Bette Davis young & later years: From Jezebel to The Nanny
Celebrating Bette Davis’ centennial, the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (website) is presenting the series “Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Essential Bette Davis,” which began on May 1, with the unveiling of a new US Postal Service stamp in the presence of Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne and Davis’ personal assistant Kathryn Sermak.
“Fasten Your Seat Belts” will screen some of Bette Davis’ best-known films. (There are no rarities in the series.)
Addendum: Actually, there is a major rarity in the series. The 1951 melodrama Payment on Demand, in which Davis plays a middle-aged woman who discovers that life as a divorcee is no fun. Barry Sullivan costars. (Also, see comments at the bottom of this article.)
Among the upcoming Davis’ vehicles that shouldn’t be missed are (for dates, see screening schedule below):
All About Eve (1950) – Davis does a great Tallulah Bankhead impersonation in screenwriter-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s literate (perhaps a bit too literate) and jaded look into New York City’s theater world. All About Eve was nominated for 14 Oscars – a record shared with Titanic – winning 6, including best film, director, screenplay, and supporting actor (George Sanders). Curiously, one of Davis’ trademark roles was actually first offered to Claudette Colbert (who had to be replaced after breaking her back).
Mr. Skeffington (1944) – Not one of Davis’ best-remembered films, but one of her best nevertheless. Claude Rains, excellent as always, has the title role. Davis plays his vain wife who discovers later in life that beauty isn’t all. For once, the actress is fully convincing as a sensual, attractive woman.
The Letter (1940) – One of Davis’ best films – and one of the best films made during the studio era, period. William Wyler directed this tale of lies, revenge, murder, and more lies, in which a jealous woman kills her lover and then pretends to be an innocent victim to her husband and the Law. Fellow players Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, and Gale Sondergaard are all superb.
Beyond the Forest (1949) – In the film version of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor’s character keep trying to remember the name of the film in which Bette Davis exclaims, “What a dump!” The film in question is the King Vidor-directed melodrama Beyond the Forest, which makes Vidor’s overwrought melo-Western Duel in the Sun look subdued. Massacred by critics and ignored by the public, Beyond the Forest abruptly ended Davis’ association with Warner Bros. If it weren’t for Claudette Colbert’s broken back, Davis’ career might never have recovered from that fiasco. Yet Beyond the Forest is far more enjoyable than well-regarded Davis fare like Dark Victory and Now, Voyager. Davis herself had no interest in doing the film, telling biographer/interviewer Whitney Stine (I’d Love to Kiss You: Conversations with Bette Davis), “The picture would have worked beautifully if they had cast Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran.”
The Little Foxes (1941) – Davis does another Tallulah Bankhead impersonation in this Samuel Goldwyn production released by RKO. As Lillian Hellman’s Regina Giddens (Bankhead had the role on Broadway), the matriarch of a wealthy Southern family, Davis is the epitome of cool, calculating selfishness. Her is a marvelous villainess; one impossible not to root for. William Wyler directed this one as well, and just like in The Letter he elicited mesmerizing performances from his cast, including Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Carl Benton Reid, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge, and Charles Dingle.
Ticket Prices: $9 general admission. $6 museum members, seniors (62+), students with valid ID. $5 second film only of a double-feature; no advance purchase. $2 Tuesday matinees. $1 Tuesday matinees, seniors (62+).
Buy tickets at the museum box office (tel. 323 857-6010) or online. Many programs sell out so try to purchase in advance. Your film ticket covers both films in a double bill, except where noted, and includes entrance to the museum galleries as well.
Further below you’ll find more information on the Bette Davis movies. And immediately below are images from the May 1 Bette Davis celebration, organized by the Academy and LACMA.
Young Bette Davis on the cover of Life magazine.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in association with the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, presented “A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis” on Thursday, May 1, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The event, hosted by film historian and Turner Classic Movies presenter Robert Osborne, featured Bette Davis’ memorabilia and film clips, and onstage discussions with, among others, Gena Rowlands, Davis’ costar in the 1978 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter; Warner Bros. 1940s leading lady Joan Leslie; Michael Merrill, Davis’ son with her All About Eve costar Gary Merrill; Davis’ assistant Kathryn Sermak; and surprise guest Olivia de Havilland, Davis’ costar in It’s Love I’m After (1937), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), In This Our Life (1942) and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).
Others present included Barbara Carrera, who appeared in Davis’ last film, Wicked Stepmother (1989); actress Carol Kane; Peter Jones, creator of the 2006 TV documentary Stardust: The Bette Davis Story; producer A. C. Lyles; actor Michael York; animator Carl Bell; screenwriter Hal Kanter, who co-wrote the screenplay for the Davis’ vehicle Pocketful of Miracles; and actress Francine York, who was the companion of director Vincent Sherman, for whom Davis starred in Old Acquaintance (1943) and Mr. Skeffington (1944).
Photos: Todd Wawrychuk | ©A.M.P.A.S. (Joan Leslie at the mike and with Osborne, and Olivia de Havilland photos), Matt Petit | ©A.M.P.A.S. (all other photos)
Robert Forrest, Gena Rowlands, Robert Osborne, Carol Kane
A.C. Lyles, Francine York
Hairstylist Jose Eder, Barbara Carrera, Scott Whiteleather of CMG Worldwide
Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie
Robert Osborne, Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Photos: Todd Wawrychuk | © A.M.P.A.S. (Joan Leslie and Olivia de Havilland images), Matt Petit | © A.M.P.A.S. (all other images).
