As always, here are the rules. If you need help finding a movie to watch, check out this list of all the month's actors with links to what's available on Netflix Instant. And if you're not a Netflix subscriber, maybe this will help.
What kind of eyes does Bette Davis have?
I know this one. She's got huuunnnngry eyes!
ReplyDeleteNobody puts Bette in a corner.
Two Bette Davis movies tonight on TCM (http://www.tcm.com/schedule/): The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and The Virgin Queen (with a Bette Davis short in between).
ReplyDeleteTHE LETTER (1940)
ReplyDeleteOther than (a) a below-par music score by Max Steiner and (b) a compromised/neutered ending to comply with 'the code' robbing the ending from having the bite it should have "The Letter" is good old-fashioned, Oscar-worthy Hollywood melodrama of the highest order (though short of the high marks set the year before by the legendary 'Class of '39'). It's like a sex-free (though plenty is implied) "Basic Instinct"-meets-a-Malaysia-set-"A Passage To India" with a McGuffin that's actually crucial to the 'did she or didn't she?' unfolding plot. William Wyler keeps the pace cracking and, God bless her, Bette uses her odd-yet-sensual screen presence to make her male co-stars puddy in her unclean (or are they?) hands. Probably the peak of Davis' career during her 'sexy' youthful phase.
Of Human Bondage (1934)
ReplyDeleteThe prize sap of all time meets the queen bitch of all time, in this adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's book. Davis reigns supreme as the demonic cockney waitress Mildred, who becomes Leslie Howard's obsession. The screenplay is a little too on the nose at times - at one point Howard's soon-to-be-dumped girlfriend notes, "It's as if you're BOUND to her in some way." Far better is Mildred's line to Howard, when he notes that she's as hung up on another guy as Howard is on her - "I'd rather wait for him than be waited for by you." Just wait for Davis's explosion near the end of the film - it's worth watching the whole film to see.
Bunny O'Hare (1971) - I got her at the other end of the spectrum. An AIP comedy made much, much later in her career, Bunny O'Hare stars an elderly Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine dressing up as hippies and robbing banks. We're a long way from Jezebel.
ReplyDeleteMr Skeffington (1944)
ReplyDeleteTypical Oscar-bait features Davis as a young woman who marries for money and realizes over many years that there's more to life than beauty and wealth. Davis is in her prime here, but the always astoundingly credible Claude Rains walks away with the picture in the title role. Fans of this type of film will eat it right up.
I don't remember much about this film, though it certainly makes me wish Claude Rains was somewhere on the "(30) Stars" calendar. Is there still time to replace Whoopi Goldberg?
DeleteHa! If every actor on the calendar was the best, it wouldn't be a challenge. But I'll file Claude Rains away for next year.
DeleteTrue. I guess it keeps me from saving MADE IN AMERICA for my deathbed, when polio inevitably prevents me from using the TV remote to change the channel.
DeleteTHE LITTLE FOXES (1941)
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's cliche to say so, it's hard to imagine material with characters this despicable being filmed today, except maybe by someone like Cronenberg. While Bette Davis's casting indicates the director's intention make her character unsympathetic, it's hard not to see why she was driven to such behavior given her situation. Still, her comeuppance at the end (*spoiler* being left alone with her riches) hardly seems worse than being surrounded by a family of unloving crooks.
Sidebar: I originally checked this out for Richard Carlson (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) and Teresa Wright (Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT), and their characters' innocence and humor are what give this story its heart, though the latter's eventual corruption makes it all the more tragic.
Another Man's Poison
ReplyDeleteA lurid potboiler that you've probably never heard of, mainly because it isn't very good. In his TCM introduction, Robert Osbourne said something to the effect of "Bette Davis doing what she does best, playing Bette Davis" and he's right. She's so histrionic that it borders on parody, only without the fun. I was hoping for an undiscovered gem, but found a drag queen's costume jewelry instead.
Bunny O'Hare (1971) Patrick beat me to the punch but here's my take. This is a choppy mess of a film that tries to be a slapstick comedy and social satire about the hippie culture and doesn't succeed at either that well. But if you ever wanted to see Ernest Borgnine smoke a joint, here's your chance. Otherwise, skip it.
ReplyDeleteWhatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Wow, that Bette Davis, what a - well, I won't say it, but it starts with a "c" and rhymes with "kunt" - and a crazy one at that! A former child-star who hit the skids as an adult, she "looks after" her more successful but now wheelchair-bound (guess how?) sister in their creepy old house, and gets crazier and crazier. It would appear Misery drew some inspiration from this one - all in all a pretty good movie.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you're the first to write a review for "Baby Jane?" Sol. I was sure there'd be dozens of reviews for this flick on Bette Davis day. But no, everybody (including me) at least tried to be different, except you. :-P
DeleteHa! Damn you, Vargas, had to call me on that, eh? I know it might not be entirely in the spirit of things, but I have embarrassingly little exposure to a lot of these icons, so I'm using this month as a good motivator to catch up on some classics. As penance I will watch at least 3 of the movies on JB's shit-list for actors I'm more familiar with!
DeleteFilling in the gaps in our movie watching or seeing stuff we might not otherwise see is the whole point of this thing. It was a perfect choice.
DeleteI loved WHTBJ when I was young - it creeped me out in a way that no other film had (although I was not allowed to watch much above a PG-13 rating anyway). I have not seen it in a LONG time and really want to re-visit it. When I saw BLACK SWAN in the theater, I was reminded of WHTBJ a little (just a little)... I am more 'scared' by odd, creepy, non-nonsensical images or ideas more than what passes for 'scary' in a lot of today's 'scary' movies, if that makes sense! :)
DeleteThe Virgin Queen (1955): It's obvious that Judi Dench stole her impersonation of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love from Bette Davis.
ReplyDeleteI watched The Petrified Forest, which is a good enough movie, but I can't find a lot right now to say about it. I should have written this right after I watched it, but I went to bed and decided I'd write in the morning. Most of what I remember has to do with Bogart being a stand in for Dillinger. Which is odd because he's barely in the movie.
ReplyDeleteStill pretty good though.