She may not have been the nicest person in the world (a quality she was apparently aware of: she entitled her 1975 autobiography, Mother Goddam, and her daughter wrote a Mommie Dearest type tell-all), but she was a fine actress --- perhaps one of the best these United States have ever produced. Fiery, witty, and endowed with --- well --- “Bette Davis eyes,” she was quite something. Most of us, perhaps, only remember her later films, like Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? --- films that kept haunting late-night T.V. in the pre-cable era. Still later work, like The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Burnt Offerings, and The Watcher in the Woods confirmed Bette’s reputation as the Grande Dame of mystery and mayhem.
If that is your primary recollection of her work, however, this Warner Brothers set of DVDs will be a revelation. Stretching from 1939 to 1946, the films included cover the war years, and show Miss Davis at the romantic peak of her profession --- but she is no stereotypical damsel --- far from it. The Old Maid (released in 1939, the same year as her pivotal role in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex} is a 19th century costume drama; but Bette is an unwed mother. All This and Heaven Too features our heroine as the apex of a love triangle that contributed mightily to France’s 1848 revolution. In 1941’s The Great Lie, she plays a devoted second wife willing to pretend that her husband’s son by another woman is hers. In the next year’s In This Our Life she plays a nasty vixen who quite literally cares only for her own pleasure. The War really intrudes on her as the American wife of a German resistance hero in The Watch on the Rhine; despite its rather naïve view of things (and its being derived from a play by the odious-if-well-named Lillian Hellman) it is still a good yarn. Lastly, we have the 1946 Deception, in which Bette does her own twist on the nascent film noir.
Each of these is presented as a “Night at the Movies,” as such an entertainment would have been shown in theatres then: with a short feature, newsreel, trailer for another film, cartoon, and other matter. There are also commentaries by historians offering insight into the production of several of the films. A number of the shorts feature actors who achieved later fame: Superman’s George Reeves and Dennis the Menace’s Herberts Anderson appear in “Meet the Fleet” looking like High School grads.
Now, to be sure, this is not a complete presentation of all that Miss Davis did in this period: out of 20 films she made (many of them her greatest work) only six are offered here. But they are certainly entertaining. With the exception of the cruel Stanley Timberlake of In this Our Life, she inevitably plays the good woman victimize by circumstance but standing tall (her recurring line in The Old Maid --- “Don’t pity me!”) may be taken as a tagline for nearly all of these films. Clearly, it is this basic character whom we see decades later in such movies as Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (memorably lampooned in Mad Magazine as “Hack, Hack, Sweet Has-been”). But she was fun in the 60s. she was fun in the 40s, and she is fun now.
Moreover, the supporting casts are excellent, from Charles Boyer to Olivia de Haviland (who gets to be the “good” girl of In This Our Life). The character actors too are excellent. In our current political and economic unrest, this retreat to the past is a sweet tonic for the soul.
Video / Audio / Extras
The Old Maid:
Vintage newsreel
Technicolor Historical Short --- “Lincoln in the White House”
Howard Hill Sports Short --- “Sword Fishing”
Cartoon --- “The Film Fan” and Kristopher Kolumbus”
Trailers --- The Old Maid and 1939’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Subtitles: English and French
All This and Heaven Too:
Commentary by Film Historian Daniel Bubbeo
Vintage newsreel
Patriotic Short --- “Meet the Fleet”
Cartoons --- “Hollywood Daffy” and “Porky’s Last Stand”
Trailers of All This and Heaven Too and 1940’s Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet
Subtitles: English and French
The Great Lie:
Vintage newsreel
Broadway Brevities short --- “At the Stroke of Twelve”
Sports Parade Short --- “Kings of the Turf”
Hollywood Novelty Short --- “Polo With the Stars”
Cartoon --- “Porky’s Pooch”
Trailers of The Great Lie and 1941’s The Strawberry Blonde
Subtitles: English and French
In This Our Life:
Commentary by Film Historian Jeanine Basinger
Vintage newsreel
Technicolor Patriotic Short --- “March On, America!”
Technicolor Musical Short --- “Spanish Fiesta”
Cartoon --- “Who’s Who in the Zoo”
Trailers of In This Our Life and 1942’s Desperate Journey
Subtitles: English and French
Watch on the Rhine:
Commentary by Film Historian Bernard F. Dick
Vintage newsreel
Musical Short --- “Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra”
Cartoon --- “The Wise Quacking Duck”
Trailers of Watch on the Rhine and 1943’s Mission to Moscow
Subtitles: English and French
Deception:
Commentary by Film Historian Foster Hirsch
Vintage newsreel
Sports Parade Short --- “Facing Your Danger”
Technicolor Specials Short --- “Movieland Magic”
Cartoon --- “Mouse Menace”
Trailers of Deception and 1946’s A Stolen Life
Subtitles: English and French
FINAL WORDS
Ancient chick-flicks men can enjoy and women may swoon over. Heroism! Danger! Scandal! Intrigue! … and all safely tucked away in Black and White. Perfect for an escape from reality.
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