Bette Davis

Forget “spoiler.” These are classic films. See them a dozen times; they resonate. And the actress who plays both faces is the great Bette Davis: two films, two wives both dealing cruelly with their husbands. One finally thaws at the end and redeems herself; the other, in a must-see scene, watches her husband die painfully, slowly — steely eyes fixed on him, and you know exactly what is in her heart. Oh what a bitch. Watch both films and tell me that Bette Davis isn’t the classic master of portraying the human heart.

The first film, 1941, is The Little Foxes, adapted from a play by Lillian Hellman. The second, 1944, is Mrs. Skeffington, adapted from a popular novel of that period.

In The Little Foxes, we’re post-Civil War, and Regina’s family of smiling villains is ready to make a mint by investing in a factory which will also bring jobs to the town (at highly reduced wages). But they need the money from Regina’s sick husband, seriously ill with a bad heart and at the moment away in a rest home, which means away from Regina. Worth watching the film just to see Bette’s Regina: imperious, haughty, eyes like ice or steel. A beauty of a role. Her sweet daughter, played by Theresa Wright, loves her father, and Regina sends her, alone, against the advice of the faithful black servant (this is not only period-film south but ’40s USA where stereotypes were still prevalent). Of course she has no hint of her mother’s plot.

So the ill husband (the always kindly Herbert Marshall) returns, and Regina immediately begins to pressure him (he grasps his chest in pain). When he finds that his slimy nephew (played by the best slimy character of that period, the great Dan Duryea) is not only courting his daugher but, when he refuses the money, has actually stolen bonds from his safe deposit box, he manipulates Regina so that the brothers can keep the money but she will get not one cent of profit. She is trapped, and just watch her as an ambitious woman caught in that trap.

She goads him until he has an attack and stands by…no, you watch the scene.

Mrs. Skeffington is the ultimate society beauty — men at her feet, reveling in their attention. She adores her worthless brother, Tippy. To save him from disgrace, she marries rich Job Skeffington — honorable and Jewish. When Tippy dies, she reveals to Job that she only married him for his money. Hurt and broken, he leaves for Europe, taking their young daughter. Okay, Fannie Skeffington doesn’t need a girl growing up to betray her mother’s age.

Fannie is ageless…until she gets diphtheria and comes out of it an old woman. In a high point scene of this film (equal to Regina’s dying husband scene), “beautiful” Fannie gives a big party to return to society. Now she is a joke — a horror, actually — with fake hair that falls…you understand the plot.

She is broken. Her daughter has come home and wants nothing to do with her. One day, her cousin comes to tell her that Job has returned, ill and broken…no, more than that — blind. The Nazis have tortured him.

This may seem a bit contrived, but…who cares? Suddenly, here comes the only man who has ever truly loved her, and he cannot see what she looks like. He only remembers her as a great beauty. Tears will fall.

One more thing about these two ’40s films — something not popular in this more sophisticated decade: These movies had “morals.” They teach “lessons” the way ancient Greek theater taught. You watch, you weep, you learn. Fate deals with both Regina and Fannie. You get the benefit.

What’s amazing is that both women are Bette Davis. She is like Daniel Day-Lewis. She falls into a part and becomes the part, unlike other actors who make the part into themselves. Clark Gable was always Clark Gable.

Also in the ’40s, the villain either changes or is vanquished. As I noted in an earlier column, last year’s Oscars brought us two villains who actually “got away with it” — Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis. (Of course, seeing Bardem in Woody Allen’s new film, Vicki Cristina Barcelona, oh he is so gorgeous, I forgive him anything.)

These two faces of Bette Davis belong in your film library.