Lillian Gish vs Bette Davis

I wonder why Bette was such a bitch to Lillian?

It was kind of sad watching this movie. Gish was 14 years older than Bette yet looked younger.

I love what Gish had to say about Bette's appearance.

"That face! Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman! How she must be suffering! I don't think it's right to judge a person like that. We must bear and forbear."

Did Davis get along with anybody?

Bitch Davis could never have played Shakespeare.

This is the thing, with Crawford, Joan was the "movie star" and Bette was the "actress." But, when it came to Lillian Gish, Bette knew she was the "movie star" while Gish was the "actress." It wasn't a situation she found herself in often. She was always the "serious" actress in her films.

Davis was near the end of her career, infirm and miserable (and still chain smoking). She shouldn't have done the movie, as she was no longer capable of behaving professionally with her co-star (Gish) and director (Lindsay Anderson). It turned out to be a lousy movie, anyway, like the play it's based on.

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'The Whales of August'; directed by homosexual Lindsay Anderson.

A Lot of the 1980s let's give the oldies one last shot films weren't good, The Whales Of August and On Golden Pond were both boring as shit. Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Trip To Bountiful, were good though.

I would have loved it if Bette had lived long enough/been in better health and could've had the chance at both Daisy and Bountiful, I always loved her Southern roles. Bountiful especially would have reminded viewers of Cabin In The Cotton, and would have served as a better ending to her career. As would have Miss Daisy. Instead this was her last completed film and then the travesty that is Wicked Stepmother.

The Whales of August didn't bore me at all. I loved Davis, Gish, Price and Sothern in this, and the cinematography captured the Maine coast well. Davis at 49:42 is the best work from her after her stroke.

I preferred Ladies in Lavender with Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. I watched that first so this felt like a real letdown to me.

I had to fast-forward though that 90 minute ordeal.

Lillian was just coping.

Bette looked like a corpse.

And Ann Southern looked like a blimp

I liked this movie - both of them played the parts they were given quite well.

The whales. I'm not sure which one of them played one.

Bette Davis had had a stroke which tends to bring out the evil in people.

R9, note that Horton Foote wrote Trip to Bountiful for Lillian Gish. Bette Davis would have been completely wrong for the role.

R15 She might have been. But I think it would still be fascinating to watch and I totally believe she could've done it. I do, however, think she would've been perfect to play Miss Daisy.

People forget how good of an actress Bette Davis could be, when she really tried and had a good script.

[quote] Gish was 14 years older than Bette yet looked younger.

The booze and cigs really did a number on Bette.

R17

What, r18?

R19

And, r20?

The director complimented Lillian for her close-up. Bette snarled that she (Lillian) ought to know about close-ups; she was there when they invented them. Then she added “that bitch has been around forever, you know.”

As passive aggressive as it is, I love that Gish simply turned off her hearing aid when Davis became tedious.

Having a stroke really does bring out the nasty in people, as the above poster said.

Bette for obvious reasons. Gish worked for white supremacists and fucked them. Old hag.

[quote]"That face! Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman! How she must be suffering! I don't think it's right to judge a person like that. We must bear and forbear."

Too bad Bette wasn't near her when that was uttered. She would have slapped that bitch so hard it would have made Will Smith green with envy.

Bette would have made Daisy Werthan meaner than hell. Imagine her tearing into Patti as Florine.

R14. That would be Ann Sothern

Who?

No idea what this is about.

R5 How do you explain Miriam Hopkins then?

Bette also threw a tantrum over getting top billing. Lillian's response was this. "Oh dear, I just can't deal with that sort of thing. I don't care what they do with my name. If they leave it off, so much the better. It's the work I love, not the glory."

Remember how Bette chastised the audience on Johnny Carson when they were snickering at her saying nice things about Gish? The audience saw right through the bullshit and she was pissed.

[quote] Gish worked for white supremacists and fucked them.

Dear R25, you're still nursing a hatred from 107 years ago. It's time to let go of your anger. Lillian died and you might be also soon.

[quote]But, when it came to Lillian Gish, Bette knew she was the "movie star" while Gish was the "actress."

Really? Gish's Academy Award was for Lifetime Achievement. Meaning the bitch was still alive.

R33 After her silent film stardom she returned to the stage, where everyone back then considered the “real” acting to take place, not on a Hollywood soundstage.

This book is worth reading if you've never run across it. Both Gish and Davis were masters of their very different forms.

[quote] Gish was 14 years older than Bette yet looked younger.

Gish never had to work with Lucille LeSueur. That bitch would have aged anyone.

R36 Says the woman who took all of Miss LeSueur's cast-offs. "Classics" like Lady in a Cage, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and Airport '77.

R15: Trip to Bountiful was awful, because of Geraldine Page and her hammy overacting. It might have been watchable with Gish.

[quote]After her silent film stardom she returned to the stage, where everyone back then considered the “real” acting to take place, not on a Hollywood soundstage.

So, apples and oranges. Two completely different types of "acting."

[quote]It might have been watchable with Gish.

But more fun with Davis chain smoking on the bus.

I am shocked the Lillian Gish version of T2B is no longer on Youtube. Lillian Gish is wonderful, but Eva Marie Saint is also pretty marvelous. The scene on the bus is perfect.

Lillian Gish was family, right?

I saw this movie (and have watched it a handful of times throughout the years in different formats) because I am from the generation of Bette Davis after the stroke. I thought she was equally strong and spiteful and learned more about her.

This movie I sat through in the theatre because I wanted to of course see Bette Davis act on screen instead of t.v. but also to see how a silent film actress would sound. Very weird child I was. Odd one might say.

Bette played fragility well enough in this one all things considered. But, Lilian Gish really pulled some good takes in this quite delicately. I gotta give it to Lillian with this one.

Ann Southern just plays along. Why not?

r42 Miss Gish was also a dab hand with a shotgun.

I was a Bette Davis fan from the first time I saw her on screen. One of Old Hollywood's biggest stars who always delivered the goods. As years passed, her private life, public feuds and THAT MOUTH began to overshadow her work. She deteriorated before my eyes, and this was even before the stroke. Yes, she was a crotchety old dame, who'd earned her stripes but it was becoming oppressive. There was no let-up, always sturm und drang, it wasn't appealing. Was she not aware that she wasn't always on a movie set? It must've been hell to view life as she did, AND make the world aware of it.

R42, she was long involved with George Jean Nathan.

Miss Gish surely looked comfortable with the rifle in Night of the Hunter.

Lillian Gish had at least two relationships with men. (Whether she had a romantic/sexual relationship with D.W. Griffith is still unknown). However, lesbian rumors about her and her sister have been around since the 1920s. It is even mentioned in a song lyric from the time.

[quote] It must've been hell to view life as she did, AND make the world aware of it.

Not at all. Bette Davis loved being "Bette Davis."

Lillian Gish's greatest film performances mostly occurred before there even were such things as Oscars.

I have no doubt had their been Academy Awards during the major part of the silent era, she would have won them for Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Scarlet Letter (1926).

R48. How could you forget The Wind.

R49, The Wind was eligible for the Oscars on their second year, but by that time talkies were all the rage and and the Academy ignored some late silent masterpieces. So they went for Mary Pickford's extremely lame performance in Coquette rather than Gish's in The Wind (or Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc, if you want).