BEYOND THE FOREST (1949) **1/2 "I'm healthy as a horse." "Horses get sick." The opening commentary pompously promises a tale of evil, it ends up somewhere between that and Madame Bovary Goes to Wisconsin. Bette Davis dyes her hair a most unsympathetic colour (even in black & white) and shoots porcupines in the ass to set herself up as Rosa Moline, but the real action is when she denounces small town America. The repartee is very funny and the film convincingly threatens to be great at several points, always, notably, with Bette complaining and holding her consonants. Ruth Roman is a nearly useless maid and one can only wonder what would have happened if we could have mixed in Joan Crawford for a scene or two. With King Vidor and Max Steiner I guess they thought there were already enough gourmets at the local McDonald's. By the end the tension is spent, but there are enough good bits still floating at the top to cause a strenuous debate over whether the pasty sweaty Bette looks like she belongs in the closing scenes of Goodfellas or Plan 9 From Outer Space.
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