Bette Davis' top 20 performances

No Return From Witch Mountain? Bullshit!

Never seen “the scapegoat”, “Juarez” or “dead ringer” so looking forward to giving those a try. List seems pretty good to me, not many surprises as far as I can tell, I mean I wasn’t disappointed not to see “the whales of august” make the list.

Dead Ringer is a campfest.

R3, The very amateurish actress playing Bette's maid is Paul Henreid's daughter.

This list contains some fresh choices (MARKED WOMAN, DEAD RINGER) for Bette's "best of" category but I strongly disagree with THE SCAPEGOAT - a film Daphne du Maurier also loathed - which might have been switched out for THE CATERED AFFAIR. I also love A STOLEN LIFE, which she's great in, and IN THIS OUR LIFE, which brims with Bette's special brand of pyrotechnic screen acting.

This list could have been expanded to 25 films, to include The Old Maid, Old Acquaintance, The Great Lie, A Stolen Life, etc.

The Star is a hoot. "Come on, Oscar, let’s you and me get drunk!" [glug glug CRASH]

[R6] She's actually fantastic in THE STAR. The scene in which Margaret watches herself making a fool of herself in the screen test is classic - she realizes just how pathetic and narcissistic she is and breaks down.

[quote]Bette Davis' top performance

As a fuckable woman...

Odd list. The fact that "Dead Ringer" is there means this was written by a gay guy. But they do include "Mr Skeffington", which is one of her best films.

NERAK

NERAK

NERAK

NERAK

[R10] That's got to be one of the most obscure DL responses ever! I don't get it.

I’ve never been one to rewatch movies much, but during Covid I started and I have a real urge to rewatch Jezebel and dark victory and now, voyager thanks to this list.

[quote][[R10]] That's got to be one of the most obscure DL responses ever! I don't get it.

I found her too set in her mannerisms in "The Star" . I could watch Jezebel 100 times and never tire of it. I would say:

1.All About Eve 2.The Letter 3.Now Voyager 4.Little Foxez

[R13] To answer an obscure reference with another obscure reference....

[quote][[R13]] To answer an obscure reference with another obscure reference....

FUCK YOU DEBBIE DOWNER, FUCK YOU!

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

I’ve never really understood the love for “Dark Victory.” In my opinion, Davis gave a much better performance that year in “The Old Maid.” Maybe some Davis fan here can explain to me what’s so great about her performance in “Dark Victory.” I’ve seen the film several times and I just don’t get it.

[R16] Ah! I get it. In her book about her life as Bette's assistant, MISS D AND ME, Kathryn Sermak writes of coming to work for Bette just before the start of this project and traveling to England with her to shoot it. There's an interesting tidbit about Bette testing to play her character as a much younger woman in a flashback sequence, shooting the test and immediately agreeing with the director that it wasn't plausible. I would LOVE to see that footage!

Her greatest role was convincing people she was a woman and not a midget in drag- for which she often failed……miserably.

R2, Juarez also features a great, Oscar nominated performance from sexy Brian Aherne as Emperor Maximilian.

It’s interesting to compare this list of Bette Davis’s top 20 with Emily blunts from a few weeks ago.

Just shows how different films are nowadays. On bette’s list I would revisit or try watching almost all of them. On Emily’s there are very few I would rewatch or even consider watching.

Why was her daughter so ungrateful? Was she a bad seed?

R9, I've never been able to get all the way through it.

R23, Sadly, she was Bette's only biological child.

R18, I TOTALLY agree.

THE LETTER should be #1 in my opinion. Followed by ALL ABOUT EVE and JEZEBEL.

Agree that THE SCAPEGOAT should not be on the list.

I'd have to say that time she married that guy who was also alcoholic,

moved to Maine, and pretended to be a wife and mother

that was rich...

My two favorites are Mr. Skeffington and Old Acquaintance.

r27, totally agree about The Letter

I would have ranked Of Human Bondage higher, too

“Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, pain of love lasts a lifetime”

Thirtynineninetynineisn'titlovely?

You see where Julia Sugarbaker got her schtick.

The top five is on the money, although I'd flip-flop Dark Victory and The Little Foxes so that ...Foxes was number four.

[quote]You see where Julia Sugarbaker got her schtick.

Julia Sugarbaker actually did it better, I thought

[quote]although I'd flip-flop Dark Victory and The Little Foxes

No one would notice

She gave the same performance every time anyway

I was surprised by so many omissions from her great period of films, from the beginning of her career to the end of her time at Warner's.

I fully agree OLD ACQUAINTANCE and THE OLD MAID should both have been there, and also BORDER TOWN, which is where she gives her first really great performance (when she has the breakdown on the witness stand). I would also have included CABIN IN THE COTTON and BEYOND THE FOREST just because her performances in those are so famous.

