Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford

[Barbara Fan]

from Follies of God

By 1955 Bette Davis had earned nine Oscar nominations, two Oscars, been proclaimed the fourth Warner brother for her domination of the Warner Bros. studio, but could still have her name misspelled or mispronounced. Here are some tests for THE VIRGIN QUEEN. “They will diminish a woman on the last day of our existing,” she told me in 1984.

 

[Barbara Fan]

and another from Follies of God

Phone Interview

1986

Let me clear something up: I am not speaking to you from the perspective of an old woman, or as an actress with severely and unhappily limited prospects. I was always dissatisfied with the state of things; I was always disappointed with most of the people with whom I worked; I was always striving to make things better.

Most people are dumb; most people are lazy. Ease is desired. It is also terribly overrated. I like a fight. I like a struggle. Struggles make you stronger and they create better work. Everything means more and achieves more when it is sought, desired, battled. I cannot bear those who take the easy way. I think the religions of the world should be revised, and I think the cardinal sin--punishable by death--should be sloth. I really do.

We have a desire to do something. Great. Now comes the responsibility, and I think we should exhaust ourselves and give everything of ourselves to achieve the dream and the responsibility of the perfect performance.

I used to have a sort of motto: Work, when you love it, is happiness, life at its best. Well, work when you love it, and you can't get it, and you can't do it with good people is misery, hell at its purest.

I'm in a bit of a hell these days. I've been in a bit of a hell for about ten years now. I don't like it.

I'm fighting it.

We began at some point to idealize innocence and the dream, the desire. Our actors now seem to be suspended in an adolescent phase of development. The dream eclipses the waking reality. I don't care about your dream if your work stinks. I think if your work stinks, you should get the hell out of the way, out of the business, and go dream another dream.

Who, past the age of five or so, cares if they are liked? I always wanted to be respected, and I worked hard and well to be respected.
I was born old and good and determined, and that is just no longer valuable.



© James Grissom

From Artistic Suicide

 

[ClassyCo]

from Follies of God

By 1955 Bette Davis had earned nine Oscar nominations, two Oscars, been proclaimed the fourth Warner brother for her domination of the Warner Bros. studio, but could still have her name misspelled or mispronounced. Here are some tests for THE VIRGIN QUEEN. “They will diminish a woman on the last day of our existing,” she told me in 1984.

View attachment 33537

Wow! She had been in movies for 25 years and they hadn't any clue it was BETTE not BETTY???

I remember an episode of WHAT'S MY LINE? where Arlene Francis called her "BET Davis" in reference to her long-term contract at Warner Brothers.

 

[Barbara Fan]

From Follies of God

Bette Davis was born near Salem, Massachusetts, and she entered the world like a witch: “A bolt of lightning hit a tree in front of the house the moment I was born,” she told a writer.
Davis was intense, excessive, camp even. Many critics consider her one of the greatest actresses of all time; others accuse her of overacting. When critic James Agee wrote that in “Mr. Skeffington”Davis “demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale,” he could be equally referring to her life and career as much as her character portrayal.
“I think it’s why women loved her,” Jane Fonda said in a TCM tribute, “because they knew that she was willing to go way out on a ledge, in terms of how she looked. She never played it safe.” She continued, “Just watching Bette Davis on the screen was empowering to women. It was like, this is what’s possible, this is the range and depth that is possible for a woman. Enough already with these one-dimensional women. She expanded our range of possibilities.”
“Indestructible,” was how Davis described herself in an interview with The New York Times in the year of her death. “That’s the word that’s often used. To describe me. Which applies to—what? I suppose it means that I just overcame everything. And I had presented to me quite a few things to overcome. But without things to overcome, you don’t become much of a person. Do you?”
From Vanity Fair







The tights go with the settee!

