Intense, ambitious, charismatic, and brilliantly gifted, Bette Davis revolutionized the art of acting and permanently altered the face of cinema. Over six decades, she built a career second to none in its variety, enterprise, and audacity. While her somewhat turbulent life has received a great deal of attention, as has her work in films such as Jezebel, All About Eve, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, there remain any number of brilliant performances that are less celebrated, if equally unforgettable. In film and later on television, she drove herself to make the most of great scripts and to give lesser ones far more than they deserved. Both her intelligence and her drive are evident in her breakthrough role in Of Human Bondage, her Academy Award performance in Dangerous, and such varied films as Dark Victory, Now, Voyager, and even the notorious Beyond the Forest. Later, she seized the world's attention and opened a new phase of her career with the horrifying Baby Jane and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. In even the least of her films and television shows, she expended her formidable talents to their utmost capacity. It is a small wonder that, long after her death, she has remained one of the most imitated of actors as well as one of the most revered. This Opinionated Guide examines and pays informed and witty tribute to Bette's entire body of work and to the complex, dynamic woman behind it.