THE LETTER would be my #1 performance too--and NOW VOYAGER would be #2. She;s great in ALL ABOUT EVE, but she's more or less playing herself there.

Margo's No. 1.

Agreed that The Letter should be at or near the top. Payment on Demand, Bordertown, The Old Maid, Strangers, maybe The Whales of August, The Catered Affair, and The Nanny should be included over Death on the Nile, Dead Ringer, and a few others. Also a fan of her Rosa Moline even though it's supposed to be her Warners low point.

Another thumb way up for "The Letter" and way down for "The Scapegoat". One of my favorites is "The Petrified Forest", a wonderful performance with an excellent ensemble cast.

Didn't the writers of The Star say the character was based on Joan Crawford?

DEAD RINGERS is one of my favorite of her films because it's so hilariously campy, with everything from Mildred Natwick wearing the enormous lace mantilla and smoking, to Peter Lawford molesting Bette and knocking her over in her chair, to Bette's "singing" of "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," and most of all to Bette gripping the red-hot iron poker and yowling in pain. But it just did not belong on this list. In some ways it shows the worst of her acting, especially with the sanctimonious self-martyring speech she gives at the end (which Charles Busch memorably parodied in DIE, MOMMIE, DIE!).

"Now, Voyager" was by far Bette's best film performance and if you don't agree, watch it again.

"Bette Davis reported that she modeled her performance as the aging, has been, drunken 'star' actress in the film after Joan Crawford, who was Bette Davis' contemporary, competition, and a lifelong enemy she publicly ridiculed throughout both their careers; to what extent this is true could be argued, but there's no question about her wearing the famous Crawford ankle strap shoes when she views her disastrous screen test. Joan Crawford was not impressed with Davis' portrayal commenting, 'Of course I had heard she was supposed to be playing me, but I didn't believe it. Did you see the picture? It couldn't possibly be me. Bette looked so old, and so dreadfully overweight.' Davis used the phrase, 'bless you!' in the film as a term of endearment. In reality, she was making fun of Joan Crawford, who usually signed autographs that way and used the phrase to thank people."

From The Star's Wikipedia page. OMG, Joan.

[quote]Katherine Albert and her husband Dale Eunson reportedly based the Margaret Elliott character on Joan Crawford, whose long friendship with the couple was ending as production began. Although it is sometimes said that she turned the role down, it never was offered to her. Bette Davis, who publicly disdained Crawford, thus eagerly took it.[2]

[quote]Crawford retaliated after the Eunsons sent their 17-year-old daughter Joan Evans to the actress in the hope that Crawford would talk her out of marrying a man they disapproved of. Instead, Crawford arranged the wedding, held it in her house, and called the Eunsons afterward to tell them about it. "She set the whole thing up behind our backs," Albert complained. "She called the judge and the press. She didn't invite us to our own daughter's wedding."[2]

Where to start, r42? One, ONE Ringer. Millie Natwick would NOT be amused in being mistaken for the older Estelle Winwood. And how could you *not* make mention of Lina Lamont's appearance?

[quote]DEAD RINGERS is one of my favorite of her films because it's so hilariously campy, with everything from Mildred Natwick wearing the enormous lace mantilla and smoking

Yeah, pretty sure that wasn't Mildred Natwick but R45 beat me to it.

^R46

R46, Bette began wearing that obvious, cheap, unfortunate looking wig from the movie in her personal and public life for a while.

Exhibit A

TCM schedule for Sunday 8/1 (all times eastern)

6:00 am Marked Woman (1937)

8:00 am Winter Meeting (1948)

10:00 am The Corn Is Green (1945)

12:00 pm The Old Maid (1939)

1:45 pm A Stolen Life (1946)

3:45 pm Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

6:15 pm The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

8:00 pm Jezebel (1938)

10:00 pm All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

12:30 am What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

3:00 am The Star (1953)

4:45 am Satan Met a Lady (1936)

The Corn is Green - Carol Channing's favorite film

R52 I like that one 2

Has anyone watched The Letter with Jeanne Eagels? If so, how does it compare to Bette's version?

Most of us saw it on opening day, R54.

The Letter

The Old Maid

Dark Victory (sorry to disagree with critic above on that)

All About Eve

The Little Foxes

Now, Voyager

Marked Woman

[quote]Bette began wearing that obvious, cheap, unfortunate looking wig from the movie in her personal and public life for a while.

