been made, including one by Edmund Goulding and one by John Huston. We took a look at Mr. Skeffington and said, ‘First of all, it shouldn’t be English; it should be made with an American family. Secondly, the trick of the book was that its title was Mr. Skeffington, and he never appeared in the book. He should be a character in the movie.’ And it was made."

Paul Henreid says he was offered the male lead but turned it down as he felt he would not be convincing as a man who looked on passively while his wife had affairs.

According to the 1989 book Bette & Joan: The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine, Davis was going through intense personal torments at this time, which was reflected in her treatment of co-stars on this film, and several others at the time, culminating in a vicious personal attack. Apparently, while Davis was away from her dressing room, the eyewash she always used after filming the day's scenes had been poisoned, causing Davis to scream out in pain.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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