JEZEBEL (1938) *** I don't know. Doubt anyone does. Best I can figure is that whoever it is that passes out personality-at the beginning-double clutches sometimes and leaves the faucet going a little bit too long. All the good categories like charm and courage fill up, sure, but some of that personality keeps runnin' on into the containers for the other traits. Bette Davis and her character, both. Don't get me wrong, trouble though she is-evil though she might be-I gotta have sympathy for a southern belle runnin' so hard against what she's runnin' against. They also serve, the southern women who buck tradition. I guess some folk have fought mighty hard tryin' to save it. I don't know why. The legend it inspired, and the accolades it garnered, will never begin to do justice to Better's performance. ‘course Bette was none too happy about one element of the casting for Gone With the Wind , I guess we're all fightin' something or gettin' pushed around by it an' something else. Something less. Max Steiner's horror music catches the part of the worst things that can push you around, about as much of it as you'd want to catch. There are films where Henry Fonda's done more with more, but he's about perfect, too. No surprise there. Damn near all the principals play up towards Bette's league; George Brent, Richard Cromwell, Henry O'Neill, Donald Crisp. Don't know if it's because they got so mad at Bette that they didn't want to let her be better, or if they were too scared not to. Most everyone's gettin' moved around by somethin', and lots of ‘em did they part by gettin' run around by her.
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