All About Eve (1950)

Margo Channing is a person of opposite qualities, of conflicting needs and desires. On the surface an acerbic and outspoken person, she occasionally allows an underlying vulnerability to emerge. She is clearly competitive with other women but relies on the companionship and loyalty of her best (and unthreatening) friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm). A dedicated careerist, she nonetheless finds herself tiring of her profession and wanting a relationship with her director, Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill, who later did marry Davis). She would like to keep working but realizes that at her age appropriate leading roles are unlikely to come her way, and she already feels uncomfortable with her latest role, a Southern belle and clearly much younger than Margo herself. Her need for status and professional recognition drives her to want to hold on to her position as Broadway's leading actress, yet she knows that eventually she will be replaced by a younger actress whose ambition matches her own, although she doesn't expect it to be so soon, and she doesn't expect that person to be the outwardly adoring but secretly scheming Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter).



 

This is a brilliant film!  Enjoy! :) xx

Now Voyager (1942)

Here is another Bette Davis classic!  "Now, Voyager" (1942) was directed by Irving Rapper, starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Gladys Cooper. The movie is based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, who got the title from a poem by Walt Whitman ("Now voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find"). Bette Davis plays Charlotte Vale, an ugly duckling and spinster without any self-esteem, who lives with her controlling, dominating mother (Gladys Cooper). Fearing for Charlotte's mental well-being, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) arranges for her to meet psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who has her admitted to his sanatorium. At the sanatorium and away from her mother, Charlotte slowly starts to recover. Having transformed into a beautiful swan but still insecure, she goes on a cruise and meets a married man, Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid), and they fall in love. But since Jerry is married, they decide not to pursue their love any further. Returning home from the cruise, strenghtened by her memories of Jerry, Charlotte finally stands up to her mother. But when her mother dies of a heart attack after a quarrel with Charlotte, Charlotte blames herself and guilt stricken returns to the sanatorium. At the sanatorium she meets a teenage girl Tina (Janis Wilson) who reminds her of herself. She takes the girl under her wings and starts to care for her, especially when she finds out that it's Jerry's daughter. Knowing she can't be with the man she loves, Charlotte sees helping Jerry's daughter as her new mission in life and as a way of remaining close to him.

This improvised moment by Paul Henreid lighting two cigarettes at once and handing
one to Davis became an instant classic. 

 

Bette Davis and Gladys Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the first Bette Davis movie I saw. I was about nine years old. I fell in love with the characters, the story, music and the actors. I love this movie! Highly recommend it! xx 

 

 

 



 

Dark Victory (1939)

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Victory stars Bette Davis as a rich playgirl who is diagnosed with a fatal disease that will steal her sight and then her life. She is so interesting to watch - as a self-absorbed, proud, spoiled young woman, as a brave patient, as a grateful survivor enjoying life,a spiteful woman, wronged by love and betrayed by her best friend, as a doomed woman living recklessly without regard for her safety or her reputation,and as a woman resigned to her fate, determined to live out what is left of her life in dignity.  Judith Traherne falls in love with her doctor, they marry and move to Vermont to enjoy life together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's like a full palette of human emotion, and she does it so well! Enjoy! xx