The Bette Davis Collection - Volume Three (Warner Bros.)
Picture: C+ Sound: C Extras: B- Films: B-
Continuing
their classy rollout of films from their catalog featuring one of the greatest
actresses of all time, The Bette Davis
Collection - Volume Three offers six more major films with the icon at her
peak. This time, they are not films
people always talk about as they still do with the films issued in the first
two box sets, but they are still among her most interesting and underrated of
all films. You can read more about Volume Two at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3742/The+Bette+Davis+Collection+-+Vol
The new
set includes:
The Old Maid (1939) is a great performance
with Davis as a woman struggling to find happiness and set in The Civil War,
was Warner’s continued attempt to capitalize on Davis missing Gone With The Wind (down to a Max
Steiner score) after Jezebel. She is opposite Miriam Hopkins and the battle
is on, but this film (based on Edith Wharton’s work) has aged pretty well
except for some of the war material.
George Brent also stars.
All This & Heaven Too (1940) has Davis working with
underrated Director Anatole Litvak in one of the great melodramas as she
becomes the destructive force in a deadly love triangle in Paris with a married
couple (Charles Boyer, Barbara O’Neil) and this too holds up well. The period piece part holds up better than
expected and the production has its money on the screen. George Coulouris also stars.
The Great Lie (1941) is another melodrama with
edge as Davis and Mary Astor play two women with a secret about the son of one
really being the son of the other, as both are in love with the father (George
Brent) who is unaware of the secret arrangement. Astor landed a Supporting Actress Academy
Award and for good reason, but performances are good all around.
In This Our Life (1942) has Brent, bad
“do-whatever-she-pleases” Bette, Olivia de Havilland, Dennis Morgan. Charles
Coburn, Billy Burke and Walter Huston among
its solid cast as the great John Huston pulls off one of his more underrated
films. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay
and it is definitely worth seeing.
Watch On The Rhine (1943) is an anti-Axis thriller
with Davis married to the head of the German Underground (Paul Lukas) based on
the play by Lillian Hellman, adapted into a screenplay by no less than Dashiell
Hammett. Holding up for reasons unimagined
when it was made, it is the kind of smart political film Warner could be
counted on for. Geraldine Fitzgerald,
Lucille Watson, George Coulouris and Beulah Bondi also star.
Deception (1946) brings the stars and
director of Now, Voyager together
again for another dark tale as Davis is the woman in the middle of two men and
WWII intrigue as she is wrapped up with a sick composer when her former cellist
love shows up again. Claude Rains, Paul
Henreid and Director Irving Rapper pull off a reunion that works.
I hope
this set revives interest in all involved and Warner continues this vital
rollout.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white image on all six films are about the same, with some
softness and good Video Black, plus obvious work done to fix all of them
up. They were made to look good and do,
so for DVD, they are as good as they are going to get. Unfortunately, they are all Dolby Digital 1.0
Mono and do not sound at their best, especially when these older films need all
the help they can get. Extras on all
include two trailers a piece, live-action shorts, animated Looney Tunes/Merrie
Melodies shorts, vintage newsreels and are under the Warner Night At The Movies
banner. Heaven adds Daniel Bubbeo audio commentary and an audio-only radio
version of the film by the cast. The
wonderful Jeanine Basinger offers a commentary for Life, while Bernard F. Dick has a good one for Rhine. Foster Hirsch adds
one for Deception, making for a good
set of extras all around.
- Nicholas Sheffo
