In 1935, Bette Davis was cast in
the hum-drum melodrama, Dangerous, opposite Franchot Tone. While the
film was met with mediocre reviews, it was important for two
reasons. The first being that it garnered Bette her first Oscar
nomination. The second, was that she fell in love with her co-star,
who at the time was engaged to Joan Crawford.
While the affair was short lived,
it no doubt sparked the life long feud between Davis and Crawford, that
culminated in the ultimate battle of the grande dames in the 1960's.
The Oscar nomination was another story.
Bette was the first to admit that
she didn't deserve the award for that performance. She, like many
critics, felt that Katherine Hepburn should have taken it for Alice
Adams. She went on to add that this was obviously the consolation
prize for not winning the previous year. "These mistakes
compound each other like the original lie that breeds like a
bunny," she said. "Now she (Hepburn) should get it
next year when someone else may deserve it."
Bette wasn't above accepting the
honor. She attended the ceremony, creating further noise by the
plain dress she chose to wear. A jilted Joan Crawford sent a note
off, stating "Dear Bette, what a lovely frock." Davis
defended her choice of evening wear, stating that it was a dinner
dress.
Three years later, Bette was up
for another Oscar, and this time for a performance that was truly
deserving. She passed on the Gone With the Wind project,
sarcastically stating "I bet it's a real pip!" During that
time she walked off the Warner's lot and sought refuse overseas in
Britain, refusing to return to work, all in the name of good
scripts.
When she and Jack Warner settled
their differences, the Gone With the Wind phenomenon was in full force,
and Bette, while perhaps interested in the role of Scarlett, was out of
luck as producers were no longer interested. Jack Warner secured
another script, Jezebel, with a character remarkably like Scarlett, who
takes ruthless measures in an effort to get her man back from a Yankee
girl. He gave the project to Bette as a peace offering and it was
rushed into production, released one year prior to Gone With the Wind, in
1938.
Jezebel once again boosted Bette's
star power. She joined Louise Rainer, who had just won two Oscar's
back to back, as being the only women with two Oscar's.
By the late thirties, many of
Hollywood's top actresses were being labeled as box office poison.
Among those that were turning out duds were Katherine Hepburn, Marlene
Dietrich and Joan Crawford. Davis, meanwhile, was on fire. She
turned out a string of hits over the next several years, including Dark
Victory, Mrs. Skeffington, The Letter, and Now, Voyager, all of which
earned her Oscar nominations.
In 1941, Davis spent three months
as President of the Academy, the only woman to have done so, to
date.
By the mid-forties, Bette's box
office appeal was starting to dwindle. She appeared in a series of
flops including Beyond the Forest, her worst film in years. By 1949,
Bette was starting to look like a has-been. She was in serious need
of a comeback.
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