The 8 Bette Davis Movies That Defined Her Career

Even those who have never seen a single Bette Davis film know her name and that her legacy represented movie stardom in its purest form. With eyes so striking there were songs written about them, Davis burst into Hollywood as an uncompromising actress, unafraid to look brash and aggressive in the name of playing compelling, sardonic, and occasionally unlikable characters. With an ability to capture the highs and lows of heartbreak and sorrow while having a nuanced understanding of when to play it big for the cameras and when to pull back, Davis was truly an icon of cinema.

While the best Bette Davis movies rank among the greatest films ever produced, her career also featured plenty of ups and downs as her relationship with stardom was complex and inconsistent. Davis achieved widespread recognition through Oscar-winning roles in the 1930s, had an all-time career high with All About Eve in 1950, and reignited her career in the 1960s in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Through her notorious feud with Joan Crawford, Davis has remained a touchstone of popular culture and a celebrity the likes of which the world will never see again.

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8 Bad Sister (1931)

Bette Davis as Laura Madison

After getting her start in acting with shows on Broadway, Bette Davis set her sights on Hollywood and secured a deal with Universal Studios for her first movie role in Bad Sisters. As a melodrama of romance and deceit, Davis played the good sister, Laura, while Sidney Fox gained the far more interesting role of the unlikable titular bad sister. With the power of hindsight, these roles should have been switched, although Davis’ untapped potential for playing morally complex, self-involved, downright nasty characters had yet to be realized.

Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart appeared in several movies together:
Bad Sister
(1931),
Three on a Match
(1932),
The Petrified Forest
(1936),
Kid Galahad
(1937),
Marked Woman
(1937),
Dark Victory
(1939), and
Thank Your Lucky Stars
(1943).

Bad Sister was notable primarily as the starting point for Davis’ career and as her first of seven movies with Humphrey Bogart, who played the slick hustler conning the Madison family while wooing the wayward daughter. There’s an earlier indication of Davis’ star potential, but overall, this role showcased Universal didn’t quite know what to do with her. Luckily, this would just be a minor step back in her burgeoning career, as Davis would join Warner Bros. in 1932 and start gaining parts that suited her skillset far better.

7 Of Human Bondage (1934)

Bette Davis as Mildred Rogers

Bette Davis finally gained a role that she could really sink her teeth into as the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage. Based on the acclaimed novel by W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage tells the sorrowing tale of Philip Carey (Leslie Howard), a failed artist-turned-doctor who was utterly infatuated with Mildred. While Mildred was flattered by the lavish attention Philip showed her, she did not respect him and continually broke his heart by dropping him for other men, falling pregnant, and crawling back with tears in her eyes.

Of Human Bondage was the story of a man who consistently tried to see the best in a woman who was determined to show her worst. Davis was perfect in this kind of role, and although she received her first Academy Award nomination for playing Mildred, she lost out on the prize to Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night. However, Davis’s performance was too impressive for Hollywood to ignore, and it opened the door for her to start playing more sardonic, often unlikable, and hopelessly tragic characters in the future.

6 Dangerous (1935)

Bette Davis as Joyce Heath

It seemed Hollywood was determined to make it up to Bette Davis for passing over her after her Academy Award-worthy performance in Of Human Bondage, and they gave her the Oscar for her slightly less compelling role in Dangerous. While the character of down-and-out actress Joyce Heath did not have quite the same emotional bite as Mildred Rogers, it was still a powerful showcase of her range. As the story of a once-promising star turned hopeless drunk, Joyce used to be the most exciting actress on Broadway until a series of misfortunes led to the rumor that she was jinxed.

However, a young man named Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) saw Joyce’s potential, and he gave her the tools to rehabilitate herself and return to the stage. Along the way, Don and Joyce fall in love, and he even considers leaving his fiance for her in this melodrama of acting, affairs, and alcohol. While Dangerous signaled an early triumph for Davis due to her Oscar win, it was also a pivotal moment in her notorious feud with fellow actress Joan Crawford, who, behind the scenes, got engaged to Tone, whom Davis had fallen in love with on set.

5 Jezebel (1938)

Bette Davis as Julie Marsden

While Of Human Bondage signaled her arrival and Dangerous gained her accolades, it was in Jezebel that Bette Davis solidified her reputation as a consistent Hollywood star. Set in 1850s Louisana and starring Davis as the free-spirited Southern bell Julie Marsden, Jezebel told the story of how vanity and pride led to the loss of her fiance, although the headstrong woman became determined to win him back. Starring Davis alongside Henry Fonda, Jezebel was an epic period drama of romance set amid New Orleans’s most deadly yellow fever epidemic.

Davis would gain her second Oscar for her role in Jezebel, a part that subdued her normally fiery persona as director William Wyler embraced a softer side to her talents. But as a tale of defiance, love, and redemption, there were still plenty of glimpses into Davis’ more bombastic and volatile tendencies. Jezebel was the film in which Davis learned to control her acting gifts, knowing when to go big and when to keep things more reserved for maximum effect.

