The Whales of August gave two film legends parting gifts near the end of their lives: roles that most actresses their age could only dream about, fitting finales to the careers of two of the greatest talents the screen ever produced. Based on a 1981 play by David Berry, the film stars Lillian Gish and Bette Davis as octogenarian sisters spending what may be their last summer together in the family cottage on a remote island in Maine. Producer Mike Kaplan had met Gish years earlier when he worked as a publicist, and when he saw the play he realized it would be an ideal vehicle for the two elderly actresses. He did not even option the play until Gish had agreed to star. In poor health, Davis turned him down initially, but, desperate to work, finally agreed.

Gish, who was famously vague about her birth date, was variously reported to be eighty-eight or ninety years old when the film went into production in the autumn of 1986, but only admitted to eighty-six, claiming she was "as old as the century." Most reliable sources say she was actually ninety-three at the time. In spite her advanced years and two hip replacements, she was remarkably sturdy, and was entirely credible as Sarah (or as Davis pronounces it in the film, in an exaggerated down-east drawl, "SAY-rah"), the younger sister, though she was fifteen years older than Davis. At seventy-eight, Davis had serious health problems. A few years earlier she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone a mastectomy, then suffered a stroke that left one side paralyzed. She was frail, painfully thin, and walked with a limp, but in spite of her infirmities (or perhaps because of them) she remained imperious, demanding, and difficult. Yet she was still able to summon her strength and turn in a commanding, powerful performance.

The Whales of August was also a late-career high point for two other veterans from Hollywood's Golden Age. Ann Sothern, in a charmingly characteristic portrayal that is at once warm and tart, plays a nosy neighbor; and in a most uncharacteristic but delightful performance, the once-menacing Vincent Price is a courtly, impoverished Russian. British director Lindsay Anderson told People magazine, "When Ann appeared on the set, the whole atmosphere lightened up. She brought her own poker chips and played cards with the crew." Sothern earned a supporting actress Oscar® nomination for her performance. Sothern too had health issues--she had suffered a broken back in an accident. Roughing it during location shooting in Maine was often challenging for the wobbly actresses. Sothern and Gish played one scene standing on a windswept bluff with uneven terrain. Just out of camera range were crew members prostrate on the ground, holding the women's ankles so they wouldn't topple.

A Peoplemagazine profile of Gish published at the time of The Whales of August's release detailed the push-and-pull rivalry between the notoriously volatile Davis and the deceptively gentle Gish. According to the article, Davis demanded, and got, first billing. Gish brushed that off, saying "It's the work I love, not the glory." But Gish could also be slyly passive-aggressive when necessary. As Kaplan noted in an interview, "inside that lace glove is a hand of steel." After one Davis tantrum, Gish commented, "Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman, how she must be suffering! I don't think it's right to judge a person like that." Gish was somewhat deaf, but seemed to have no problem hearing Sothern or Price when she had scenes with them. But when Davis was being particularly abrasive during their scenes together, Gish would not respond to her cues, complaining she couldn't hear what her co-star was saying. Gish wasn't the only one fed up with Davis's rudeness. When director Lindsay Anderson tried suggesting a line reading or gesture to Davis, she retorted, "That's nonsense!" Three weeks into shooting, Anderson wrote in his diary, "Bette Davis has been so destructive this week, so fatiguing to everyone, that we desperately need a break." The Whales of August was Anderson's first, and as it turned out, his only American film.

For all her temperament, Davis was enough of a pro to (grudgingly) give credit when it was due. One of the most quoted stories from the production of The Whales of August was when Anderson praised a Gish close-up. Davis snapped, "Of course it's good, she invented them!" Davis was the only one of the actors who watched the rushes, and when she saw how well the film was working, she felt more secure and was freer with compliments, calling up Sothern and saying "Ann, I just saw the rushes--it's the nuts!"

Most reviews for The Whales of August had faint praise for the wispy story, but raved about the performances. David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor called it "a delicate and humane drama," but found it "not correspondingly original or stirring," However, he added, "Gish is simply luminous....[Davis's] portrayal...is eccentric but suited to the character's own oddities and can be counted as a firm if offbeat success." According to the Washington Post's Rita Kempley, the stars "rise above the tenuous material set before them....Gish, the eternal innocent, and Davis, the enduring shrew, couldn't be better suited to these rare, geriatric roles....Gish's inner beauty still shines through as it did when she was D.W. Griffith's favorite leading lady. And Davis, with her ravaged face, controls a scene as easily as she did 40 years ago... bristling gleefully with anger and lingering vanity."

The Whales of August was Davis's last completed film. She appeared in one more movie, Wicked Stepmother, but was unable to finish it, walking off the film rather than admit she could no longer work. She died in 1989. Gish's final professional appearance was at the world premiere of The Whales of August in October of 1987. She died in 1993, eight months short of her 100th birthday.

Director: Lindsay Anderson
Producer: Carolyn Pfeiffer, Mike Kaplan
Screenplay: David Berry, based on his play
Cinematography: Mike Fash
Editor: Nicolas Gaster
Art Direction: Jocelyn Herbert
Music: Alan Price
Principal Cast: Bette Davis (Libby Strong), Lillian Gish (Sarah Webber), Vincent Price (Mr. Maranov), Ann Sothern (Tisha Doughty), Harry Carey Jr. (Joshua Brackett)(
90 minutes

by Margarita Landazuri