Top 50 Actresses, #1 - Bette Davis: "Jezebel" (1938)

Movie Stats:
Released 1938 (USA)
American, in English (minor, non-translated French)
Director - William Wyler
Stars - Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent

Plot Summary:
In 1850s New Orleans, headstrong Julie Marsden (Davis) likes to play games with her suitors, resulting in both personal disappointment & shared tragedy. Fonda co-stars as Julie’s suitor, Preston “Pres” Dillard & Brent as another suitor, Buck Cantrell.

Warnings:
Minor violence.

Bad Stuff:
I could’ve done without the racist slave caricatures.

The story is a bit inaccessible. There’s a lot going on. There’s southern social dynamics, the north/south divide (already contentious in the 1850s), and a yellow fever epidemic. Little of that is relatable to a modern audience.

The constant insinuations that all Julie needs is a good beating raised every one of my hackles.

Good Stuff:
Julie is a complex heroine. On the one hand, she’s mean & genuinely awful to everyone around her. On the other, you kind of get why. I mean, [SPOILER] her fiancé breaks up with her because she wears a red dress (instead of virginal white) to a party, which is pretty stupid. [SPOILER] She’s a woman ahead of her time, and that frustrates her, which makes her lash out.

Henry Fonda is very good.

Loved the costuming. Gorgeous!

About the Performance:
Davis is great, of course. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performance of hers that I haven’t liked. She’s so expressive. Even when Julie is behaving her worst, Davis plays her in such a way that you can feel the inner pain & frustration that cause her to act like that. It’s very masterfully done.

Other performances of Davis’s I’ve reviewed: About About Eve

The Verdict:
I didn’t particularly care for the subject matter, but I thought it was well done. Most of the acting was excellent. I particularly enjoyed how Fonda played it — you could practically feel him seething with rage, rage that he never expresses because it’s not the gentlemanly thing to do. Also, shout out to Spring Byington, as Davis’s aunt, who alternately amused and annoyed me with her fussing and nitpicking. Although I didn’t find the ending believable, I liked it. It felt very poetic, and as open endings go, it seemed right. I liked that I could decide how it inevitably played out. [SPOILER] I’m a realist, so I think they both died of yellow fever. [SPOILER] There’s a lot of nuance to this film, in the dialogue, the subject matter, and the performances. The more I think about it, the more I liked it.

I give it 4 stars.