The Great Lie in its own way is quite daring for the time. There were not too many films in which motherhood was seen as a burden rather than a sacred obligation. In that sense Warner Brothers was taking quite a chance with this film.
The one thing I don't understand is Bette Davis taking the role of the noble one in the triangle that involves her with George Brent and Mary Astor. Astor's part is clearly the showier one which she proved by taking home the Best Supporting Actress for 1941. Perhaps it was simply a matter of screen time and that Davis was not going to be in support of anyone.
Be that as it may, The Great Lie involves a possible lie to come when a certain infant comes of age. George Brent's got both these women on the string. He marries Mary Astor who is a renowned concert pianist in a whirlwind courtship as soon as the ink on her divorce became dry.
Turns out it wasn't quite that dry yet. But nature taking its course Astor gets pregnant. But before she and we find that out, Brent whose marriage to Astor was technically invalid runs off with Davis who's a member of the rich Maryland horsey set.
Later on Brent goes missing in a plane crash in the Amazon rain forest and Davis comes up with a marvelous proposition. If Astor will give up the kid when it's born, she'll raise it as her own. Astor who is career minded to the last exponential degree agrees to this until Brent finds his way out of the rain forest.
The Great Lie is one potboiler melodrama which is lifted above its worth by these two women. Davis does what she can with the part, though I think she would have been better as the pianist. But Mary Astor just dominates the film. Her performance is the best thing by far in The Great Lie. This was the pinnacle year in Mary Astor's career. She also co-starred in 1941 in her best known screen part, that of Brigid O'Shaunessy in The Maltese Falcon.
Given the mores of the time there are only certain directions this plot can take. The Great Lie would be one great flop, but for Bette and Mary. See it for them.