Cheap acrylic wig

Low bosom

Ill-fitting, badly-made clothes

Boozy with her seams all askew

Stinking of stale cigarettes

dear, dear Bette

And this is dear, dear Bette

wearing the modified Margo Channing wig

before the "Dead Ringer" producers paid for the new wig with bangs

Oh Bette, you were nothing if not cheap

R53, I take it you're new here.

Murder and melodrama aside, THE LETTER is a movie I’d like to live in. (Although I’m sure I would complain of the bugs and heat.)

R54, it’s based directly on the play, not the short story, and is an early talkie, so it’s VERY stagy and stiff - the camera hardly moves. But Jeanne Eagels is mesmerizing, particularly at the climax.

That idea's worth a whole new thread, R60. I'd choose All About Eve or Now, Voyager.

The catered affair was a good one with a young Debbie Reynolds.

Bette was miscast and Debbie was the best thing in it, r63.

1931

R64, agreed! That role should've went to Thelma Ritter.

I have only glanced through this thread but it's obvious that this wilful woman's only films worth watching are those where she's reigned in by William Wyler.

The small screen would have to do for Thelma, r66.

Has Thelma ever have a major leading role in films?

How sad that you consider All About Eve, The Man Who Came to Dinner and Now, Voyager beneath you, R67.

I love Davis in The Catered Affair. The closest that Ritter ever came to a major leading role on film was as the marriage broker in The Model and the Marriage Broker, supporting Jeanne Crain as the model.

She's not bad in Catered Affair, r70, and she has some nice moments. But she's miscast.

R69, Though billed fourth, this delightful movie is all Thelma's.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch this yet. Bette, Aunt Bee, and Maudie Prickett!

I was always surprised that Bette , at the height of her career, took supporting roles in films like Juarez, and The Man Who Came To Dinner, and Watch On The Rhine. I wonder why.

I remember her opposite Edward G Robinson in one film that was pretty good.

They really did like to keep actors and actresses together back then, didn't they? How many times did she appear with George Brent, Claude Rains and Humphrey Bogart?

Well, R74, they all worked at the same studio.

R73, if we're talking TV, she did a good episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents

I was floored to see her on an episode of Perry Mason, when Raymond Burr was out sick.

R74, R75 Because Jack Warner was a pig.

R49, She wore it on WML? in 1964 @20:00.

She had a creepy resemblance to this one?

Was it an illegitimate child?

The Starmaker

I was watching "Mr. Skeffington" last week, and I must say that for most of the film (before the aging makeup), Bette really looks just about the prettiest as she ever did on film. She looks pretty marvelous in her transformed form in "Now, Voyager" as well, but as Fanny Skeffington, Bette really looks quite lovely.

Thelma Ritter, though 4th billed to Gene Tierney, John Lund and Miriam Hopkins, really anchors and pretty much is the lead in the quite good "The Mating Season". Her scenes opposite veteran trying to be the scene-stealer Hopkins are very funny especially.

DL fave Dolores Gray made her debut as a nightclub singer in the film. She even get a compliment on screen from Davis as Fanny Skeffington.

Fanny Trellis was supposed to be a great beauty of her time, r82, and Ernie, Perc, and Orry went into overdrive to achieve that look. Bette *always* credited them and...Maggie(?) whoever did the wigs.

A Stolen Life should be on the list. It’s very good. Old Acquaintance and The Old Maid too.

My favorite Bette is Mr. Skeffington. But I love the one where she kills the composer played by Claude Rains, because he drove her virtuoso re- appeared lover mad.

Deception, r85.

All This, And Heaven Too started just a few minutes ago on Movies! TV. They've been running a little mini festival of her films recently.

[quote]Deception, [R85].

I love that movie simply because it has the single greatest Bette Davis line in any movie ever.

Even if you've never seen it, you can imagineexactly how perfectly she pronounces every syllable in her perfect clipped New England diction:

"I shall now play the 'Appasionata'!"

[quote] 'Appasionata'

'Appassionata'

R74 IIRC she took the role in “The Man Who Came to Dinner” because the title role was supposed to be played by John Barrymore and she wanted to work with him. He either died or pulled out because of illness, and Davis was stuck doing the project.

No, R50. His alcoholism prevented him from memorizing his lines.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I know, I should find a Joan thread to post this in, but I just watched this. Oh...my...gawd.

OT, but did any of you recognize the exterior facade of Tara from GWTW in that Zane Grey episode above?

Jeez, R93. That kinda just ...ended.

Yep, r95, off they go...no big deal.

Back on Bette, favorite TV performances:

Strangers

Right of Way

A Piano for Mrs. Cimino

Little Gloria...Happy at Last

The Disappearance of Aimee

White Mama

Madame Sin

As Summers Die

[quote] I was always surprised that Bette , at the height of her career, took supporting roles in films like Juarez, and The Man Who Came To Dinner, and Watch On The Rhine. I wonder why.

