In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and rivals in romance and life. Raoul Walsh also worked as director, taking over when Huston was called away for a war assignment after the United States entered World War II, but he was uncredited. This film was the third of six films that de Havilland and Davis starred in together.
Completed in 1942, the film was disapproved in 1943 for foreign release by the wartime Office of Censorship, because it dealt truthfully with racial discrimination as part of its plot.
Plot
In Richmond, Virginia, Asa (Frank Craven) and Lavinia (Billie Burke) (née Fitzroy) Timberlake gave their two daughters male names: Roy (Olivia de Havilland) and Stanley (Bette Davis). The movie opens with the young women as adults. Asa Timberlake has recently lost his piece of a tobacco company to his former partner William Fitzroy (Charles Coburn), his wife's brother. Roy, a successful interior decorator, is married to Dr. Peter Kingsmill (Dennis Morgan). Stanley is engaged to progressive attorney Craig Fleming (George Brent). One evening, during the week before her wedding, Stanley runs off with Roy's husband, Peter. Craig becomes depressed, but Roy decides to keep a positive, although somewhat hardened, attitude. After Roy divorces Peter, he and Stanley (Bette Davis) marry and move to Baltimore.
After some time, Roy (Olivia de Havilland) encounters a depressed and aimless Craig, sitting dejectedly on a park bench. Observing his sad and neglected appearance, she encourages him to move on and embrace life, and they soon begin dating. Roy refers a young black man named Parry Clay (Ernest Anderson), to Craig, who subsequently hires Parry to work in his law office while attending law school. Parry is the son of Minerva Clay (Hattie McDaniel), the Timberlake's long time family maid.
William Fitzroy, Lavinia's brother and Asa's former partner in a tobacco business, doted on his niece Stanley and gave her expensive presents and money, and was very upset when she ran off. He says he will throw Craig some of his legal business if he agrees to stop representing poor clients. When Craig refuses, Roy is impressed and decides to accept him in marriage.
In Baltimore, Stanley (Bette Davis) and Peter's marriage suffers from his heavy drinking, and her excessive spending. Deeply depressed, Peter takes his own life. Shaken, Stanley returns to her home town with Roy. After she recovers, Stanley decides to win back Craig. While discussing her late husband's life insurance with Craig at his office, Stanley invites him to join her later for dinner. When he fails to come to the restaurant, she gets drunk. While driving home, she hits a mother and her young daughter, severely injuring the woman and killing the child. In a panic, Stanley drives away.