Bette Davis movies: LACMA schedule
Schedule and synopses from the LACMA website. All screenings start at 7:30 p.m. and 35mm prints, unless otherwise noted.
Friday, May 2
Jezebel (1938)
Director: William Wyler.
Screenplay: Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston & Robert Buckner.
Cast: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent, Fay Bainter, Margaret Lindsay.
103m
A headstrong Southern belle loses the love of her life when she wears a red dress to the cotillion, but is redeemed by her heroism when plague strikes the plantation. Bette Davis is brilliant under William Wyler’s meticulous direction.
The Old Maid (1939)
Director: Edmund Goulding.
Screenplay: Casey Robinson.
Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Jane Bryan.
95m
Bette Davis the rebel is an unwed mother in the Civil War South who allows spiteful cousin Miriam Hopkins to adopt her child.
Saturday, May 3
All About Eve (1950)
Direction & Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Marilyn Monroe, Thelma Ritter.
138m
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Director: John Cromwell.
Screenplay: Lester Cohen.
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Kay Johnson.
83m
Tuesday, May 6
1:00 PM Mr. Skeffington (1944)
Director: Vincent Sherman.
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein & Philip G. Epstein.
Cast: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel.
146m
Friday, May 9
The Letter (1940)
Director: William Wyler.
Screenplay: Howard Koch.
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Jame Stephenson, Gale Sondergaard.
95m
Beyond the Forest (1949)
Director: King Vidor.
Screenplay: Lenore J. Coffee.
Cast: Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, Dona Drake.
97m
Saturday, May 10
Now, Voyager (1942)
Director: Irving Rapper.
Screenplay: Casey Robinson.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper.
117m
Considered an archetypal women’s picture, Now, Voyager features twisted mother love, a sympathetic psychiatrist, a glamorous ship board romance, a noble renunciation, and – as Davis goes from frump to couture queen – the mother of all movie makeovers.
Old Acquaintance (1943)
Director: Vincent Sherman.
Screenplay: John Van Druten.
Cast: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins.
110m
Sophisticated Bette Davis gives spoiled brat Miriam Hopkins a well-deserved shaking in this enduring tale of two writers who spend New Year’s Eve toasting their off-again, on-again, thirty-year friendship.
Front Page Woman
Tuesday, May 13 | 1:00 pm
1935/b&w/82 min. |Scr: Laird Doyle, Lillie Hayward, Roy Chanslor; dir: Michael Curtiz; w/ Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns
Saturday, May 17
The Little Foxes (1941)
Director: William Wyler.
Screenplay: Lillian Hellman.
Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson.
115m
Payment on Demand (1951)
Director: Curtis Bernhardt.
Screenplay: Curtis Bernhardt & Bruce Manning.
Cast: Bette Davis, Barry Sullivan, Jane Cowl, Kent Taylor.
90m | 16mm
Tuesday, May 20 – 1 p.m.
Dangerous (1935)
Director: Alfred E. Green.
Screenplay: Laird Doyle.
Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay.
80m
Friday, May 23
Dark Victory (1939)
Director: Edmund Goulding.
Screenplay: Casey Robinson.
Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart.
104m
Marked Woman (1937)
Director: Lloyd Bacon.
Screenplay: Abem Finkel & Robert Rossen.
Cast: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane.
96m
Saturday, May 24
The Star (1952)
Director: Stuart Heisler.
Screenplay: Katherine Albert & Dale Eunson.
Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood.
89m | 16mm
At a particularly low point, an ex-movie star (Bette Davis) takes a job at the May Company on Wilshire, but learns the hard way that bad judgment and youthful clothes are the real impediments to the comeback dreams of an aging actress.
The Catered Affair (1956)
Director: Richard Brooks.
Screenplay: Gore Vidal.
Cast: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor.
92m
As the harridan wife of a Bronx taxi driver struggling to buy his own cab, Bette Davis loses it when she tells her recently engaged daughter: “You’re going to have a big wedding whether you like it or not, and if you don’t like it you don’t have to come.” Get out those seat belts.
Tuesday, May 27 – 1 p.m.
Juarez (1939)
Director: William Dieterle.
Screenplay: John Huston, Wolfgang Reinhardt & Aeneas MacKenzie.
Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Muni, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, John Garfield.
125m
A revolutionary leaders fights against Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
Saturday, May 31
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Director: Robert Aldrich.
Screenplay: Lukas Heller.
Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Anna Lee.
135m
What happened to Baby Jane (Bette Davis) is nothing compared to what happens when sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) protests that Jane’s escalating acts of sadism would be impossible if Blanche weren’t imprisoned in a wheelchair. In one of the most famous lines of her career, Davis callously remarks: “But ya are, Blanche! Ya are in that chair! “ Let the funny games begin.
The Nanny (1965)
Director: Seth Holt.
Screenplay: Jimmy Sangster.
Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett.
93m
In this creepy thriller (Hammer’s last film in black and white and one of the British studio’s best) Bette Davis gives a virtuoso performance as a prim nanny – perfect in the eyes of everyone except Joey, her disturbed ward, recently returned from a juvenile home for murdering his sister. “I’m taking Master Joey an extra pillow…”