The Man Who Came to Dinner and Watch on the Rhine were high prestige films because they were based on Broadway hits by major playwrights.

Juarez allowed Davis to play one of the showiest scenes of her career, where as the doomed Empress Carlotta of Mexico he has a complete emotional breakdown while personally lobbying Emperor Napoleon III of France to aid her husband Maximilian (which really happened in real life). It's one of the most memorable scenes of Davis's career: she starts screaming and runs away from Napoleon III out of the Tuileries Palace into the gardens, her silver gown disappearing into the far distance of the night until it vanishes.

Dark Morning

I don't like the writeup for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. The movie could have and should have turned out as toral schlock, a throwaway of Lifetime Movie proportions but both Davis and Crawford turned in incredible performances. I don't think Davis overdid it because she created a wholly unique macabre character that stands on its own and stands out. And I can't think of a better performance from Joan Crawford. She was very good in Mildred Pierce but her performance in Baby Jane is a little less melodramatic and feels a little more organic. I've rewatched Baby Jane a few times in recent years and every time I am impressed again by how affecting it is given the storyline and what it could have been.

"And I can't think of a better performance from Joan Crawford."

She really did do as much as Bette, r100, with less.

I LOVE Bette Davis, including her early career overemoting. But it's kind of funny after so many years of Drag Race to look back on some of those early performances that feel like Drag Race overacting challenges and realize it's meant to be taken seriously.

And now the nicotine and scotch vocal stylings...

For what movie did Bette get her worst reviews? Beyond The Forest? Bunny O'Hare? Any movie where she tried comedy?

This list shit is beyond despicable. Where the fuck is Deception?

Bette Davis aged terribly, the booze and cigs really did a number on her looks. She was only about 60 here.

R104, this review of Davis in Dead Ringer is among the most negative. It's not too fond of Crawford in Strait-Jacket either.

To be fair, R106, Davis was supposed to look haggard there, as that was her character's down and out "before" phase. Here's her "after".

Bette didn't mind having her made up to look unattractive in some of her films, like Baby Jane. But somewhere along the line, Joan Crawford, who started as a real beauty, was told by someone to darken her eyebrows and wear should pads larger than a quarterback. Was Joan's advisor someone who had more loyalty to Bette? She really could have looked better as she aged without doing those things.

Joan was so luminous in Grand Hotel...

I think Joan aged phenomenally well. Her styled appearance became iconic—a Disney villain was even modeled after her because of her commanding presence—and she remained beautiful until the end. Even Bette Davis admitted that. Her problem, according to Davis and demonstrated by her movies, is that she was far more vain than she was an artist, and her performances were dominated by her looks rather than her abilities. She had some talent but she really was preoccupied with looking attractive.

R106 I bet her dentures were rattling at that time.

R108 Her lipstick is all over her face.

I think Bette was much prettier as a young woman compared with Joan, but Joan aged into a very handsome woman and Bette became handsome by middle age and then she became a weathered old lady. Which is normal and I love her for not trying to battle age with surgeries. She and Kate Hepburn are real role models.

Davis aged terribly. She got really haggy and older-looking when she was only in her forties. It's too bad modern plastic surgery and cosmetic dermatology procedures weren't available back then because they would've done wonders for her. She was only about 50-ish here.

R114 The photographer makes her look good by having her face covered in shadow.

Bette was NEVER pretty.

Joan is even more beautiful than Greta Garbo in "Grand Hotel"!

I disagree, R115. Bette was pretty in some of her early Warners stuff.

^ Well, that is a matter of personal opinion!

Joan

For the umpteenth time, Bette was the Actress...Joan was the Star.

R117 If one suffered with astigmatism one might say that Bette's wide face was similar to Clara Bow's or Betty Boop's.

And her low, sloping forehead, seen in profile, was similar to Merle Oberon's. And her nostrils were similar to George Arliss'.

But, apart from that, the Warners photographers had an uphill battle making her pretty.

She was pretty in her youth but aged hard.

That's what 4 packs of cigarettes every day and a bottle of bourbon every night will do to you.

*

Scotch, r122.

I guess it's startling to see now how the classic Hollywood actors and actresses aged, because today even actors and actresses in their 70s have smooth faces and look decades younger. Everybody looks much younger now. It's like we've forgotten what normal aging looks like because celebrities today don't age like they did back then.

Margo Channing, duh.

R117, R123 The photographer has to obscure one of her chubby cheeks.

Her cheeks are as problematic as Angela's.

Bette's popularity is waning.

There are 3 other Bettes listed above our Miss Davis.

