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So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

First off you get Betty Davis who can deliver films up like a chocolate treat. Then the story is one to ponder and takes its place in the genre as part of lifes big picture and our personal journeys along the way. Two people meet and instead of selfish pursuits of which some takes place, they discover the true purpose of the meet to begin with but only after they have lived through it all. This concept can apply to all of our wanderings and gives us a reason to pause and ponder while pursuing things and going from point A to point B. Nicely done talkative film and acted out to perfection this leaves you with afterglow for watching it. For those that like to eat while watching (I do), nice scene with bacon and pancakes with hot maple syrup and delicious coffee. Have yours ready and join in or choose your own delight and go for it. Listen to the dialog, watch the scenes and receive this...

"Winter Meeting" is a film that doesn't add anything to Bette Davis' distinguished career in the movies. The melodrama is undermined by a completely miscast Jim Davis, who makes the picture worse than it deserved to be. The part of Slick Novak should have gone to another actor that could have added a few more sparks to the movie.As directed by Bretaigne Windust, "Winter Movie" is a dull attempt to bring the novel in which it's based to the screen. The adaptation leaves a lot to be desired.The basic problem with the film is one of credibility. We don't believe, for one second, Slick Novak, the hero Navy lieutenant would even look at Susan Grieve at all, let alone be romantically involved with her. It's easy for us to understand why Susan would make a fool of herself in letting Slick come into her life. After all, plain Susan was no competition for gorgeous Peggy, who is all over Slick at the night club, and clearly wants him. Stacy Grant, the man about town, kept reminding us of a subdued Waldo Lydecker, from "Laura", in the way he tries to get Susan under his influence. He wants to expose her to a society that she doesn't care to belong. This role was one of the ways Hollywood dealt with the subject of homosexuality in those days. Everyone knew about them, but the movie making people wanted to keep Stacy and his ilk in a permanent closet.Bette Davis underplays Susan with mixed results. Obviously, Ms. Davis had no influence for getting out of this second class melodrama unworthy of her talent. Then again, one questions her wisdom in letting a light weight actor like Jim Davis play opposite her, when it's clear he is not in her league.The wonderful John Hoyt makes the best out of Stacy Grant and Florence Bates, one of the best character actresses of that era, is fine as the housekeeper who knows a lot about the mistress of the house. Janis Paige, in all her beauty and youth, doesn't have much to do.This is a film to be seen as a curiosity more than a Bette Davis signature vehicle.

Stories of emotional restraint between two people who meet on a chance encounter and have a shaky chance of developing have been done numerous times with fantastic success. Acting styles in more recent times have allowed actors to convey their passions brimming just beneath the surface with minimal dialogue than to talk without pauses and have the background music express more dramatizing than a Beethovian concerto.WINTER MEETING is one of these earlier efforts. It tells the story of war hero Slick Novak (Jim Davis of "Dallas" fame) who returns to American soil and is introduced to famed poet Susan Grieve (Bette Davis), a woman who is faintly cynic about relationships. Though at first she seems indifferent to Novak, once he stays over it becomes clear that both share an attraction to each other. The following day they drive off to Connecticut where she used to live and on the way they discover their inner baggage.What should have been a better movie is reduced to a flat drama that starts off well during the first thirty minutes (and this includes Janis Paige stealing her scenes as Peggy Markham who is also attracted to Slick Novak) but slows down to a standstill once Susan and Slick start interacting on their own (and they're the only ones on screen for much of the film). A scene inside Susan's kitchen, though trying to convey commonplace events, just doesn't feel right. However both actors have an unspoken chemistry that in the hands of a less stagy and more cinematic director would have brought out better, more involved performances. I think of the possibilities of Susan telling her tragic story as the camera maintains a constant movement and ice rain falls, or if more hints on Novak's ultimate intentions would have been peppered throughout. Or if less on screen talk and more body language would have been shown, incorporating synchronized cuts and long takes during key moments, all leading to a crescendo which would make the viewer really care for the characters. For this, the actors would have had to been of the type who would smolder even when repressing their emotions and neither of the Davises were known for this kind of screen presence. Also, this kind of film would only surface about 10 years later under the form of Hiroshima MON AMOUR and used to perfection as IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. As such, WINTER MEETING remains confined to its stage and production values and while it's far from perfect, it has more pluses than minuses.

I really believe this film has never been appreciated as it should have been. Bette gives one of her most thoughtful, honest performances in this film. Jim Davis was definitely not the correct leading man for the role, but who would have been with such an awkwardly written role? The Hollywood of 1948 would never have allowed the filmmakers to approach the movie with the frank honesty it deserves. The love story needed to actually go further than it did in showing Bette's frigidity and James' struggles between religion and sex. The wonderful John Hoyt's role needed to be written more specifically as a gay man so that the relationship between he and Bette would have more depth. All in all, an awkwardly written film with some miraculous performances in the circumstances