Bette Davis Fights With Bette Davis- Dead Ringer

[quote]Bette Davis Fights With Bette Davis

My money's on Bette Davis.

OP, everyone wins when it's Bette Davis vs. Bette Davis

Bette had become so mannered in her acting but she could still pull off playing twins with two different personalities.

This is one that looks like it should be a campy classic but it really isn't.

Bette Davis is really great but this is the point in her career where she was turning into a drag queen.

If you haven't seen it , it's worth the 1 look. Don't buy it.

Bette Davis was 56, she looked 70 and was playing 40. It was hilarious.

"Miss Davis, we're ready for you now."

One critic said of this movie that her face looked like a U-2 photograph of Nevada.

“You haven’t GOT that much!”

Peter Lawford’s character is mauled by a vicious St Bernard puppet.

Which is the Better Davis?

This fraught estrogen middle-aged woman camp homicidal melodrama is the ultimate early 1960s cinematic serving of ham and eggs from La Davis.

Don’t forget, it has DL faves Jean Hagen and Estelle Winwood!

I love how everybody is the film is smoking nonstop.

Karl Malden as Bette's love interest. Who thought that was a good idea?

This was originally to have started Lana Turner. I kind of detest her as an actress, but the thought of her in it is kind of intriguing.

"From outah SPACE!"

And I loved the puppet dog head biting Peter Lawford.

R15- Please don't say you detested her in-

IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)

Girls, girls -- you're both cunts!

If there was a cool little rundown bar downtown with a jazz combo like Poor Bette owned in this, I'd be down there all the time.

The wig Bette wore in this was atrocious, and she kept that wig and wore it in her private life for awhile afterwards.

Bette in the Dead Ringer wig with her ungrateful bitch daughter BD.

Even in that pic Bette is infringing on poor BD.

Bette vs. Body Odor was a movie I wish I had never been in. Unfortunately, I spent the summer of 62 trying to avoid my co-star’s rancid smell. “Dead Ringer” was actually the nickname the wardrobe lady used to describe the stains Bette left in the armpits of her much too small costumes…..

I love the way both Bette’s say “cock-tail lounge” as if it’s 3 words.

I highly recommend the DVD with commentary. Unfortunately one of the commentators is the always tedious and pedantic Boze Hadleigh but the other is Charles Bush, and he is at his funniest. When they get to the scene where Davis forces herself to clutch a red-hot poker (for complicated plot reasons) and yowls, he is just beside himself with laughter--his appreciation of the campiness makes the scene that much funnier.

*Charles BUSCH, not Bush!

Charles Busch reading Bette Davis’ autobiography at Joe’s Pub in her post stroke voice was shocking and disturbing and Jesus was it funny. He’s a hot shit. I miss good old fashioned mean humor like that.

Alex Borstein did a bit of that during her MadTV years and she was so good at it.

R27- Is she the one who plays a DYKE on The Fabulous Mrs. Maisel?

Yes. She was also excellent on an HBO series set in an extended care hospital ward, a US version of a British program. She is so talented. I wish I could have gotten into The Fabulous Mrs. Maisel because I admired the production elements, but lost interest because of some really cheesy and implausible plot devices. I should try watching it again.

Watching Bette sing that Baby Jane song on the Mike Douglas show was so cringe…I felt ashamed for her when I saw it on YouTube.

I loved it - Greystone Mansion! The Rosary! Duke! 'Jim....dontcha know me??? I'm Edie' - camp, melodrama and Bette = heaven.

I was expecting a fun cat fight, OP. “Argues” is a better word.

R11 This fraught estrogen middle-aged woman camp homicidal melodrama is the ultimate early 1960s cinematic serving of ham and eggs from La Davis.

Our kinda flic!

Bette rocks out!

Oh r34, no, just no.

These variety shows were a big thing during this era of media. It looks like Davis appeared a few times on Andy Williams’ program. I remember an episode where she performed folk music with a group of performers, The New Christy Minstrels. It’s a bit like that film The Mighty Wind.

The banter between Davis and Williams is pretty charming. He was very attractive, so trim and smart looking in that era of men’s fashion.