R128, I doubt that an obscure camera person is getting more clicks than our Bette. Maybe those three were just last to be clicked. Or are you referring to the STARmeter?

There’s one little movie missing from this list. ‘Connecting Rooms’ from 1970. The title echoes that small play called ‘Separate Tables’.

It was sad and tawdry tale about lonely, failed people. And Bette wore a very fake-looking wig. It co-starred the once-beautiful Michael Redgrave who was about to succumb to Parkinson's disease.

Michael Redgrave and his spouse Rachel Kempson took Davis to dinner at the actor’s club known as The Garrick Club on a Sunday when women were permitted to enter.

Rachel Kempson recorded her sad impressions in her memoir which was released at the time Davis’ death.

Davis stipulated that daughters Vanessa Redgrave or Lynn Redgrave couldn’t join them because ‘she hated being in the presence of beautiful young women. She was by now in her sixties but looked older. She had huge bags under here eyes and was quite large.

‘Unfortunately there was no sign of the famed wit; she just seemed a thoroughly unhappy, embittered woman. It was very difficult to talk to her.’

The Snake Bite

[quote] She had some talent but she really was preoccupied with looking attractive.

She was really developing into a fine actress in the 30s. Her performance in "Rain" was so raw and modern when viewed today. And because the movie flopped, she never again tapped into that level of uninhibitedness. She resorted back to relying on her beauty and giving stilted, controlled performances for the remainder of her career.

It's a shame Davis had to do all those shit movie and tv pilots to pay the bills because she spent most of her money on her leeching relatives and husbands over the years. She should've been a wealthy woman but she always needed money. Her daughter BD nearly bled her dry.

Tawdry is a good word for Connecting Rooms. More than Separate Tables, it reminds me of The L-Shaped Room, A Taste of Honey, The Whisperers and a few other UK "kitchen sink' dramas.

The most noteworthy thing about Connecting Rooms is the scene where Davis' character walks past a theater. The theater poster advertises Margo Channing starring in Remembrance.

I would put her performance in Burnt Offerings in the top 20. She and Karen Black both deserved Oscar nominations for that movie.

R135, Bette's death scene is hilarious.

No one mentions "The Anniversary", a 1968 campfest in which Bette wears an eyepatch.

^ Another tawdry one.

It's terrible an actress/star of Bette Davis's caliber had to do all those shit movies in her later career. Things did improve by the late 70s/80s when she was cast in good TV movie projects. Then of course she had the stroke, and it was hard to watch her after that. Half her face was paralyzed and it seemed like it too all her strength just to speak.

The list is nothing without Bette’s best bad movie BEYOND THE FOREST with Joseph Cotten. It had one of Bette’s most memorable lines: “What a dump!” And queens rejoiced the world over.

Shocking that Beyond The Forest has never received a DVD or Blu-Ray release.

It's a shame Bette could not end her career on the glamorous series "Hotel", her last pre-stroke role.

Bette's career nadir...

R133, Bette also had a special needs daughter, Margot Merrill, who needed specialized care and education. I'm sure a lot of Bette's earnings went towards that. Curiously, Bette's will left nothing for Margot, nor BD and BD's kids, but left half her estate to her son, Michael. The other half went to Bette's loyal assistant Kathryn Sermak.

The Whales of August was a good coda for Bette as her last completed film.

[quote] and she remained beautiful until the end.

Joan's last public appearance was a Rainbow Room function of some sort to honor her friend Roz Russell. 1974. After Joan saw her pictures in the papers the next morning she never made another public appearance and in fact rarely left her UES apartment. See r146's pic. She died in '77.

I love Bette im Dark Victory. She maybe even should have won instead of Vivien. I also love the title "Dark Victory".

#DarkVictoriesMatter

They did go into overdrive r84, but they went too far in my opinion, and then Bette tried too hard to modulate her voice higher to sound younger, and she came off as a parody.

She aged terribly between 1942 and 1944, she looks so good in In This Our Life (which I love) and in Now Voyager in 1942, then suddenly looks five years older in Old Acquaintance in 1943, and yet another five years older in 1944.

Now Voyager is my fave.

Tina: What shall I call you?

Charlotte: Well, let’s see... You can call me Carlotta, Charlie or a name I was once called - Cunt.

Tina: Oh, I like that one! I’ll call you Cunt!

Dora, would you smell my ass?

She still looked good in '44 and hardly any different than in '42, R150. Whatever they did to her in Mr. Skeffington just made her look older somehow, and I'm not talking about the final scene. Same with Old Acquaintance.

I'm sure it was understood that in receiving half of his mother's estate that Michael Merrill, an attorney, was to see after the needs of his sister, Margot.

