The Great Lie (1941) on Netflix
Maggie Patterson marries Peter Van Allen after his marriage to the concert pianist Sandra Kovak proves invalid. His plane vanishes over Brazil, and Sandra learns she is pregnant by him.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.1/104,755 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sandra Kovak, a concert pianist, and the aviator Peter Van Allen marry, but the marriage is invalid because her divorce from an earlier husband was not final. Peter leaves her and marries Maggie Patterson, a woman he had loved before. Business takes him to Brazil, where his aircraft goes missing and is presumed to have crashed in the jungle. Sandra discovers she is pregnant by Peter, and Maggie, a newlywed, is told she has lost a husband.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Lie (1941)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The baby cast as the infant Peter was sick for much of the shoot, holding up filming, and when a nurse dropped him he was hurt so badly he had to be replaced; his parents then sued the studio.
- Mary Astor could play the piano, but in the concert scenes her piano was a dummy: Max Rabinovitch played a real one behind the scenes, and Astor matched his notes from the conductor's cues until the two were perfectly synchronized.
- Bette Davis and director Edmund Goulding argued so heatedly that Davis developed laryngitis and filming was suspended for two days.
- Bette Davis told co-star Mary Astor the picture was going to stink, and the two women set about cutting the soap-opera elements from their dialogue and creating business for their characters.
- Bette Davis thought Mary Astor the best of the actresses who tested for pianist Sandra Kovak, and insisted studio head Jack L. Warner test her again, playing the piano, when producer Hal B. Wallis seemed disinclined to offer her the role.
- Miriam Hopkins was ideal for Sandra Kovak but was never considered because of the problems she had created co-starring with Bette Davis in The Old Maid; Anna Sten, Sylvia Sidney, Muriel Angelus, Katherine Locke and Mary Astor all tested.
- Bette Davis was not excited about the role of Maggie, but fan mail urging her to play a nice role for a change of pace prompted her to accept.
