Bette Davis gives a consummate performance as the lifelong spinster emerging from her confining chrysalis into the arms of Paul Henreid in this lush, beautifully acted movie. One of the all-time great weepies, it has gone down in the annals of cinema history for Henreid's lighting of two cigarettes scene and a tear-jerking speech from Davis, at her best in front of a moonlit sky. Irving Rapper's direction is suitably grand and cinematographer Sol Polito lights everything with an almost magical touch. This is a movie in which all the elements come together in perfect harmony to give an essentially hackneyed theme the imprint of greatness.

A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man she meets on a cruise.