The Passionate Life of Bette Davis
Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis by Lawrence J. Quirk
More Than a Woman: An Intimate Biography of Bette Davis by James Spada
Bette Davis was a bad, bad girl.
Bette was soo bad the while she was married she used to sleep with more than one person at a time to create extra conflict. Bette was soo bad Joan Collins claimed she was the inspiration for Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Bette was sooooo Bad that she is was rumored to be the the precipitating cause of husband number two’s death.
Yes. Off screen bad, bad Bette Davis created far more feuds, turmoil, and histrionics than she displayed on the silver screen. I believe your favorite shrink might call her a Histrionic or Narcissistic Personality Disorder Supreme. But Yankee Bette, go to a shrink? Ne-vahhhh!!!
All About Eve, Original Window Card, 1950
All About Eve, 1950
Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz
Finally tossed the Christmas trees to the curb. No more Twinkle Twinkle. Sigh. Need something to keep the winter gloom away. How about a Twinkle Trifeca? Bette Davis, George Sanders, and Marilyn Monroe. So un-Noir. But, who cares. Ladle this trio with some cocktails and you got yourself a sparkly little show.
Bette Davis was only 42 when she made All About Eve, and the bloom was definitely off the rose. But the thorns were sharper than ever. Oscar nomination numero Ocho. Every fiftyish single lady who bypassed kids and a husband on her way up the ladder can identify with Ms. Channing. Money, men and melodrama. And plenty of gators snapping at your heels.
Now, Voyager Dell Romance 99, First Edition
Now, Voyager, Dell Romance 99, first edition
by Olive Higgins Prouty
Cover art by Gerald Gregg
Try this plot on for size: Wealthy woman plagued by tragedy and a controlling mum has nervous breakdown. After graduating from two years of therapy, the woman frees herself from the past and blossoms into a successful adult. She then decides to pass on riches of shrink-dom to a daughter surrogate. Daughter surrogate turns on her and lampoons her in satirical black hole of a autobiographical novel prior to killing herself.
Twisted version of Now, Voyager? Hidden version of Bette Davis’ real life? No, the true story of Olive Higgins Prouty. Author of Now, Voyager. The surrogate? Sylvia Plath. The book? The Bell Jar
Yes, gentle reader sometimes true life has more brackish melodrama than even our eye-popping Ms. Davis in Of Human Bondage could muster. Or, say the edited version of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on the tuber. . . Well, maybe not.
The Unsuspected, Cover Art of Claude Rains
Warner’s, hot on the money trail of murder and mayhem in the 1940′s, quickly snapped up Charlotte Armstrong’s novel The Unsuspected and churned out another slick noir. The Unsuspected features a couple of the film world’s most notorious mannered actors: Claude Rains and Audrey Totter. A YouTuber has even put together a tribute to Audrey. Claude’s tribute would take too long.
Being a hambone is not necessarily a bad thing. All Best Supporting Actor nominations are shamelessly rife with overwrought, weepy, eye-rolling, couch-flopping, death-rattling dramatizations. Penelpe Cruz’s pouty crazy bitches are an Academy favorite. In the 1940′s Claude Rains was nominated 4 times for a variety of scene-stealers:
Dead Ringer, Half Sheet
Dead Ringer is one of those rare cinematic pleasures, A movie that can be relished on so many levels that the category Noir Horror can barely contain its glory.
Twin Movie. Naturally this isn’t Bette’s first twin movie (who cares about the first one). And, to make it even better, both twins are “Eeeevil”.
Campy juxapositions: One twin lives in Greystone Mansion in Los Angeles while the other operates a trashy gin joint. One twin wears cocktail dresses all day long dripping with jewels vs. one in cleaning lady attire and a bozo wig.
Peter Lawford stretches himself as sleazy Playboy.
Best Supporting performance by a Cigarette: Notice how Bette needs no words to get her point across. Only a cigarette. It huffs! It puffs!! It suffers a violent end in an ashtray or under a high heeled foot! And, Paul Henried is there behind the scenes directing the cigarettes performance — how trashtastic is that!
Drink to Favorite Bette Manorism. Eye Pops. Eye Rolls. Eye pop and roll. Arm Flails. Words beginning in “E” heeved with an exquisite flourish: “Eeeedith, . . .Eeeeevil” On second thought this could get sloppy.
Fine. Colors are nice and bright. No tears. Half sheet has been folded, but there is no paper loss. Poster has been stored flat. There are a few pin holes. Upper right corner (about 1/8″) has a fold mark.