4 Now, Voyager (1942)

Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale

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After making a name for herself as a Hollywood star in the 1930s, Bette Davis continued her hot streak as one of America’s most celebrated leading ladies during the 1940s. This decade included more Academy Award-nominated performances, such as in The Letter, The Little Foxes, and Mr. Skeffington, although her most impressive Oscar-nominated role in the 1940s was Now, Voyager. Here, Davis once again showcased that nobody could play a damaged woman quite like her, as the sorrowing existence of Charlotte Vale’s life, which was brutally dominated by her aristocratic mother, was on full display.

As a drab, quiet, overweight, and neurotic woman, the verbal and emotional abuse Charlotte faced led her to the sanitorium, where, away from her mother’s influence, her confidence blossomed, and she gained a new lease of life. With a love story between Davis and Paul Henreid at the center of his sad story, Now, Voyager explores the difficulties in finding one’s path in life and the blockades a bad upbringing can create. Now, Voyager was an excellent showcase of Davis’ increasing talent throughout the 1940s, even as her star started to wane in the latter part of the decade.

3 All About Eve (1950)

Bette Davis as Margo Channing

By the time All About Eve was released in 1950, it looked like Bette Davis’ time at the top had already come to an end. However, Davis’ faltering career throughout the late 1940s only made her role as the aging Broadway star Margo Channing more impactful, as it was clear she shared many similarities with the wayward protagonist. As Margo made cinematic history with her famous uttering, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night,” she gained her most famous role in a movie that would become widely regarded as among the greatest films ever made.

All About Eve showcased how Margo’s career and personal life were dismantled by an ambitious young fan named Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), who infiltrated her existence. With top-tier directing and writing from Joseph L. Mankiewicz and a spellbinding performance from Davis, it’s no surprise All About Eve became a huge hit with critics and audiences alike, gaining a record 14 Academy Award nominations. Taking home Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, one of Hollywood’s greatest oversights was that Davis did not receive an Oscar for her unmatched portrayal of Margo Channing.

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All About Eve Not RatedComedyThriller

In this backstage drama, aspiring actress Eve Harrington enters Broadway star Margo Channing’s life, weaving a tale of hardship. Welcomed by Margo and her circle, Eve’s gratitude soon reveals darker intentions as she manipulates her way into Margo’s world.

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*Availability in US Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz Release Date October 13, 1950 Cast Bette Davis , Anne Baxter , George Sanders , Celeste Holm , Gary Merrill , Hugh Marlowe , Thelma Ritter Runtime 138 Minutes

2 What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)

Bette Davis as Jane Hudson

Cinema changed a lot from the 1930s to the 1960s, and along the way, many of the early era’s biggest stars fell by the wayside and became forgotten relics of times past. This was not the case for Bette Davis, who found a unique way of making herself remain relevant as she satirized not just her own legacy but American society’s infatuation with youth in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? With Davis starring opposite her longtime rival Joan Crawford, this psychological horror revitalized both of their careers for a new era.

As a former child star whose life has been disseminated by alcoholism, Davis played Jane Hudson while Crawford portrayed her sister Blanche, who also became a Hollywood actress after her sibling’s career was halted by a car accident. Baby Jane was a story of bitter resentment and horrific cruelty that had an engaging and compelling campy feel to it. This was the role that gained Davis her tenth and final Academy Award nomination and led to similar later parts in psychological horrors like Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

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What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, a psychological thriller from 1962 directed by Robert Aldrich, stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as aging sisters with a history of Hollywood fame and sibling rivalry. The film explores themes of jealousy, dependency, and mental instability, set against the backdrop of their decaying mansion in Los Angeles.

Director Robert Aldrich Release Date October 31, 1962 Cast Bette Davis , Joan Crawford , Victor Buono Runtime 2h 14m

1 Wicked Stepmother (1989)

Bette Davis as Miranda Pierpoint

Despite being one of the greatest stars to ever come out of Hollywood, the final decade of Bette Davis’ career mostly comprised of TV movies and unmemorable performances. As an actress known for portraying tragic characters, her final film role in Wicked Stepmother was ironically plagued by behind-the-scenes frustration, breast cancer, and declining health. In fact, Davis did not even finish filming her role as Miranda Pierpoint and dropped out of the production, stating (via Far Out), “I would be ashamed to have people think I sanctioned something like this” and “People will be horrified at the footage on me.”

Davis’s negative perception of Wicked Stepmother was understandable, as she portrayed a cigarette-smoking witch sharing her existence with her disagreeable daughter. There’s no denying that Wicked Stepmother was a bad film and a sad footnote at the end of Davis’ incredible career. As an actress who truly transformed how a woman could be depicted on screen through her brash and uncompromising characterizations, Wicked Stepmother was not a worthy end to her legacy. Yet Bette Davis’s star shone so bright that when telling the story of her life, she would be remembered for her triumphs and not her follies.

Source: Far Out

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Category: Entertainment