The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3 (1941)

A missed opportunity

Although I am very happy that In This Our Life is finally out on DVD, I felt the other selections were rather banal choices. Why did they have to put Watch On The Rhine in this set? A very tedious talky sactimonius piece of WWII propaganda, which is not even a Davis vehicle. All This and Heaven Too although a box office success in it's day, is rather long and overdrawn. Why not have included Dangerous and Beyond The Forest in this set? Some out there may turn their noses up at the thought of these two films being included in a Bette Davis boxed set--indeed, even Davis admitted to hating these films--but her performances still hold up today, and would have made a good juxtiposition between the young Davis spitfire persona and her latter day turn at a no-holds barred middle-aged vixen. I wonder who puts these packages together??? The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3 (The Old Maid / All This, And Heaven Too / The Great Lie / In This Our Life / Watch on the Rhine / Deception) June 29, 2008

Bette Davis: Always Relevant

Bette Davis sparkles in this 3rd collection, which features 6 previously unreleased (on DVD) titles.

In This Our Life: Bette Davis and Olivia De Havilland are a pair of priviledged sisters who can't get along, especially when Bette tries to cover up a murder.

Watch On the Rhine: This war-time film won Paul Lukas an Oscar for Best Actor, and features one of Bette's most personal monologues that she said set the tone for the rest of her life.

The Old Maid: The original pairing of Miriam Hopkins and Bette that had audiences crying in the theatre. It was one of the most profitable films of 1939.

The Great Lie: When Mary Astor won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress she thanked Tchaikovsky and Bette Davis- and rightfully so. For once, Bette plays the good girl, while Astor plays the femme fatale with grand results.

Deception: The reunion of the "Now Voyager" cast (Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Bette Davis) finds them embroiled in a deadly love triangle.

All This and Heaven Too: Warner Bros. answer to "Gone With the Wind" stars Bette Davis, Charles Boyer and Barbara O'Neil. When Bette becomes a governess to a well-to-do French family, she finds herself an accessory to murder.

These films are excellently restored and have wonderful special features. My only wish is that they hurry up with the 4th volume and are sure to include some of the most requested Davis films such as "Beyond the Forest", "A Stolen Life", or "Cabin in the Cotton." June 28, 2008

ADORE!

I ADORE Bette Davis and this newest boxed set collection has excellent art work! It also has several more of my favorite films such as All This and Heaven Too and Deception. This is a beautiful package with purposeful attention to the Bette Davis "eyes" on the front cover. It's extraordinary! I do hope they put Dangerous and some of her earlier films in the next set. Thank you Warner Brothers! Thumps up to you! June 17, 2008

Love bette davis films. Was hard to find these tiltles.

Thank god, Amazon had these tiltles available, it was hard to find these titles on DVD. I would have to wait until cable decided to show these films.


Thanks Amazon! June 4, 2008

Quality package of second rung Davis

Since this is Volume 3 of the Bette Davis DVD sets, one would expect it to reach into the more controversial of her Warner Brother's legacy. Six films are included as follows:

- in 1939, possibly Davis's best year, "The Old Maid" paired her with the bitchy Miriam Hopkins in an emotional work out as a spinster who lives with her cousin who raises Davis's illegitimate daughter as her own. The film is very well made by Edmund Goulding and based on an Edith Wharton play but it was a dated yarn even in 1939.
- in 1940, "All This and Heaven Too" was filmed as Warner's rival production to "Gone with the Wind", a long and detailed film, the opposite of the normal gutsy Warner's product. Davis plays a governess in the unhappy home of Duke Charles Boyer and the film was based on fact. It is a dull film but Davis underplays poignantly.
- in 1941, "The Great Lie" was an entertaining but absurd soap opera with fireworks from Oscar winning Mary Astor as Davis's rival for the affections of George Brent. This was one of the films which contributed to Davis's reputation for interference. She found the screenplay poor and worked with Astor to re-write it and give it some guts.
- in 1942, the controversial "In This our Life" was released with a thin Davis playing a southern gal wreaking havoc on all around her. The film has underlying themes of racism and incest and is well constructed. Olivia De Havilland plays her sister and they make an interesting contrast. Davis is mannered and frenetic but it is not simple enough to dismiss her performance as such because she absolutely nails a bitch on heat.
- in 1943, "Watch on the Rhine", based on a very successful Broadway play, starred Paul Lukas in an Oscar winning performance as an anti fascist. Davis subdues her fireworks and matches Lukas with a warm and sympathetic portrayal of the wife who understands the reality of her husband's work. The film is stage bound and the children are awful but it is a worthwhile piece of history.
- 1946, Davis was pregnant and insecure and the overwrought "Deception" betrays her personal tensions. The film is high camp entertainment with an over the top Claude Rains as a conductor/composer. A plush melodrama, probably the last real Davis vehicle, what it lacks in credibility, mainly due to the censors, it makes up for in over the top dramatics.

The prints of all of the films are superb. All the disks contain Warner Brother's Night at the Movies, that entertaining program of cartoon, shorts and trailers - something for everyone. There are commentaries on 4 of the films - two good, one not so good and one dreadul. Janine Basinger gets better and better and her comments about "In This Our Life" are first rate. She also has a wry sense of humour which adds so much. The commentary for "Deception" is interesting because the commentator carefully points out how what went on behind the scenes, particularly Davis's personal life at this time, affected what can be seen on the celluloid. This is a good character study of Davis and her art. For "All This in Heaven Too", Daniel Bubbeo lost me in the first 10 minutes when he managed to completely repeat himself, almost word for word. He is wet in the worst sense. The commentator for "Watch on the Rhine" is a Lillian Hellman biographer and manages to talk almost entirely for the duration without mentioning the film. He also is a Claudette Colbert fan, including irrelevant stuff about Colbert, even going so far as to undermine Davis's famous performance in "All About Eve" when she replaced Colbert. This is a rotten commentary.

The set is excellent value. May 10, 2008

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