The Screen's Immortals... A movie you'll never forget.

A once-in-a-lifetime cast of veterans performs David Berry's play about Libby Strong (Bette Davis) and Sarah Webber (Lillian Gish), widowed sisters vacationing on a Philadelphia island for their 60th consecutive summer. Libby is blind and embittered, while Sarah is healthy, supportive, and almost annoyingly chipper. Their neighbor Tisha (Ann Sothern) tries to convince Sarah to put Libby in the care of her daughter, but Sarah hasn't forgotten Libby's moral support when her own husband died, and she won't entertain such notions -- until she is swept off her feet by an aging roué (Vincent Price). When Libby spitefully sabotages this romance, an infuriated Sarah decides that gratitude has its limits. But when it actually comes down to selling their summer house and sending Libby packing, Sarah can't do it. In the film's flashback sequences, Libby is played by Margaret Ladd, Sarah by Mary Steenburgen, and Tisha by Ann Sothern's real-life daughter Tisha Sterling. Another film personality of long standing, Harry Carey Jr., is well cast as the sisters' handyman.

The Whales of August is a 1987 film based on a play by David Berry and stars Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The house still stands and is a popular subject of artists on the island. The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, his final feature film, and the screenplay was adapted by David Berry from his own play.

Reviews for The Whales of August were mixed to positive. Rotten Tomatoes that out of 14 critics, 63% of them gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 6.2 out of 10.[1] Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, giving an opinion that the film was like no other of Lindsay Anderson's films he directed before, although Ebert thought it was not one of Anderson's greatest films.[2]

Although the film starred two of the screen's most important actresses in what would be near to their final film roles, it was not a substantial commercial success. Upon its release, it was widely tipped that either Davis or Gish would be rewarded, if not for their performances in this film, but for their longevity, with Academy Award nominations, but neither actress was nominated. Sothern received the only Academy Award nomination of her career in the category of Best Supporting Actress. The film was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[3]