Jezebel (1938)

LAME "Ending"...
I saw this for the first time when it came as part of the Bette Davis box set I bought..I wish it came with All About Eve Instead. This over-hyped film ends with Julie being carted off into the sunset on a wagon full of "yellow jack" fever patients. Among the patients is Preston...that's how it ends...you don't know if he drops dead or not. You don't know if he goes back to his "Yankee" wife, or shacks up again with Julie. Too much of this film is wasted on all the characters standing around at the plantation house bickering at each other . The whole Southerners vs. Yankee comparisons they kept making were total overkill. The elaborate ballroom scene is focused on the fact that Julie had the nerve to wear a red dress instead of white. The film is black and white, so the dress appears black and you lose some of the shock value of the dress. Bette Davis is brilliant, the story is not.

Bette Davis in one of her classic early roles
"Jezebel" was a treat, a rich southern gothic laced with wonderful scenery, interesting situations, and complex characters. The slaves were portrayed as being a bit more content and happy with their lot in life than was likely the case in reality, but everything else still feels fresh and bracing almost seventy years after the movie was produced.

And without getting too specific for newcomers to the film, here's something interesting to think about: Did Bette Davis' character REALLY repent at the end, or is her sudden, and apparently selfless, change of heart really just a last-ditch scheme to give herself a final chance to win her beloved back? It probably isn't, and she probably DID genuinely grow as a person, but still- as I said- it's fun to momentarily consider the other scenario.

The Warner Brothers DVD I watched featured a crisp picture and good sound, as well as a variety of those "a night at the movies" special features, including a newsreel, cartoons, trailers, etc. All in all, a fun package. But it's the movie you'll remember.

Jezebel
"Jezebel" was Davis's consolation prize for not landing the part of Scarlett O'Hara. Inevitably compared to "Gone With the Wind" (released one year later), this lavish melodrama stands on its own, thanks to Wyler's expert direction and his camera's loving attention to Warners' biggest female star. Davis, who nabbed her second best actress Oscar for this, is superb and looks glorious, while Fonda is suitably restrained as Pres. Don't miss the famous scene at the ball.