It's been what, 4 months since we started posting on this blog, right? Well, I think it's about time we had a post that talked about the legendary and talented Bette Davis -- who happens to be at the very top of my all time favorite list!
I get the impression that Bette Davis is an acquired taste for many Baby Boomers. Aside from the mature gay men I know, I don't frequently find many folks who are die-hard Bette Davis fans, like me. Yes, it's a different style of acting but it was grand style, to be sure! The characters are unforgettable and form a long list of well-known names – Margo Channing, Charlotte Vale, Fannie (Mrs.) Skeffington, Julie Marsden and yes, even "Baby Jane" Hudson.
If you watch "All About Eve" (1950) and apply today's movie standards, it is an absolute hoot! Who could forget the immortal line, delivered by the argumentative Bette to her boyfriend Bill (her then real life boyfriend Gary Merrill), as she walks into the room just before Bill's birthday party begins, "Fasten your seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Anne Baxter as Eve and George Sanders as Addison De Witt also deliver some memorable lines. It's very soap opera-ish, very 40s/50s and quintessentially Bette! I've always thought the plot had many similarities to Bette's life – a prolific, highly praised, controversial and rapidly aging actress (Bette was 42 and pretty much washed up in Hollywood at the time) pushed off the pedestal by a younger, prettier and more energetic actress. I watch this movie EVERY time it's on TV ..., which is quite often, since my default TV channel is Turner Classic Movies. You can't take your eyes off her. There's also a nice turn by Celeste Holm as Margo's friend Karen. A classic movie if ever there was. One of my all time top three films.
Just as soap opera-ish, but 8 years earlier, is "Now, Voyager" from 1942. Bette, in her mid-30s, was in her prime and at her most beautiful (to my eye). With Paul Henreid and Claude Rains, two of Bette's favorite leading men, this is the famous “two-cigarette" movie that the boys go to see in "Summer of '42". The story: A depressed and dowdy spinster suffers a nervous breakdown. After a stint at a "rest home" she emerges a dazzling, if diffident, woman, who, during a South American cruise, meets a married man with a troubled home life. Although a love story, the movie also chronicles the psychologically tumultuous relationship between a wealthy, overbearing and unsy
mpathetic matriarch (Gladys Cooper at her bitchiest) with her newly confident and slightly rebellious daughter (Bette). In the “Summer of ‘42”, Hermie and Benjie were enthralled by the movie – and so am I. Lest I finish this paragraph without quoting the famous last line of the movie; standing on a balcony in the moonlight with Paul Henreid, who has just lit two cigarettes, Bette chides him after he wishes they could spend the rest of their lives together, "Jerry, let's not ask for the stars, we have the moon!" Depending on my mood, this is either my #1 or #2 Bette Davis vehicle.
Together again with Claude Rains, who plays the part of "Mr. Skeffington", this is a dark movie for its time and for Bette. Bette plays an unsympathetic woman who marries her brother's boss to save her brother from going to jail after he embezzles a large sum of money from his employer. Bette ages 50 years in the movie and although her shrewish character is not very likeable, you've got to marvel at her transformation and her ability to become the character – heavy make-up and all. This movie doesn’t make my Top 10 list but it’s definitely a “Bitchy Bette” movie. A must see for anyone with a penchant for movies about strong-willed and determined woman. No memorable lines but yet again, another wonderful Claude Rains performance (I really like him!)
We take another step backward in time, now to 1938 and “Jezebel”. It’s a pre-Civil War period movie in which a 30-year-old Bette passes plausibly as a 19 year old in love with Henry Fonda, although she does everything to rebuke his advances – it’s all so very “Come here, I hate you – Go away, I love you”. The characters are every bit “Gone with the Wind” types, and Bette won the Best Actress Oscar in 1938 for her portrayal of the quintessential southern vixen, just as Vivien Leigh did for her 1939 portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind”. Favorite line: Bette to her Aunt Belle, as she prepares to go to the Debutante Ball in a fabulous, but politically incorrect gown, “ This is 1852, not the Dark Ages” – that’s such an unexpected line in a movie that takes place in the 1850s. My favorite scene: A headstrong Bette goes to the Debutante Ball in a flaming red dress, stunning everyone at the ball and shaming herself in the process (she was expected to wear white). Another one of Bette’s favorite boys, George Brent as a man she pretends to love, is in the movie.
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the same movie – does it get any better than that? Campy and creepy, “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” is a triumph of Bette over the Beast (at least as far as her make-up is concerned). You gotta give it to her – how many actresses would allow themselves to be made-up quite so ghoulishly in an effort to augment the character’s disturbing behavior and eccentricities? When I first saw this movie as a young boy of nine at the Strand Theatre in Keyport, NJ, I was petrified by it [Remember those days, when there were no movie ratings and a kid could get into any movie? Not long after that, I started buying my own (our own) cigarettes!] Joan
Crawford tied and bound by Bette, hanging from the ceiling, like a steer being readied for slaughter. Bette’s performance is a tour de force, perhaps inspired by the fact that Bette and Joan hated each other – there was a very long history of animosity between them and lots of public jabs. You have to wonder about the horrific and brutal scene where Bette kicks Joan mercilessly after she catches Joan using the phone – must’ve made Bette feel good that she got the better of Joan on the big screen! And how about the scene where Bette serves Joan a rat on a silver tray? Very scary! Piece of trivia: Bette did her own make-up in this flick. Keeping in mind that paybacks are a bitch, here's my little trivia quiz for you – can you match the character names with the movies that were mentioned?
The characters: Margo Channing, Charlotte Vale, Fannie (Mrs.) Skeffington, Julie Marsden and "Baby Jane" Hudson
The movies: “Now, Voyager”, “Jezebel”, “Mr. Skeffington”, “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” and “All About Eve”.
If you get stuck, there's always www.imdb.com.
Love you Syl, always have and always will!
No comments:
Post a Comment