Bette Davis in In This Our Life, with Olivia de Havilland.
Bette Davis films on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ continues with a focus on the actress’ easily available Warner Bros. titles
No rare Bette Davis films on her Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” day, Saturday, Aug. 8.
That’s too bad, as TCM now has access to Columbia’s film library. They could have unearthed Davis’ early Columbia crime drama The Menace (1931), which isn’t very good, but it’s rare and it’s Bette Davis.
Also, there’s the little-seen, Columbia-distributed political drama Storm Center (1956), in which Davis is seen opposite Kim Hunter, who happened to be blacklisted during the anti-Red hysteria of the 1950s.
One of Bette Davis’ best characterizations is her cool, self-absorbed murderess in The Letter, which will be shown on Davis Day. Written by Howard Koch (from W. Somerset Maugham’s play), directed by William Wyler, shot by Tony Gaudio, edited by Warren Low, and scored by Max Steiner, The Letter is a stellar melodrama.
The rest of the cast, including Herbert Marshall as Davis’ husband, James Stephenson as her attorney, and Gale Sondergaard as her match, is flawless. (Hopefully, one day TCM will show the 1929 The Letter, starring stage legend Jeanne Eagels in one of her few screen roles.)
The other Bette Davis vehicles are a mixed bag.
Marked Woman is basically a moralistic, B crime flick; my sympathies were all with the criminals. Deception (a remake of another Jeanne Eagels’ vehicle, Jealousy) and Watch on the Rhine boast the class and gloss typical of the old Warner Bros., but even though both are “adult entertainment” and quite watchable (Claude Rains is masterful in Deception), they lack the depth and complexity found in The Letter.
Having seen a top-notch stage production of The Man Who Came to Dinner, this reviewer can testify to its humor and wit. The film version, however, always leaves me cold, chiefly because Monty Woolley – no matter the role – is hard to watch (and just as hard to listen to). True enough, his character in The Man Who Came to Dinner is supposed to be an effete jerk (based on Alexander Woollcott), but I don’t think that while watching the movie I should have been praying for Richard Widmark’s Kiss of Death murderer of wheelchair-bound beings to show up and take the dinner man out of his misery.
Another problem with the William Keighley-directed film is that Davis is reduced to playing the straight woman. On the other hand, Reginald Gardiner (above, with Davis and Woolley), Ann Sheridan, Mary Wickes, Billie Burke, and a pert penguin are all quite enjoyable. Too bad that George Cukor or Ernst Lubitsch didn’t direct this one. They could have done wonders with the material. And who knows, they might even have made Woolley tolerable.
Dark Victory and Now, Voyager are for hardcore fans of both Bette Davis and melodrama, though, admittedly, both are great to look at.
In This Our Life (1942)
In This Our Life would have been on that same level, except that director John Huston and screenwriter Howard Koch allow the drama – and there’s plenty of it – to run loose. Another reason to recommend In This Our Life: It is an early 1940s Hollywood film in which black actors, among them Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel (Gone with the Wind, 1939), are allowed to play characters, not caricatures.
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Pocketful of Miracles, Frank Capra’s remake of his own Lady for a Day, was a troubled production. The story of an aging fruit vendor who, with the assistance of a generous gangster, puts on a show for her visiting daughter who believes mom is a millionaire, Pocketful of Miracles stars Bette Davis as Apple Annie.
During the shoot, Davis reportedly had problems with costar Glenn Ford (replacing Frank Sinatra), then doting on his young and beautiful protegée Hope Lange. And so did Capra, who later blamed Ford for the film’s woes.
According to Capra biographer Joseph McBride, that wasn’t quite fair on the director’s part. McBride adds that Davis “hated” the role of Apple Annie, but did it for the money, $100,000, after Shirley Booth, Jean Arthur, Helen Hayes, and Katharine Hepburn turned the part down.
Bette Davis on TCM: Sat. 8 schedule (PDT)
3:00 AM Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano (1984)
Director: George Marshall.
A documentary depicting the life and career of one of America’s premiere actresses.
60m4:00 AM Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Director: Frank Capra.
Cast: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, Arthur O’Connell, Peter Falk, Sheldon Leonard, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, Mickey Shaughnessy, David Brian, Ann-Margret, Jerome Cowan, Ellen Corby, Peter Mann, Mike Mazurki, Barton MacLane, John Litel, George E. Stone.
137m6:30 AM Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Director: John Hough.
Cast: Bette Davis, Christopher Lee, Kim Richards.
94m8:15 AM Bette Davis Interview (1971)
Bette Davis appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired Nov. 17, 1971.
62m9:30 AM Marked Woman (1937)
Director: Lloyd Bacon.
Cast: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Eduardo Ciannelli, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, John Litel, Henry O’Neill, Kenneth Harlan.
97m11:30 AM Dark Victory (1939)
Director: Edmund Goulding.
Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Peterson, Herbert Rawlinson.
104m1:30 PM Now, Voyager (1942)
Director: Irving Rapper.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Ilka Chase, John Loder, Lee Patrick, Bonita Granville, Franklin Pangborn, Katherine Alexander, Charles Drake.
118m3:30 PM Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2005)
TCM original documentary that explores the life and career of legendary actress Bette Davis.
88m5:00 PM The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
Director: William Keighley.
Cast: Bette Davis, Monty Woolley, Ann Sheridan, Billie Burke, Reginald Gardiner, Mary Wickes.
113m7:00 PM Deception (1946)
Director: Irving Rapper.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
112m9:00 PM The Letter (1940)
Director: William Wyler.
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, Bruce Lester, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Sen Yung, Doris Lloyd.
95m11:00 PM In This Our Life (1942)
Director: John Huston.
Cast: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Charles Coburn, Frank Craven, Billie Burke, Hattie McDaniel, Lee Patrick.
97m1:00 AM Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Director: Herman Shumlin.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lucile Watson, George Coulouris, Beulah Bondi, Donald Woods, Donald Buka, Henry Daniell.
112m
notes
Bette Davis movie schedule via the TCM website.