Bette Davis showed up for a couple films in last year's Romancefest, and here she is again, this time playing a Southern Belle who could give Scarlett O'Hara a run for her money in JEZEBEL.JEZEBEL is set in 1850s New Orleans, and Davis' brand of Belle is headstrong and unafraid to buck convention at every turn. Unfortunately she's also self centered and seems to think of herself as untouchable. On one hand, this can be charming, as a lot of the conventions she flaunts are silly anyway -- she wears her "riding clothes" to a formal social gathering, for instance, because she has arrived late. Scandal! But ultimately, it's her life, and if she wants to be the first woman to be brave enough to dress down, so be it.
On the other hand, she doesn't always have the conviction to back up her seemingly confident moves and is often motivated by vanity. Early on, she interrupts her banker boyfriend (Henry Fonda) in the middle of an important business meeting. When he attempts to explain that he's busy, she seeks revenge by deliberately wearing a red gown to a ball where the other single women traditionally always wear white. Once there, when she realizes Fonda's going to go through with the whole thing, and realizes what a scandal she has caused, she attempts to back out. Fonda won't let her, and ultimately dumps her.
The rest of the movie deals with Davis' attempts to get Fonda back. She pridefully believes he'll come back to her, and when that doesn't happen, she resorts to manipulation, pitting people against each other as pawns in her own soap opera. It isn't until a deadly outbreak of yellow fever strikes New Orleans that Davis finds a chance at redemption.
The movie has interesting parallels with GONE WITH THE WIND, which only hit theaters one year later. The central characters are similar and allow for fierce performances from their leads, the southern plantation setting is similar, and even the disease outbreak verges on being almost as apocalyptic as the burning of Atlanta.
But, the films are also quite different -- JEZEBEL is shot in beautiful, crisp black and white while GONE WITH THE WIND is a showcase for the wonders of Technicolor. JEZEBEL is short and sweet and GONE WITH THE WIND is epic length. And so on. Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, it's interesting to compare the two, but they're really telling two very different stories.
Davis has a little more fun with this feisty character than she did in a few of her later more tragic psychological dramas, and gets to glide around in lots of show-offy gowns, looking possibly the most glamorous that she ever did on screen.
I touched on it a little earlier, but I want to reiterate that the fascinating part about Davis' character is the disconnect between the way she acts in front of everyone, and the way she feels inside. The genius of the movie is that we don't really get any scenes of exposition in which Davis' character tells a confidant how she actually feels. We can just see it on her face, despite what she's actually doing. In one scene, she insists Fonda will come back for her, and we can tell just by looking at her that she knows she's blown it and he's not coming back. In another, after basically setting a deadly duel into motion, she tries to act oblivious to her actions and the result is an overwhelming sense that she's a nervous wreck. Davis pulls off the tricky job of acting simultaneously totally confident, and totally scared, all at the same time. She has the art of secretly second guessing herself down.
Watching JEZEBEL, you sometimes get the feeling you're seeing a woman who is almost a spectator to her own life -- so much at the whim of her own impulsive actions, that she's as amazed and appalled at herself as everyone else is.
Only, she has to pretend not to be. God forbid someone should find out she's human.
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