While the premise sounded pretty old-hat and familiar and the title not particularly appetising (not to mention trusted reviewers not caring for it), 'Housewife' did have enough to make me want to see it. The main reasons being Bette Davis, an acting legend, and Ann Dvorak, always a pleasure to watch. But also because of my appreciation of the genre 'Housewife' fits under and of my love for classic, pre-1970s film (though my film taste is made up of all decades and genres).
'Housewife' though could have been so much better. It is watchable and does have its good things, including Davis and Dvorak. There is also though nothing much special in 'Housewife' and has a lot of major drawbacks, with the story almost single-handedly bringing the film down. All did much better work, performances and films, despite coming off quite well this is lesser early Davis in terms of films and even a lot of her previous films are better.
As said, Davis commands the screen without over-doing it, though to me it wasn't a going through the motions type of performance. The best performance as others have said belongs to Dvorak, a sheer delight and perhaps the best and only real exceptional thing about 'Housewife'. The film looks good and is amiably scored.
It does pick up in momentum a little in the middle act where things got more eventful. There are moments where the dialogue isn't too corny or overwrought.
The story sadly badly undoes 'Housewife'. It is a slow-starter and takes far too long to find its footing. For so much of the length, the story is very flimsy in content and what there is is so been there done that that there are so few surprises. Then the film gets very rushed and cramped towards the end, culminating in an "out of the blue", very silly and tacked on ending that doesn't ring true for a second.
George Brent is very take or leave for me generally as an actor, and here he came over as very bland as a character impossible to feel anything for. The direction is very routine at best, which is a good way to sum up too much of the pace too. The characters are sketchy and only Dvorak's has much likeability. The script was in sore need of a tightening up and wit.
All in all, watchable but a big disappointment. 5/10
