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DVD The Star
"Come on, Oscar--let's you and me get drunk." This caustic Bette Davis line is not aimed at a co-star but at the Academy Award itself, which down-on-her-luck actress Margaret Elliot cradles bitterly at the beginning of an inebriated evening. As you can guess, Davis is at full-throttle in his ripe melodrama, which came a couple of years after All About Eve and serves as a kind of less-classy companion piece to that classic. As the movie begins, Margaret has lost her career and family because of her own demanding nature. Rescued by a roughhewn boatbuilder (Sterling Hayden) she once befriended, she confronts what's most important--being a star, or being a (ahem) woman.
The rickety script and cut-rate production values betray The Star as a product of Davis's post-Warners wanderings. It does have some sunny location shots of San Pedro, plus a young Natalie Wood before she broke out of child-star roles. But the biggest draw, other than Davis, is the Hollywood behind-the-scenes juice, and the guessing game of how close the material was to Davis's own career (rumor has it the character, who wants to glamorize herself for a supporting part as a slatternly housemaid, was based more on Joan Crawford). It ain't art, but it's an artifact of a different era, skipping between backstage expose and camp. --Robert Horton
The Reviewer who stated that "Bette does everything but hit the roof in this one" is 100% correct. She makes up for a quickie script and cheap Production values by giving a performance that is at times way over-the-top and at other times sensitive and perceptive. Davis' Margaret Elliot is a has-been hag who drinks too much, shouts at people, and is completely removed from reality. In short - she's a Diva, 1950's style. Imagine Margo Channing from "All About Eve" after falling on hard times. The script is supposedly based on Joan Crawford but Margaret Elliot is much more Bette Davis in most places, especially in the scene where she comes from her auction only to be greeted by her Sister wanting a monthly check. She "goes off" on her and orders her out. Later, after being humiliated into accepting a Sales Clerk job at May Co. she declares that she will not degrade herself by "waiting on a couple of old bags." While not a great film, "The Star" is certainly entertaining.
Excellent movie only if you love Bette though
This movie is so much fun. Its about Bette Davis playing Margaret Elliot, a washed up has been film star. She can't get any work in movies and she's broke. Watch her possessions get sold off, family members hustle her for money, and more fun. Its an independent film so the camera work isn't the best but this is a camp classic. Its a lot of fun although unless your a hardcore Bette Davis fan I don't think you'll quite appreciate it. The oddest thing about the movie is Bette Davis is so true to her character you wonder how she could play the role. Watch Bette Davis in this play herself!
"One good picture is all I need"
In The Star, Bette Davis plays Margaret Elliot, a neurotic, has-been - a broken down Hollywood actress who is way past her prime. Once the darling of the show business jet set, she can't even scrabble enough money together to pay her rent. Margaret's a sad and desperate woman; who once new the dizzying heights of stardom, but now must face the harsh reality that she's no longer the alluring, sexy vamp she once was.
Margaret's problem is that she just can't accept failure, and move on with her life. She hasn't worked for several years, her marriage has fallen apart, her former husband has custody of her daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), and she's running short of money. Her agent Harry Stone (Warner Anderson) can't or won't get her a decent part, and isn't willing to lend her the money to pay her bills. At the beginning of the film, we see her possessions being auctioned to pay off her creditors.
Margaret's sister (Fay Baker) and brother-in-law (David Alpert) turn their back on her when they learn that she is penniless, and her landlady (Katherine Warren) is threatening to evict her, unless she comes up with the rent money. Things are looking pretty grim when one night, in a fit of drunken anxiety and clutching her Oscar in quiet desperation, she tearfully visits the mansion she once lived in.
This sets off an emotional chain of events, including an intoxicated spin through Beverly Hills where she's finally convicted on a drunk driving charge. She is bailed out by a former actor, Jim Johannson (Sterling Hayden), who worked with her years ago, and who has long since been in love with her. Jim urges Margaret to leave Hollywood behind, and offers to care for her if she'll have him.
Margaret however is ambivalent; she still clutches to the fame she once had, holding on to the desperate hope she may have one more chance at regaining her stardom, "once the actress always the actress." At one stage, Jim even talks her into working in the hosiery department at the old May Company Department Store. But it proves to be a terrible mistake. Margaret, demeaned and humiliated, runs to Harry and pleads for another chance. He finally gets her an audition with producer Joe Morrison (Minor Watson), but it's an absolute disaster.
Bette is just terrific as usual giving a confident, perceptive, and beautifully fanatical performance. Margaret is a frustrated, self-centered, impossible woman who just can't face the realities of her situation. The fact that she's a petty has-been that has squandered all her money doesn't really endear her to us or make us feel sorry for her plight.
She does, however, engender a certain kind of sympathy, but most viewers probably just want to shake some sense into her, especially when she goes out on a spending spree charging up everything in sight when there's no guarantee she will even get the role she's been so yearning for.
The hunky Sterling Hayden as Jim is particularly good, and he gives a remarkably soft and surprisingly quiet performance. It's a nice juxtaposition to Bette's constant and desperate histrionics. Margaret eventually learns the value of friendship, of family, and along the way, achieves some hard life lessons. Only when she is finally offered a part playing herself does Margaret come to understand where her true priorities lay.
The Star is a wonderful slice of behind-the-scenes Hollywood in the 1950's, and while it probably isn't particularly realistic by today's' standards, the movie is still a marvelous piece of entertainment and showcases the wonderful Bette at her vampish and dramatic best. Mike Leonard July 05.
Fanny Skeffington, an incorrigible society flirt of the WWI era, was one of the meatiest roles and most exasperating women Bette Davis ever played. Flighty Fanny loves the attention of her male suitors, but marries the steadfast Jewish financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) for security; long after their wedding day, she still enjoys receiving gentlemen callers. Time catches up with Fanny, of course, and the bills are due by the time World War II rolls around.
Mr. Skeffington is a vintage Warner Bros. workout for Davis, who never shied away from playing unsympathetic or physically unappealing roles. (Her main worry here was looking pretty enough in the early reels to justify Fanny's reputation.) Her theatrical performance and Rains's impeccable work carry the handsomely... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Claude Rains Director(s): Vincent Sherman DVD Release Date: Released the 14 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In the opening sequence of The Letter, director William Wyler delivers a primer on film directing: at a rubber plantation, in the tropical funk of a Malaysian night, the heavy stillness is suddenly broken by shots... and a woman with a gun, descending a staircase. She is the wife of the plantation owner, and the dead man is, ahem, not her husband. Holding the gun so securely is Bette Davis, in one of her greatest performances (her acting of a big revelation, late in the film, is still an astounding piece of emotional fluency). The story is taken from one of those sturdy Somerset Maugham tales that has proved itself in many versions, but this is the keeper; it was nominated for seven Oscars®, including best picture, director, and actress, winning none. Wyler's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Herbert Marshall - James Stephenson Director(s): William Wyler DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Poor Charlotte Hollis. She's been shunned by the community for decades, ever since the fateful night in 1927 when her lover was hacked apart with an axe. Her antebellum southern mansion is slated for the bulldozer, as it stands in the way of highway construction. Charlotte's only hope lies in her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), coming down from up north to help settle things. Miriam, however, has other designs. Together with her boyfriend Drew (Joseph Cotten), she embarks on a scheme to systematically drive Charlotte out of her mind (not a great leap) and get her mitts on the family fortune. From there, things only get more complicated. Charlotte puts the "gothic" in southern gothic, as a great showcase for completely bizarre, overwrought, and out-of-control performances from... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Olivia de Havilland - Joseph Cotten Director(s): Robert Aldrich DVD Release Date: Released the 09 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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