Above, Bette shows her boyfriend the sheet music.
They're interrupted by Joan Crawford screaming for help upstairs. Bette says her poor, sick sister gets delusional when she's hungry. She grabs her sister's meal (pre-prepared) and runs upstairs with it.
She gives her sister (above) the main course....
...which is (above) a big, ugly rat. Bette is not a nice guy in this film.
Joan screams....
Bette slaps her and runs downstairs.
Back in the living room (above), Bette does her childhood act with her boyfriend accompanying on the piano.
You get the feeling that he's not really into it.
Bette ends on a high note.
Not a minute too soon, it looks like.
It's time to discuss the boyfriend's "allowance."
Bette says it might be late this week. The boyfriend looks murderous.
Haw! Bette said it was just a joke!
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Well, that's all there's time for. The film is pretty dark, and for that reason never got the audience it deserved. That's too bad. It contains the best performance of Davis' later career.
This movie is amazing! I remember watching it for the first time on TCM about a year ago and being astonished by the beautiful photography in such a dark film. It's one of those movies that makes me wanna study filmmaking as a hobby and so I can be a better storyboard artist. Does trying to draw some of your favorite movies as storyboards and drawing each scene as a storyboard drawing really effective?
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ReplyDeleteCrawford and Davis despised each other. During the making of the film, Davis kicked Crawford in the head, and Crawford put weights into her clothes for a scene in which Davis has to drag her along the ground. I remember first seeing this on TV when I was about 13, and finding it absolutely gripping. However, for years I only pictured both of them as old, over-the-top crazies. It was years before I saw performances by either of them in their prime. Davis in particular was an outstanding actress.
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