 

[Barbara Fan]

From Follies of God

"Hell is lowering your standards and getting comfortable with it."--Bette Davis/Interview with James Grissom #FolliesOfGod (Skrebneski)

"No one on the face of the earth cares about your work as much as you will or should. Even those who claim they love you. They simply cannot love it as much, because it does not live within them or define them. So be prepared to fight. Be prepared to be hated and avoided. Marry yourself to the work. Work never disappoints. Everything else in the world will be found lacking, but you'll have your work, and you'll have the scars you received fighting for it."--Bette Davis/Interview with James Grissom/1984/

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Maybe Joan's best:

 

[ClassyCo]

Maybe Joan's best:

As much as I like POSSESSED -- and it may very well be Crawford's finest performance -- I've always been partial to MILDRED PIERCE. She looked beautiful in that movie and she crawled her way back from her "box office poison" era, proving she wasn't done yet.

​

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

As much as I like POSSESSED -- and it may very well be Crawford's finest performance -- I've always been partial to MILDRED PIERCE. She looked beautiful in that movie and she crawled her way back from her "box office poison" era, proving she wasn't done yet.

​

Her line: "I had no idea it was.... insanity...!" is like a CAROL BURNETT SHOW quip.

 

[Crimson]

"There is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains the element of craziness is by this very quality nearer to art" -- Douglas Sirk

That just about perfectly describes Crawford's best films of the late 40s, even though Sirk was talking about his own 50s' remake of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION.

 

[Toni]

"There is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains the element of craziness is by this very quality nearer to art" -- Douglas Sirk

That just about perfectly describes Crawford's best films of the late 40s, even though Sirk was talking about his own 50s' remake of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION.

It sounds like a definition of "Knots Landing"´s best seasons!!

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I don't really have a favorite, I have different memories of both.

Bette Davis played a Ma Barker type character in an episode of "Gunsmoke", with a supporting cast that included Bruce Dern, Tom Skerritt
and Julie Sommers. I highly recommend viewing it.

One slight difference is that I could somewhat more enjoy Joan Crawford in a lesser budget movie like "Berserk".
That particular movie memorable to be for including Michael Gough . who played "Alfred in 4 Batman movies,
Played a villain-type role in the British version of Phantom of the Opera, and Played one of Doctor Who's most formidable adversaries, The Celestial Toymaker.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Bette Davis played a Ma Barker type character in an episode of "Gunsmoke", with a supporting cast that included Bruce Dern, Tom Skerritt
and Julie Sommers. I highly recommend viewing it.

Yes, it's pretty good, "The Jailer" episode of GUNSMOKE in 1966.

Likewise, I always want to see Joan Crawford in 1970's "Morgan" episode with the gatling gun (in the place of Steve Forrest, who did multiple episodes of GUNSMOKE -- although much fewer than Morgan Woodward, of course).

Joan never did GUNSMOKE, oddly enough. But they say that by the latter part of the '60s she was drinking on the set.

One slight difference is that I could somewhat more enjoy Joan Crawford in a lesser budget movie like "Berserk".
That particular movie memorable to be for including Michael Gough . who played "Alfred in 4 Batman movies,

In my head, I like to merge Crawford's BERSERK with Anton Diffring's earlier CIRCUS OF HORRORS (the far better trashy, sado under-the-big-top film).

The main problem with TROG is actually the cut-rate monkey suit with the bare elbows so we'll know he's "half-human" and, hence, the missing link.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Is this photo real?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

What a difference 25 years can make...

 

[ginnyfan]

Is that photo of them in the 40s real?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Is that photo of them in the 40s real?

Don't know. If it's a fake, I've seen worse. Are we sure it isn't pre-1940?

 

[ginnyfan]

Looking at it now, it seems like a fake, sadly, Joan's fingers around Bette's waist give it away. But both look like they are in their early 40s looks. If it's real, then it could be from 1944 when Joan joined Warners but was off screen for 2 years. Don't remember a lot of photos of her with hair like that.

 

[Crimson]

So yes & no.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1120689933910364160

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Hollywood Canteen?