Film

Old Acquaintance

Name: Old Acquaintance
Genre: Drama
Released: 1943
Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Moran

Drama

A perfectly calibrated drama about two women writers whose fierce friendship survives success, betrayal, and the weight of their own ambitions. Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins crackle with intelligence and spite. It's a film about how thoroughly you can know someone and still wound them, how friendship endures not despite conflict but sometimes because of it. Sharply written, beautifully acted, genuinely funny.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sharp, talky melodrama where two strong women trade barbs out of love for each other and for the page, and where old rivalries carry real weight.

Skip it if you want brisk pacing or modern restraint, since its emotions are big, its rooms are stagey, and its feuds play out in long, ornate speeches.

What it asks of you: Settle in for roughly two hours of sustained, heightened talk, with few quiet moments and a tone that swings between cutting wit and raw hurt.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

All About Eve1950

The spiritual successor to Old Acquaintance: cattier, more baroque, obsessed with the damage ambitious women do to each other. Bette Davis is magnificent and vicious. If you loved the competitive edge between Kit and Millie, this will destroy you.

But It's a film about theatre people being theatrical, which can feel exhausting if you're not in the mood for that particular register of drama and backstabbing.

The Letter1940

Also stars Bette Davis at her most lethal—a woman who commits murder and then has to watch her life collapse under the weight of it. Taut, morally complex, expertly plotted. Davis is operating at peak intelligence.

But It's considerably darker than Old Acquaintance and builds toward tragedy rather than reconciliation. The pacing is deliberate, which some find slow.

Now, Voyager1942

Bette Davis again, this time playing transformation and self-discovery. It has the same emotional intelligence as Old Acquaintance but tilts toward uplift rather than conflict. Beautifully constructed, genuinely moving.

But It's a softer film, more romance-adjacent. If you came for the sharp verbal combat, you might find this too earnest.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Old Acquaintance

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Killing of Sister George1968

Both films understand that women's friendships and intimacies are a legitimate site for drama equal to any romance, and both refuse to make that palatable.

A brutal, explicit film about two women whose relationship is imploding—one a famous actress, one her lover. It takes the subtext of Old Acquaintance and makes it text. Beryl Reid and Susannah York are extraordinary. It's angry and vulnerable and makes no apologies.

But It's a film about a lesbian relationship from 1968, which means it's unflinching in ways that can be uncomfortable. There's genuine cruelty on screen, and the ending is bleak.

The Women1939

An all-female cast ripping each other apart over men, marriage, and status. Faster and meaner than Old Acquaintance, a comedy that doesn't soften its edges. Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell at war.

But It's a film from 1939 about women competing over husbands, which means the values can feel quaint or grating depending on your tolerance for that particular worldview.

Dangerous1935

Bette Davis in an earlier, rawer version of the role she'd play for decades—the ambitious, talented woman willing to burn bridges. She won the Oscar for this. It has urgency and real consequence.

But The film is visibly older and moves at a different pace. Some scenes feel stagy in a way that might read as dated rather than theatrical.

Strangers When We Meet1960

A sharp, intelligent drama about two people who know each other inside and out but can't be together. It's less flashy than Old Acquaintance but explores similar emotional terrain with real subtlety.

But It's fundamentally a film about an affair, and if the premise bores you, no amount of good writing will fix that. The pacing is measured.

A Stolen Life1946

Bette Davis plays twins with opposing natures, one good and one ruthless. It's a direct exploration of how the same DNA can produce radically different moral choices. Rich, unusual material.

But The dual role, while clever, can read as gimmicky. The film asks you to accept some plot mechanics that strain credibility.

Hud1963

A family drama where everyone is right and everyone is wrong, where love and contempt can coexist. Paul Newman as a man you can neither respect nor entirely dismiss. Morally unforgiving in the best way.

But It's a slow burn about disappointment. There's no catharsis, just the slow realization that some people will never change and you have to decide if you can live with that.

The Reckless Moment1949

A woman protecting her daughter makes a series of choices that bind her to a stranger. It's about how one decision can trap you, how secrets corrode relationships. Genuinely suspenseful and deeply sad.

But It's melodrama, which means it operates by its own emotional logic rather than realism. If you need everything to be plausible, you'll resent it.

Withnail & I1987

Both films nail the specific pain of knowing someone so well that they can hurt you in ways nobody else can, and both understand that this knowledge is also exactly why you can't leave.

Two men at odds with themselves and each other, bound by history and mutual failure. It's a comedy but shot through with genuine sadness—the knowledge that you're stuck with someone partly because there's no one else who knows you that well. Endlessly quotable and heartbreaking.

But It's British, it's a comedy about nothing happening, and if you're not in sync with its particular frequency, it will feel like a shaggy waste of time. Some find it too male-focused after the intimacy of Old Acquaintance.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Where Old Acquaintance is a classical drama about two women navigating ambition and friendship, Synecdoche is a postmodern explosion of the same idea—what happens when you make art out of the people you love, and they know it.

Charlie Kaufman's film about a theatre director creating a play about his life while his life collapses around him. It's formally wild and emotionally devastating—the kind of film that understands how ambition and relationship destroy each other in real time.

But It's deliberately confusing, self-referential to the point of vertigo, and ends in a place of total dissolution. If you want narrative clarity or emotional resolution, you will hate this.