A 1938 family melodrama starring Errol Flynn & Bette Davis revolving the love lives of 3 sisters at the turn of the last century beginning in all places a presidential inauguration ball. Following Davis & Flynn principally where his sports writer soon goes to pot when his writing career doesn't pan out. Davis ends up getting a job at a department store where she thrives as Flynn wallows in drink, feeling sorry for himself. Things come to a head when the tragic San Francisco earthquake hits trapping Davis in her building while Flynn tries to get back Stateside after he decides to become a merchant seaman. Ending where we began, at another president's celebratory gala, all the stories are wrapped up in a typically neat fashion. Not a bad film but it does suffer from being adapted, possibly from an important novel of the time by Myron Brinig (complete w/visual pages flashing on the screen when a new chapter begins), shoehorned into a slim running time which makes the finished product feel stuffy & compromised but the actors do acquit themselves well & if you get caught up in the sweep of things, then you're in luck. Also starring Donald Crisp as a friend of Flynn's, Henry Travers as the paterfamilias & Alan Hale Sr. As an older suitor of one of Davis' sisters.
Review of The Sisters