I enjoy these old clips because it’s like a little Time Machine, maybe I was born in the wrong era.

OP’s clip has some really clever editing, and that wasn’t easy during that period of technology. The lines spoken by these characters Maggie and Edie overlap (“Why didn’t you ask me..””…for the fare out of town?”).

You can see the camera trickery and body doubles in some scenes, but overall it’s a pretty buttoned up thriller.

I really like Karl Malden but I think he overacted in a few scenes in this particular film. He manages to sneak in his original family name in one scene, a secret acknowledgment of his background and ancestry. He was an appealing character actor. So was the gentleman who played the Butler, Henry. Cyril Delavanti was also good in Night of the Iguana, especially in the sense that his character elicits all the sentiment expressed by Deborah Kerr’s in that crazy good old film.

“Father died. A. Wino.”

This line only had a period after the word “wino”. I put the others in. It’s more Bette that way.

I’m shocked that Bette went broke as quickly as she did.

Bette supported her entire family. Her mother, sister and her cunt daughter BD. BD and her useless husband didn't like to work for a living and Bette kept them in an upper middle class lifestyle for many years.

As. She. SHOULD.

It's a shame Bette never found a long lasting tv series that would increased her wealth in her old age. She had some awful pilots dating back to the 60's, but Stanwyck, Jane Wyman both had long running runs as matriarchs in prime time. She was only able to do the pilot for Hotel before the cancer ravaged her.

Stanwyck also invested her money wisely. She was one of the A&P grocery chain’s biggest stockholders.

R43- So was I

Stanwyck, Garbo and Kate Hepburn never had kids or husbands who leeched off of them. They were smart.

I love this movie.

Don't ask me why, LOL.

R19, I'm pretty sure the singer in that jazz combo was also the singer/pianist in the bar where Doris Day's and Rock Hudson's characters sat around the piano on one of their dates in Pillow Talk.

Paul Henried directed the movie and his daughter plays rich Bette's maid. Even if I didn't know that, I'd wonder why they cast such a clunky actress in the role, even though it's a small one.

R46, that's Perry Blackwell, aka Perri Lee, who was the featured performer at the Parisian Room at La Brea and Washington in Mid-City Los Angeles for many years. Her only two film credits are "Dead Ringer" and "Pillow Talk."

Bette Davis’ other noticeable fight in this movie is with her rather large and sagging matronly bust. It appears that her brassiere is doing as much heavy lifting in her scenes as the other actors who have to watch Bette constantly chew the scenery with her “acting”. One wrong move and the straps on her bra could break, causing unbelievable damage to anyone within a 15 mile radius- like a dam that bursts without warning.

Bette's unsold, unaired TV pilot, The Decorator. Mary Wickes is her put-upon assistant.

P 48: Bette never wore a bra. She stated this in a Playboy interview. Occasionally there would be a costume with built-in support, such as the 'fasten you seat-belts' dress. Suggest you view some of her 1940s films with this new information.

I have no interest in spending valuable time watching Bette’s films in order to determine if she is wearing undergarments. Perhaps you could suggest this opportunity to Greta, Ida, or another bull dyke actress. Do call me, however, if you need someone to look for cut penis in Gable’s or Bill Holden’s pictures. I would be an expert in that field of study.

Bette Davis and Tommy Smothers . . .

R51 Oh, I think you'd do fine among the bulls, Mrs. Steele

Never seen this film but the original 1940s version with Dolores del Rio is super good.

Charles Busch took a lot of this film for his Die Mommie Die.

The gown Bette is wearing in that clip with Tommy Smothers is one of her original costumes from “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” designed for her by Cary Grant’s NY roommate Orry-Kelly, one of the great clothing designers from the classic period. And the sketch parodies the plot from that film.

Two observations: I love the gold-and-blue outfit Dickie is wearing and both brothers were hot in that not-obvious midwestern way.

R53 Unlike you among the Kennedy brothers, dear child.

R15 Lana did Madame X which had a similar plot device of pretending to be dead and becoming a new person.