Bette Davis
Born in Massachusetts in 1908, Davis became "the first lady of the American screen" despite a difficult journey to the top. After failing numerous auditions and screen tests, Davis made her screen debut in 1931's The Bad Sister, thereafter starring in a n
Filmography Highlights
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Whales of August, The
1987- Rated:
- TBC
A dignified - if frail - wave goodbye from four of Hollywood's most distinguished stars. The last major survivor of the silent era, Gish teams up with screen queen of the 1930s and 1940s Davis. They
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Anniversary, The
1968- Rated:
- PG
A widowed mother summons her three sons to celebrate her ruby wedding anniversary. The passive boys and their partners have to put up with a vitriolic diatribe from the monster that created them. Ada
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The Nanny
1965- Rated:
- X
Bette Davis and Wendy Craig star in this Hammer psychodrama from 1965. An elderly nanny is in charge of a disturbed 10-year-old boy, although it transpires he's not half as disturbed as she is
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Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1964- Rated:
- 15
Davis gets to do her spooky old spinster act again in Aldrich's cracking thriller. This time she is the wealthy woman who has been shunned by society since murdering her fiancé 40 years previous
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Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
1962- Rated:
- X
Quintessential melodrama starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as sisters and former stars trapped in a neurotic co-dependent relationship
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Pocketful of Miracles
1961- Rated:
- U
Capra's final film is a remake of his 1934 comedy Lady for a Day, with Davis as the rough 'n' ready, boozy Damon Runyon creation Apple Annie and Ford as the man who helps convert her into a so
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Catered Affair, The
1956- Rated:
- TBC
Comedy with Bette Davis as an Irish mother who causes consternation when she decides daughter Debbie Reynolds should have an expensive catered wedding.
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Virgin Queen, The
1955- Rated:
- U
Lavish historical drama about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I, played by Bette Davis, and Sir Walter Raleigh, played by Richard Todd.
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Star, The
1952- Rated:
- A
Bette Davis received an Oscar nomination for her powerful performance as an ageing actress in this insider story of survival in the Hollywood rat race. She stars as an ageing actress who refuses to a
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All About Eve
1950- Rated:
- U
Bette Davis excels as an aging diva in the six times Oscar Winner. Sit back and 'Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night'
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Beyond the Forest
1949- Rated:
- TBC
Vidor's Wisconsinization of Flaubert's Madame Bovary casts a vinegary Davis in the Emma role, Cotten as the doctoring husband who can't provide her with the romantic excitement she craves, and Brian
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June Bride
1948- Rated:
- TBC
Excellent comedy starring Bette Davis as a careerist woman's magazine editor who, when assigned chauvinist former lover Robert Montgomery as her assistant, sets out to make him resign when they go to
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Corn is Green, The
1945- Rated:
- TBC
Sentimental drama with a hard edge, starring Bette Davis as a schoolmistress who opens a school in a Welsh village - against the opposition of many of her neighbours - and discovers one student, John
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Mr Skeffington
1944- Rated:
- A
A soap opera of epic proportions or a longish weepie - either way, this is as corny as it gets. Davis plays a money-hungry socialite who marries Jewish banker Rains (to protect her embezzling brother
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Now Voyager
1942- Rated:
- PG
The ultimate melodramatic, atmospheric (and very smoky) glum to glamour chick flick. The many highlights include a magnificent swelling score from Max Steiner and a scintillating performance by Bette Davis
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In This Our Life
1942- Rated:
- TBC
Davis at her monstrous best, in the form of Stanley Timberlake, a libindinous broad who eats men for breakfast - though the diet eventually leads to violent bouts of indigestion. Huston's histrionic
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Man Who Came to Dinner, The
1941- Rated:
- TBC
An acidic comedy that has become a classic in the States, but less so in the rest of the world. Woolley is a sharp-tongued, intellectual radio star who breaks his hip while visiting friends and has t
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Little Foxes, The
1941- Rated:
- TBC
Never one to underplay a role when she could chew the furniture, Davis dominates this melodrama as a Southern matriarch who will stop at nothing to maintain control of her family. She's faced with a
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Bride Came C.O.D., The
1941- Rated:
- TBC
It's easy to see why Davis and Cagney disliked this frantic screwball comedy, old-fashioned even for its time (1941) - it boasts few moments of decent comedy and even less chemistry between the leads
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Letter, The
1940- Rated:
- TBC
The most famous (and best) version of Maugham's oft-filmed melodrama stars Davis as Leslie Crosbie, the woman who murders her lover but escapes the death penalty on a self-defence charge, only for ci
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Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The
1939- Rated:
- TBC
Davis gives one of her finest performances as the English monarch in Curtiz's lavish costume drama focusing on her infamous relationship with Essex. Elizabeth is entranced by the charismatic Essex (F
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Old Maid, The
1939- Rated:
- TBC
Bette Davis selflessly destroys her own chances of happiness in order to give her illegitimate daughter a chance in life and love.
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Juarez
1939- Rated:
- TBC
Weighty historical biopic of the 19th-century Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez. It's sizeable, not only in length (132 mins) but in just about everything else - 1,000 extras, 54 massive sets, 12 v
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Dark Victory
1939- Rated:
- TBC
A classic bit of soap opera film, with Davis turning in a remarkable, Oscar-nominate performance (and eventually losing to Gone with the Wind's Vivien Leigh) as the starchy socialite who is diagnosed
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Jezebel
1938- Rated:
- TBC
The crucial event in this 1850s-set melodrama is the insistence of Jezebel (Davis) on attending the debutante ball in a flame-red dress when all about her are dressed in virginal white. (Actually it
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