Bette Davis Collection (US Import BLU-RAY)
US Import
Jezebel:
While movie fans were abuzz over who might play Scarlett O'Hara in the upcoming Gone with the Wind, Bette Davis got another Southern-belle role – and gave a fiery performance that won the 1938 Best Actress Academy Award®. Davis plays Julie, a New Orleans beauty whose constant attempts to goad fiancé Pres Dillard (Henry Fonda) to jealousy backfire. Angry and disgraced, Pres breaks their engagement and leaves town. Julie endures a year of remorse until Pres comes home – married. Then her vengeance explodes.
Jezebel is also noted for its sumptuous sets and costumes, Fay Bainter's Oscar®-winning* performance and William Wyler's vivid direction, highlighted by a horrifying re-creation of a yellow fever epidemic. But the film's greatest strength is Davis, whose titanic talent has never been better displayed than in Jezebel.
Dark Victory:
A young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and must decide whether she'll meet her final days with dignity. Bette Davis' bravura, moving but never morbid performance as Judith Traherne, a dying heiress determined to find happiness in her few remaining months, turns the film into a three-hankie classic. But that success would never have happened if Davis hadn't pestered studio brass to buy Dark Victory's story rights. Jack Warner finally did so skeptically. "Who wants to see a dame go blind?" he asked. Almost everyone was the answer: Dark Victory was Davis' biggest box-office hit yet and garnered three Academy Award nominations for 1939's Best Picture, Best Actress (Davis) and Best Music, Original Score (Max Steiner).
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex:
Bette Davis and Errol Flynn made The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex fascinatingly public, striking sparks in this lavish Technicolor® tale of the ill-fated love between the aging Elizabeth I and the dashing Earl of Essex. Thoroughly unglamorous here – eyes and hairline shaved, face painted chalky white – double Academy Award® winner* Davis exudes such intelligence, energy and ardor that her romance with the decades-younger Essex (Flynn at the peak of his remarkable good looks and athletic verve) is completely believable. Based on Maxwell Anderson's play Elizabeth the Queen and directed by Michael Curtiz, this nominee for five Oscars takes liberties with historical accuracy, but none with dramatic impact. Long may these tempestuous, titled lovers reign!
The Letter:
Six years after exploding to stardom in Of Human Bondage, Bette Davis equaled that excitement with another W. Somerset Maugham role as an adulteress using her sexual wiles to escape a murder conviction in The Letter. The film throbs with sultry tension thanks to Davis, an impeccable supporting cast, atmospheric cinematography and the artistry of three-time Academy Award® winner* William Wyler, Davis' director on Jezebel and The Little Foxes. Nominated for seven Oscars®, including Best Picture, Actress, Director and Supporting Actor, The Letter remains one of Hollywood's most special deliveries, a peerless example of melodrama as movie art.