THE WHALES OF AUGUST. (1987) DIRECTED BY LINDSAY ANDERSON.
BASED ON THE STAGE PLAY BY DAVID BERRY.
MUSIC BY ALAN PRICE OF THE BAND, ‘THE ANIMALS.’
STARRING LILLIAN GISH, BETTE DAVIS, VINCENT PRICE AND ANN SOTHERN.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
I probably wouldn’t recommend this gentle drama to a bunch of lads on a stag night, but it’s a lovely enjoyable ‘wimmin’s’ film and I was delighted to see it for the first time on the big screen recently. It was part of the recent, much-welcome Bette Davis season in my local cinema.
Other films I saw included JEZEBEL, NOW VOYAGER and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? The latter was superb fun to watch on the big screen, and I kind of envied the peeps who were getting to see it this way for their first time.
When I arrived at the cinema to watch THE WHALES OF AUGUST, the place was jam-packed, with literally dozens of people milling around the lobby. I was thrilled that so many folks had turned out to see such a sweet but iconic old movie, until it turned out that all these people were there to watch Liam GAME OF THRONES Cunningham give an acting masterclass, lol.
Me and the bunch of old dears with tickets for WHALES were ushered through another door and up the stairs into a smaller screening room, but not before I’d yoo-hoo’d at Liam Cunningham and got a wink, a grin and a wave from him, which made my daughter, a huge GOT fan, positively seethe with jealousy when I acted it out for her later…!
Anyway, the film takes place over the course of a single day. Two ancient sisters, Sarah-Jane and Libby, are summering in the island cottage they’ve summered in since they were children. Star of the silent screen Lillian Gish, aged ninety-three at the time, plays the sweet-natured Sarah-Jane, who cares for her cranky and bitter younger sister Libby, portrayed by Bette Davis, Queen of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
The cottage is on Cliff Island in Maine, and it’s a stunningly beautiful spot to set a film about love, loss, the power of memories and maybe, too, the power of tolerance and forgiveness.
The blue sea sparkles like shimmering diamonds and the cottage on the beach is surrounded by the most beautiful flowers and trees, all dancing and swaying like hula girls in the fresh ocean breeze. The sun is shining and the day is, quite simply, glorious.
The sisters are approaching the end of their long lives. They still mourn the loss of dead husbands and absent children. Illness and infirmity, including blindness, have made Libby bitter, cantankerous and difficult to please. Sarah-Jane is considering turning the care of Libby over to Libby’s daughter Anna, though Libby and Anna don’t get on.
The sisters have different attitudes to life and death, which is perfectly illustrated by the following plot point. Sarah-Jane wants a big picture window at the front of the house. Through it, she will be able to properly admire the gorgeous sea view.
Libby, who dreams about Death coming for her and Sarah, says they’re too old and too poor for a window like that and they won’t even have time to enjoy it. Sarah-Jane basically replies by saying that she’s not dead yet and has lots more life left in her, even if Libby does not. Libby would want to think very carefully before she rejects the picture window out of hand…
Three visitors liven up the day for the old ladies, who live very quietly in their little wooden cabin filled with knick-knacks and photo frames with pictures of loved ones and other kinds of memorabilia. First of these is the handyman Joshua Brackett, whose noise and clatter and bustle around the house provide most of the comic relief.
Then there is Mrs. Tisha Benson-Doughty, played by another old Hollywood actress, Ann Sothern. She’s eighty years old here but looks at least a decade younger. Tisha has lots of life left in her too, like Sarah-Jane, despite having to walk with a stick.
She’s more Sarah’s friend than the abrupt and often rude Libby’s, and she provides a listening ear for Sarah when Libby is being particularly fractious. She also supports the idea of Sarah’s selling the cottage and moving in with her, Tisha, after Libby has been parcelled off to her daughter Anna’s. It’s not likely that Sarah will actually abandon Libby, as she feels all the usual sisterly guilt about her, but it’s nice to fantasise.
Lastly, we have Nicholas Maranov, a pleasant-natured gentleman and former Russian aristocrat whose landlady has just expired, so he’s on the hunt for somewhere to live.
He is played by the wonderful Vincent Price, probably best known for his performance in such horror films as HOUSE OF WAX (1953), THE FLY (1958) and THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959), and also for the Edgar Allan Poe cycle of films he made with director Roger Corman. He was also an art historian and collector, and a gourmet cook who penned a cookery book; he had many strings to his bow!
He was seventy-eight years old when he played Mr. Maranov, who is charming and personable and easy to talk to. He’s the kind of fellow who calls women ‘dear lady’ and kisses their hand.
Sarah-Jane really likes him and his olde-worlde courtesy, though Libby is as prickly, rude and hostile to him as she is to everyone else. Libby’s rudeness, however, doesn’t prevent Sarah-Jane and Mr. Maranov from spending one wonderful evening together under the moonlight, the serious moonlight…
Mary Steenburgen, Margaret Ladd (Emma Channing from Falcon Crest) and Ann Sothern’s actual real-life daughter Tisha Sterling play the two sisters and their friend Tisha Benson in their youth, with their masses of ringlets, picture hats and white dresses with the ribbons round the waist.
They are running down to the beach to greet the arrival of the titular whales in the month of August, though you don’t really see any whales, my one beef with an otherwise perfect film. Whales would have been cool.
The film can’t help but make you aware of the looming spectre of death that comes for us all. Ann Sothern did actually walk with a stick at that point in her life, due to an accident, and poor Bette Davis’s face bears the sad and unmistakable evidences of stroke.
Lillian Gish was born in 1893, and was a star of the silent screen before transitioning to talkies. She has come under fire for having acted in ‘the most racist film of all time,’ D.W. Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), but, on the plus side, she and her younger sister Dorothy were the founders of an annual prize given to ‘a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.’ Swings and roundabouts, folks. Swings and roundabouts…
sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris 