Joel and I watched Jezebel today -- in an effort to up the numbers from the 1001 Movies to Watch before You Die book. It was already in my Netflix queue but got bumped up thanks to my poor performance in the count of movies I've seen (of course, it sort-of didn't help me in that it also added one to Joel's count . . . ).
Anyway, this one was much better than Dark Passage. Bette Davis is Julie, a strong-willed woman engaged to Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda) and she fights him and social standards the whole way. He leaves and she's got to prove her worth, more or less literally, when he returns. The movie is good but I would have liked a different ending or at least a more honest reason for her final actions. A noble reason is given for what she does and I think it's just her usual selfishness . . . but you'd have to see the movie for me to explain any more than that without giving it away. The undercurrents are a pretty strong "hurrah South and slavery" theme--definitely more racist than Tracy--thanks to being set in 1852 New Orleans.
Trivia: Bette Davis won the Oscar for Leading Actress beating Fay Bainter (for White Banners) who won Supporting Actress for Jezebel (she was Aunt Belle). The film was nominated for but lost best cinematography, score, and pitcure. And apparently some of the scenes were shot around Fonda's need to be off-set while his wife was giving birth to Jane.
No comments:
Post a Comment