Best Actress: Bette Davis II

I found myself in quite the pickle last time Bette Davis won an Oscar, didn't I?

via davisbette

Do I think Jezebel is a standout in Bette's oeuvre? Sure. Do I think it's one of the two best performances of her career? Not by a long shot, but such is the Oscars. It's hard not to consider how Gone with the Wind affected Hollywood; how everybody who was anybody was being considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, and how studio politics played into it. 

By all accounts, Bette would've been all wrong for the willful Southern belle immortalized on the screen by Vivien Leigh (all I can say is stay tuned!) but that didn't stop the powers that be at Warner Bros from giving her the chance to do it. 

Enter Jezebel. In this, Bette plays willful Southern belle Julie Morrison. Her Ashley Wilkes is Preston Dillard, played toothlessly by Henry Fonda. Her Melanie Wilkies, an underutilized Margaret Lindsay. There's no real Rhett Butler equivalent, but that would defeat the purpose of Jezebel. It's not so much a cohesive story as it is a showcase for Bette Davis to shine, scenery and co-stars be damned. 

But man, is Bette impressive in this role. She sinks her teeth into the role of Julie. Those large eyes send out scornful glares and doleful glances, her presence commands your attention from the very first moment you see her until the last frame when the yellow fever wagon is taking her away to the sickness island where she's atoning for all of her sins. 

I think my main issue with Jezebel is that it's a pale imitation of Gone with the Wind. I'll elaborate.

In my opinion, Jezebel feels like a rushed job. A movie Warner Bros crammed onto the release schedule to get out before Gone with the Wind because they knew that it would be an instant classic and wanted to capitalize on it. Julie undergoes some of the transformational moments Scarlett O'Hara does, it just seems like the stakes are lower and the redemption is unearned. Where Julie is spoiled and selfish for the sake of being spoiled and selfish—until the last five minutes or so—Scarlett O'Hara at least has the obsessive love for Ashley Wilkes, the love for Tara, and the willfulness to have survived all the obstacles life has thrown at her (not to sound sympathetic to the Confederates!) and come out a changed woman, granted at the very end of her movie, too. 

There are stakes, there are consequences, there's a fleshed out story for us to glom onto with Gone with the Wind. With Jezebel, it's just that Julie is a spoiled Southern belle who's pissed that her fiancé, Preston, won't cut out of an important business meeting early to come see her dress fitting. That he won't skip out just to see her enrages her to the point that she orders a red satin gown instead and scandalously insists on wearing it to a ball where all the unmarried women wear white. This is where it would've made sense to film in Technicolor, but I digress. Rather than let her scurry home embarrassed, Pres forces Julie to dance every reel despite everyone else abandoning the dance floor lest they be seen in her company. At the end of the evening, Pres leaves her, breaks their engagement, and disappears for a year, only to return with a Northern wife and the crosshairs of Julie's obsessive love firmly placed on his head. 

It's only in the final minutes, when Pres succumbs to yellow fever and is being taken to an island where all the sick people are quarantined that Julie displays any growth. She insists on accompanying him so she can care for him 'round the clock. This despite him having a wife—who Julie insists won't be able to fully care for him because she doesn't have the Southern sensibilities to fight for him—and despite her being completely healthy and potentially assigning herself to an early death. What did Julie learn in the end? Selflessness? It's just the same selfishness cushioned in a soft-focused close-up of those massive Bette Davis eyes.

Anyway. Like I said, I think Bette's great in this. Her Oscar, in my opinion, is much more deserved for Jezebel than Dangerous. It's just overall terrible that she never got rewarded for films like Now, Voyager or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or All About Eve. But we've been over this already, so I won't waste time again. 

Bette Davis won against Fay Bainter (White Banners), Wendy Hiller (Pygmalion), Norma Shearer (Marie Antoinette), and Margaret Sullavan (Three Comrades). Of these, I've seen Pygmalion and Marie Antoinette and didn't particularly care for them over Jezebel.

DID I LIKE JEZEBEL? I liked Bette, does that count? 

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Did you like Jezebel? What are your thoughts on Bette Davis's second and final Oscar win? 

Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.