I think she looked great in A Stolen Life in 1946.

This was her in 1942, r153. I submit she looks years younger here than in your Hollywood Canteen photo from 1944.

She was gorgeous as Margo Channing and she filmed All About Eve when she was 38 or 39, I think.

No, she doesn't have classically beautiful features, but I love her unique features. I find her face luscious, just so interesting and intriguing.

All About Eve filmed from April through June of 1950, when Bette was 42. She and Merrill got married a month after production finished.

We went here on my birthday this year...

R154, Also, Gary Merrill was Margot's adoptive father and he may have been contributing to her care. Gary died in 1990, the year after Bette died, and he may have included provisions for Margot in his will.

Margot is apparently still living at that special needs school in NY at age 70.

How can the OP's list be taken seriously with no Return From Witch Mountain on it??

I've always loved the movie poster.

Burnt Offerings!

Watcher in the Woods!

Fashions of 1934!

One of them 1934 fashions...

Bette's son:

Nice r166b what about one from her daughter, BD? I bet she’d recommend Whatever Happened….. because she’s in it.

The feud really wasn't.

The Mating Season is a wonderful small film and Gene Tierney is perfectly cast as the beauty who wants to support her striving husband. Ritter steals the picture and Miriam Hopkins began playing awful mother-in-law parts.

This Gentleman preferred the Blond in "The Mating Season." The gorgeous and sexy John Lund.

Thelma is terrific!

R170, In her autobiography, Gene Tierney wrote that her mother began visiting the set of "The Mating Season" regularly, which was something she normally did not do.

After a while, Gene realized that her mother had a crush on John Lund and just wanted to be in his presence.

Who gives a fuck about Gene Tierney! This is a BD thread!

Shit is green too I hear

[quote] Who gives a fuck about Gene Tierney! This is a BD thread!

Who gives a fuck about that ingrate BD? This is MY thread!

Divas from the Golden Age who most folks agree were the most dramatic actress diva-worthy: Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer. I mean folks have favorite actresses from back then, but no one seems to worship in a diva-esque kind of way (unless to draw special attention to themselves) the likes of Claudette Colbert, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne, or Greer Garson, though these ladies were big stars back then.

Yes, r175, definitely a big difference between diva and non-diva, and it ain't really about talent, although the five you mentioned are talented. It's about other things. I love Rosalind Russel, I love everything she is in, and I love watching her. But she's in a different category. She's not a diva. She just is not.

People on this site don't always get that. Say who the biggest divas are, in acting or singing or whatever, and they want to argue about who is the most talented. That is just not the same question.

Nice to see some love for MADAME SIN.

I'd toss in Dietrich, r175.

I think it rather pathetic that eldergays worship drag queens and so-called 'divas'.

'Diva' is an Italian word used to denote rude selfishness.

R179. I think it “rather pathetic” that YOU don’t know the word “diva” originally meant “goddess.”

You’re just ignorant—go back to your reading of “Hillbilly Elegy”—and try not to move your lips so much when you read silently, mouth breather.

Thank you for sharing, r179. We hear your concerns and really don't give a rat's ass what you think. Thank you for posting...

[quote] rude selfishness

Bette's stock in trade since 1934 to 1989.

'Of Human Bondage' was 1934

I just watched “Wicked Stepmother” (Bette’s last film from 1989) and it’s hysterically bad. Bette disappears from the film after about 20 minutes, but she is quite funny in her scenes.

I laughed when the grown children were like, “We don’t smoke in this house!” and Bette’s character is puffing away and practically blowing smoke in their faces before she lights another cigarette.

She walked off of Wicked Stepmother because she looked so awful. She practically looked like a corpse, and was dead the following year.

Lucy and Bette both died the same year.

Both New England Yankees too.

^^^ Lucy was from Jamestown NY.

Oops, my bad. I thought she was from New England.

Bette was cold to her in drama school.

Why did Bette choose Gary Merrill?

Sometimes he resembles the Wolf Man and other times Taylor J Phillips.

He had a big dick and he knew how to use it. Unfortunately he was also a raging alcoholic with a violent temper. Bette and Gary spent the entirety of their marriage (it lasted for the entire 1950s) drinking and fighting constantly. It took a huge toll on Bette's nerves and her looks.

A sensible woman would be able to recognise an alcoholic before plighting her troth.

R191, After the divorce from Bette, Gary Merrill had a four year affair with Rita Hayworth, which he wrote about in his autobiography "Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life".

Bette also had a thing about hairy men.

I saw Gary Merrill and Sandy Dennis in Born Yesterday. Afterwards getting Sandy to sign my program, Gary exited and he was just very gruff and surly.

