VCR Alert : Bette Davis on TCM

[Reza]

TCM is showing a season of Bette Davis films this month. Many of her rare, early pre-code films will be on view. Also shown will be a new documentary on her narrated by Susan Sarandon.

Hd Reporter

May 01, 2006

Stardust: Bette Davis

By Marilyn Moss
Bottom line: A beautiful, compelling new documentary that reinforces Bette Davis' place as First Woman of the American cinema.
5-6:30 p.m. and 8-9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 3
Turner Classic Movies

The most fascinating aspect of Peter Jones' new documentary on Bette Davis, "Stardust: The Bette Davis Story," is its visual content. With access to Davis' vast array of personal papers collected at Boston University, Jones and his camera gleam over scads of the actress' photos, personal letters and scrapbooks that Davis fans haven't seen before.

When all is said and done, it's a virtual treat to see these effects along with footage of Davis off and onscreen. Jones captures as full-bodied a subject as has been seen before in countless documentaries on the actress. In this compelling, heartfelt look at Davis' private life, he takes a psychological approach to the woman, attempting to understand her contradictions and heartbreaks. It's no easy feat to know Davis, and the clues to her psyche just may be in her performances, not in the "personal" self she fed to the public. With this in mind, Jones makes a successful attempt to recapture Davis.

Susan Sarandon's narration lends a strong voice, giving the documentary the weight it needs to approach an actress who to this day remains the gold standard for female performance in the American cinema (or of any other cinema, for that matter). Jones also gives "Stardust" (whose title comes from Davis' favorite song) a contemporary feel by offering on-camera interviews not only with Davis' son, Michael Merrill (and archival footage of interviews with Davis' estranged daughter, B.D.), but with working actors today.

James Woods gets in good and close for some revealing comments about Davis' psychology on the screen. Gena Rowlands, who worked with Davis on television, offers some pithy remarks about Davis' understanding of herself. Jane Fonda comes up with some rather superficial estimations of the actress; yet Ellen Burstyn seems to have the best insight into Davis' craft. She focuses on Davis' motivations as well as her physical being on the screen and offers here what seems the most accurate understanding of her great gifts.

In the final analysis, Davis can be known only through the fictional characters she created onscreen (and maybe they weren't so fictional for her after all). Looking at Leslie Crosbie's confession in "The Letter" that she still loves the man she killed (and director William Wyler must be credited as well as Davis, would be the first to say), who could fail to understand Davis emotions as well? Ditto for Davis as ugly duckling-turned-beautiful butterfly in "Now, Voyager."

Despite all the Hollywood biographies of the woman, all gossip that still rages on, the face up onscreen tells the truest tale. To his credit, Jones understands this as well. And TCM will reinforce the fact by running Davis' amazing body of work throughout the month.

STARDUST: THE BETTE DAVIS STORY
Peter Jones Prods.Turner Classic Movies

Credits:
Writer-producer-director: Peter Jones
Co-director/editor: Mark Catalena
Supervision producer: Brian Tessier
Directors of photography: Shana Hagan, Mark Catalena
Music: Earl Rose
Production designer: Jimmy Cuomo
Narrator: Susan Sarandon

All Times Eastern

3 Wednesday
8:00 PM Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2005)
9:30 PM Dark Victory (1939)
11:30 PM Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2005)
1:00 AM Cabin In The Cotton, The (1932)
2:30 AM Dangerous (1935)
4:00 AM Girl from 10th Avenue, The (1935)
5:15 AM Front Page Woman (1935)

4 Thursday
6:45 AM 20,000 Years In Sing Sing (1932)
8:15 AM Dark Horse, The (1932)
9:30 AM Man Who Played God, The (1932)
11:00 AM Rich Are Always With Us, The (1932)
12:15 PM Petrified Forest, The (1936)
1:45 PM Three on a Match (1932)
3:00 PM Way Back Home (1932)
4:30 PM Bureau Of Missing Persons (1933)
5:45 PM Ex-Lady (1933)
7:00 PM Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano (1984)

Also threw in the rare and restored Baby Face with Barbara Stanwyck and Trader Horn which got a Best Picture Nod. Needless to say both these films do not have Bette Davis.

2:00 AM Baby Face (1933)
3:45 AM Trader Horn (1931)


10 Wednesday
8:00 PM So Big (1932)
9:30 PM Of Human Bondage (1934)
11:00 PM Jezebel (1938)
1:00 AM Sisters, The (1938)
2:45 AM That Certain Woman (1937)
4:30 AM Marked Woman (1937)

11 Thursday
6:15 AM Kid Galahad (1937)
8:00 AM It's Love I'm After (1937)
9:45 AM Satan Met A Lady (1936)
11:00 AM Golden Arrow, The (1936)
12:15 PM Special Agent (1935)
1:45 PM Bordertown (1935)
3:30 PM Jimmy The Gent (1934)
4:45 PM Working Man, The (1933)
6:15 PM Fashions Of 1934 (1934)


14 Sunday
6:00 AM Catered Affair, The (1956)

17 Wednesday
8:00 PM Old Maid, The (1939)
10:00 PM Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The (1939)
12:00 AM Letter, The (1940)
1:45 AM All This, And Heaven Too (1940)
4:15 AM Juarez (1939)

18 Thursday
6:30 AM Hollywood Canteen (1944)
8:45 AM Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
11:00 AM Shining Victory (1941)
12:30 PM Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano (1984)
1:30 PM Housewife (1934)
2:45 PM Fog Over Frisco (1934)
4:00 PM Big Shakedown, The (1934)
5:15 PM Parachute Jumper (1933)
6:30 PM Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2005)