The Great Lie
| The Great Lie | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Edmund Goulding |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Screenplay by | Lenore J. Coffee |
| Based on |
January Heights 1936 novel by Polan Banks |
| Starring |
Bette Davis George Brent Mary Astor |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
| Edited by | Ralph Dawson |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $689,253 |
The Great Lie is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel January Heights by Polan Banks.
When concert pianist Sandra Kovak (Mary Astor) and her aviator husband Peter Van Allen (George Brent) discover their impulsive marriage is invalid because her divorce had not been finalized before they wed, he leaves her and marries his old flame Maggie Patterson (Bette Davis). Peter travels to Brazil on business and, when his aircraft goes missing, it is presumed it crashed in the jungle and he was killed.
Sandra discovers she is pregnant by Peter, and Maggie proposes she be allowed to raise the child as her own in exchange for taking care of Sandra financially. The two women go to Arizona to await the birth, and Sandra delivers a boy who is named after his father.
Sandra embarks upon a world tour, during which Peter, who survived the crash, returns home, and Maggie leads him to believe the boy is theirs. Sandra, wanting both father and son for herself, taunts Maggie that Peter has remained with her only because of the boy and demands she confess she misled him. When Maggie explains the true situation, Peter is shocked by Sandra's behavior and announces she can take the baby but he will remain with Maggie. Sandra, accepting the fact Peter truly loves Maggie and knowing she will be a far better mother to the child, takes her leave.
After completing The Letter, Bette Davis vacationed in New Hampshire, and upon her return to Hollywood she was offered the role of Maggie Peterson in The Great Lie. "I wasn't very excited about it," she later recalled, but fan mail urging her to play a nice role for a change of pace prompted her to accept. "Maggie was one of the few times I played a character basically like myself off the screen," she said. The chance to play a sympathetic character was appealing as fan mail had been universally calling for her to be "nice."
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Wikipedia