R106, even if I smell cigarette smoke walking by I get sick.

Pity, r196.

I thought Boyd was pretty cute.

Sorry, Bette--wrong thread.

Bette's hellish cunt of a daughter BD Hyman now looks quite a bit like Baby Jane. Oh, the irony!

What does she do for money now that Bette's gone?

R201, And her husband died.

Did Bette kill 20 men on screen?

Her most famous roles required her to kill her husband or some other man.

I want you to die, Herbert Marshall!

"I hope you die." She was in full Bette Davis mode in The Little Foxes: from the walk, to the ice queen bitchiness, down to using those famous eyes of hers to convey many emotions.

Roles like this one are what made her an icon.

Don't forget that DL icon Ann Blyth (DL mascot Veta from "Mildred Pierce"!) played the young Regina in the prequel "Another Part of the Forest" that Bette Davis plays in "Little Foxes". Young Regina wasn't an angel either.

She was quite handy with a pistol.

Bette was best playing man-haters!

Oh, she liked Victor Buono in 'Baby Jane", loved Paul Henried in "Now, Voyager" and Gary Merrill in "All About Eve" (and Trippy -- that name! -- in "Mr. Skeffington"), among others.

Oh, fuck little Miss Ann Blythe, r206...

A glowing review for now, voyager

Miss Moffat

a commercial

Did Josh Logan find a way to get shirtless guys in "Miss Moffatt"? A locker room scene perhaps or a shower?

Meryl...

[quote]Did Josh Logan find a way to get shirtless guys in "Miss Moffatt"? A locker room scene perhaps or a shower?

I think they'd gotten him on lithium at that point.

Wow, I thought maybe 20 or 30 replies but pleasantly delighted by all the lively discussion of Ms Davis' films and performances. Love the old film and movie stars threads at the DL.

They're frau-proof and Woke-proof r217

I'm watching Gladys Cooper on Dick Cavett...so to speak. She's wonderful. Talking about Lynn Fontanne. She looks better than Bette did in 1971. Well, much less hard-lived. Bette was always so respectful when speaking of her.

Gladys Cooper was 82 when she appeared on the Cavett show in May 1971. Six months later, Bette was on the show, and mentioned that Cooper had died the night before, November 17. She spoke very highly of her.

Yes she did, r220.

Gladys Cooper's Cavett interview (she appears about 22 minutes in). Robert Morley, her son-in-law, also appears.

Thank you, r222!

Wow, R223, it looks like Gladys Cooper was her generation's Erin Gray!

She coulda been a Breck girl!

R222 That's a rather strange interview.

The sun-loving ex-pat seems almost embarrassed by her son-in-law who was, on one hand, very talented but also seems to be as American as possible at being an attention-whore to please the Americans.

I thought she was being affectionate, r226.

Breck Shmeck, I was a Lustre-Creme Girl!

You know who had great hair? Stanwyck

R228, That photo is more filtered than a Kardashian photo.

Airbrushed, r230...

Mary Martin used Lustre-Creme to wash that man right out of her 8 times a week on Broadway. They were worried her hair might fall out!

Mary Martin should've been using RID. Always had crabs. Whore.

R232, I've always read that it was Prell.

Prell was so luxurious...

Prell could degrease a frying pan. That shit was harsh!

Now, now, r236, a pearl took ages to sink in its luxurious formula!

R234, I think you are correct and I stand corrected and embarrassed.

Prell is still around, I've seen it in the grocery store. I wonder if it's still the same harsh stuff it was years ago.

I read her autobiography and she said she used whichever she used because it lathered right up, proving to the audience she was really washing her hair but rinsed right out. And she and R&H, who produced, had concerns about the repeated daily washings. She did magazine ads about how her home hair perms held up under the onslaught.

she said she used

Prell is a cheap and vulgar windfall.

Did Cloris get a Rayve wave?

What about IN THIS OUR LIFE? She really chews up the scenery in that one…

Films with greatest amounts of Bette-chewn scenery:

Another Man's Poison

In This Our Life

The Anniversary

Bordertown

Of Human Bondage

Were Bette's favorite leading men George Brent and Claude Rains? Rains perhaps because he was a wonderful actor and also she was better looking then him, and Brent because he was a good actor, good-looking and acted well enough, but not too well so she could dominate the screen? Bette didn't like acting opposite Errol Flynn -- apparently because she didn't think he was a good actor or that he took acting seriously, but also because he was much better-looking than her (which she didn't quite say full out but was almost implied). Who else among Bette's Warner male co-stars did she like, dislike or go on the record about? Did she like James Cagney in their early pairings or Bogart? I believe she really liked Paul Henried and Charles Boyer and she married Gary Merrill. Was she the one who called Reagan "Little Ronnie Reagan"? Any dish otherwise? We can go into her female co-stars later.

