By Nicholas Stix
There were four greats, who were more or less equal:
Irene Dunne;
Barbara Stanwyck;
Jean Arthur; and
Katharine Hepburn.
And then there was the queen: Bette Davis.
Bette Davis was a genre unto herself. Many will think that refers to her early bad-girl pictures (Of Human Bondage, Dangerous, Jezebel, The Letter, The Little Foxes, etc.) and yet, she also played young women who were bullied and beaten down by life (The Old Maid, Now, Voyager, Dark Victory, etc.). Once she was sovereign over the other characters, and all the other players (The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex). And when she was middle-aged and long in the tooth, she re-made herself as a horror queen (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Nanny, Dead Ringer). And always the trouper!
There are many more virtuoso performances that I didn’t even mention.
And today? Who is there today?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
White actresses have been shoved aside. The ones coming up now--and being promoted heavily-- are "minorities".
Even Jennifer Lawrence,apparently,has been sent away from leading ladydom and may be the last White woman allowed to be a star in woke Hollywood.
--GRA
Peripherally,I ran into a picture on Facebook(I'm not a member)that I couldn't download or copy. The title was "72 years ago today",with a photo of Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe on either side of Walter Winchell at a party on May 13th,1953--his hands around both of them. Tough job.
--GRA
I reimagine the question (in an ideal world) as a Hollywood Squares setup where George Gobel brings down the house with the joke answer, "Bea Arthur" .
The camera pans over her in the next-door square, thoroughly unamused, giving George an if-looks-could-kill glare.
"God'll get you for that Gobel--or I will--whoever's faster."
--Bea Arthur's reply
--GRA
Post a Comment