Thursday, March 20, 2008

She's Got Bette Davis Eyes

I can't believe I've never written about Bette Davis. I apologize for that gross oversight. She's amazing!

Anyway, this evening I enjoyed a fabulous Bette Davis picture, Dead Ringer. In it, Bette plays a down-and-out middle aged bar owner in desperate need of a corset, who murders and assumes the identity of her well-to-do, corset-wearing sister (also played by Bette, of course) who married the man she was in love with some twenty years earlier. Unfortunately, she doesn't plan things out quite as well as she should have and things quickly go awry, making for a fantastic picture. I like to think it could make a nice sequel to The Parent Trap.

This is just one of the many weird, creepy Bette Davis movies I love. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is, of course, a favorite. I tend to like the old, creepy Bette to the younger, creepy Bette. She's really quite interesting; at times she can be rather glamorous, but at other times she's downright disturbing. I guess that's what makes her great.

I recently saw All About Eve for the first time, which was excellent. I vaguely remember this Mr. Skeffington movie, featuring a more glamorous Bette.

The sad thing is, these are about all the Bette Davis movies I've ever seen. I also realized tonight that I've never actually seen a color Bette Davis film. I'm not even sure that she made any movies in color. I need to look into this.

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