The Retro Blog

A lot of people like Bette Davis, but I am in the special Bette Davis fan sub group consisting of people who like old, sagging Bette Davis. There are more of us than you’d think.

Bette was always quite clever. When her career first began Universal Pictures attempted to change her name to “Bettina Dawes.” Bette refused saying that she didn’t want to be remembered by something that sounded like “between the drawers”.

She became well known for her acting skills in films like Dangerous and Jezebel, both of which earned her Academy Award nominations. Her popularity began to decline with age in the 40’s, but she made a comeback in the popular All About Eve as Margo Channing, an actress whose popularity is beginning to decline with age.

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were lifelong rivals. When both actresses’ careers were failing, they found themselves starring opposite each other in a movie that could not have been performed by any other players, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. The two despised each other, creating a brilliant chemistry on screen.

Off screen Bette Davis had a Coke machine installed on the set to annoy Crawford, who had been married to the Pepsi CEO. For revenge Crawford filled her pockets with rocks to make herself heavier in scenes where Davis had to drag her across the floor. Bette later said, “The best time I ever had with Joan in a film was when I pushed her down the stairs in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Davis was nominated for an Oscar for her part and a jealous Joan actively campaigned against her. Crawford then volunteered to represent Anne Bancroft, who was nominated for her role in The Miracle Worker but was unable to attend the award’s show. When Anne won Crawford allegedly tapped Davis on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept.”

Bette Davis, ever witty, let many gems about Crawford loose on the public:

“I wouldn’t piss on her if she was on fire.”

“She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.”

“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why Joan Crawford always plays ladies.”

And finally, when asked to comment on Crawford’s death, Davis responded, “You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

When forced to choose which of the two Bette’s from the pictures above we’d like to see, a great number of us would pick the first one. My mom is one such person, and one of the few genres of film we can always agree to watch is the Hag movie, a genre defined by the presences of classic Hollywood starlets way past their prime playing villainous roles. Davis’s hag roles include the aforementioned Jane, Dead Ringer, The Nanny, and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte a film that was supposed to reunite her and Joan Crawford but was recast due to Crawford’s failing health. Vivien Leigh was offered Crawford’s role but declined saying, “No, thank you. I can just about stand looking at Joan Crawford’s face at six o’clock in the morning, but not Bette Davis.”