Rather tacky melodrama. Beautiful and conceited Fanny mistreats poor, faithful and dull Skeffington, until she gets her comeuppance. Predictable and silly as a movie, but has some good Bette Davis scenery chewing. Fun in a campy kind of way.

Several great performances, led by Claude Rains, but also several jarring reminders of the film's age. Apparently the only cure for mental illness is a good man.

Anytime Hollywood gets on its high horse and tries to criticize something it holds dear (in this case, the obsession with beauty and appearances) it always strikes as more than a tad hypocritical. Nothing against Bette Davis, who seemed to be the only major actress of her era who repeatedly didn't mind being depicted in an unglamorous, even ugly, light. The alternative message the film proposes, that a woman is only beautiful when she is loved, doesn't redress the problem either.

"This is a star vehicle in extremis." - Dan Callahan