"We can go into her female co-stars later."

*

Why wait, r245?

She liked Brent well enough to carry on a long affair with him. She shared her director Anatole Litvak with his wife Miriam Hopkins. She also reportedly had affairs with Bogart, Glenn Ford, and Gig Young. Her affair with Howard Hughes led to her divorce from her first husband. Rumor is that during her first marriage Wyler got her pregnant, and she got an abortion.

R247, Bette also had an affair with her "Dangerous" co-star Franchot Tone.

But, the man she claimed in later interviews was the love of her life was director William Wyler.

Bette told Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" that she became pregnant twice during her first marriage, but her husband "Ham" begged her to abort them.

R247, I think Bette wanted to have an affair with Glenn Ford, but he was not interested. Since Ford screwed around with almost all his leading ladies, Bette must have been highly insulted.

The beginning of the feud with Joan was supposed to have been in the mid '30s when they both co-starred with Franchot Tone and each fell in love with him but he married Joan.

And he was such a wimp!

Franchot Tone had the sex appeal of an emaciated frog.

^ Wiki says his real name was Stan Tone.

One of Bette's husband's died on the street after collapsing from a subdural hematoma. The coroner's verdict was that the hematoma was from his falling down the stairs two weeks earlier but the rumor was always she had hit him in the back of the head with a lamp during another of their drunken brawls. Which husband was that?

Seems Bette was rather busy in her day. Glenn Ford's son claims Ford lied about the affair while being unfaithful to wife Eleanor Powell.

^ Bette's husbands, not husband's. Whatever.

The Anniversary.

Not Eleanor Powell! What a cad. Hairy, thick coated, huge dicked cad.

Arthur Farnsworth, R254

Gilbert Roland was hot, Well done, Miss Davis!

How was Bette only worth around $2 million at the time of her death? She worked constantly from the time she first appeared in Hollywood right up until her death. so she should have socked away at least $10 million. Didn't she make a small fortune from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? since it was such a box-office smash? I think she was also paid a lot of money for her next movie Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. It's not like she ever lived extravagantly.

She gave extravagantly to her monstrous daughter and frequently bankrupt son-in-law. They took full advantage of her for twenty years.

Bette barely had $1 million when she died, which was outrageous for a star of her stature. She should've been a wealthy woman. As r262 said, Bette's leeching daughter BD and BD's husband were two lazy grifters who didn't like to work and Bette supported them at an upper middle-class level for two decades. Bette also supported her mother and mentally ill sister until they both died. She was also the breadwinner in her marriages, her four husbands were mostly bums except for Gary Merrill. She spent a fortune on her family and didn't really spend a lot on herself.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R263, Compare that to Joan Crawford who never gave her kids a dime. What's ironic is that Christina turned out better than BD.

Joan knew she would go broke if she didn't cut her kids off. They were all old enough to work.

How in the world was Olivia de Havilland worth $50 million when she died, and Joan Fontaine $40 million? That doesn't make any sense at all. Bette was a bigger star and worked more than the both of them combined. They must have been drug dealers or something.

R264, Bette had to provide parental permission for her daughter to marry at just 16.

Bette threw B. D. a lavish wedding and agreed to play Susan Hayward's mother in "Where Love Has Gone" to pay for it.

[quote] Joan knew she would go broke if she didn't cut her kids off

R266 She followed Edna Everage's advice

[quote] I've decided the secret of parenting is benevolent neglect. And I put my family last. Because if you don't, they never thank you. You'll never get a word of thanks from them.

Bette's money problems started in the 50s...bad investments, taking care of her mother and lazy sister too. And didn't she have to pay alimony to one of her husbands? I remember reading that the took a cameo role in JOHN PAUL JONES because it paid $50K for less than a week of work and she was practically broke.

What was Bette thinking with that headscarf and weird green hat in that 60 Minutes interview at R249? Didn’t she have time to wash her hair?

That weird green hat was an André Courrèges

R260 Gilbert Roland may have been hot in the 30s but he turned into shrivelled cliché very soon afterwards.

Olivia didn't deserve to give him equal billing in '53.

I wonder if this Courrèges hat also doubled as a bonnet hair dryer...

Why does Bette look like a train conductor in R249?

[quote] The Whales of August was a good coda for Bette as her last completed film.

How odd that it was directed by a not-particularly-successful English director named Lindsay Anderson who was a practitioner of those depressing "kitchen sink' dramas (mentioned by R134) back in the 1960s.

And more than a few of those "kitchen sink'/'angry young men' were repressed gays.