Bette Davis gave me an unforgettable first impression in the opening scene in The Letter that she fires a few shots and kills a man and claims that she is innocent. Only Bette Davis dared to play the vicious murderess role back in early 1940’s. The movie must have had created a big controversy and commotion in the conservative 40’s in America.
My friend, Phil, was not a big fan of Davis, but it was really nice of him to show me all Davis’ famous movies at the nearby Tower Records store in Berkeley. To my surprise, the store carried almost all Davis’ released movies range from 1930’s to early 1980’s. From her movies, I grew to be a crazy fan of hers. Davis, a star of yesterday, still had that enchantment to capture me, a young man in my mid 20’s then, to be crazy for her. Since then, I could say I had watched 95%, except those that were not released, of Davis’ movies.
From all Davis’ movies that I had watched, I like All About Eve the most. I thought the role of Margo Channing in All About Eve, a fading star in her early 40’s like Davis was back then suits her perfectly. It was like her real life story being transformed to a movie, she practically played herself in All About Eve, maybe that explained her exceptionally superb acting in the movie.
Besides having a pair of big eyes, Bette Davis was never considered a beautiful nor sexy woman back in Warner Brothers time. It was her strong character in her movies and in real life that made her so successful through the 60 years of her acting career in the male dominant movie industry that only preferred beautiful or goddess female actresses.
1950 - Bette Davis as Margo Channing in All About Eve
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