*STARDUST: THE BETTE DAVIS STORY
A startling portrait of one of
Hollywood's most gifted and enigmatic stars.
Narrated by Oscar®-winning actress
Susan Sarandon and written and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Peter
Jones, Stardust takes viewers on a psychological treasure hunt for the
soul of a person so buried in contradiction and self-styled legend that fact and
fiction became nearly indistinguishable. With unrestricted access to Davis' vast
personal archives that span her entire life. Stardust weaves an
unprecedented amount of primary source material throughout the documentary,
including scores of never-before-seen photographs and letters culled from more
than one hundred of her personal scrapbooks, some with annotations in Davis' own
handwriting. Stardust also de-constructs Davis' fascinating yet complex life
through newly-discovered oral histories with her most important collaborators as
well as original interviews including Jane Fonda, James Woods, Ellen Burstyn and
Gena Rowlands, who critique scenes from films including Of Human Bondage;
Jezebel; Now, Voyager; and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Each actor also reflects upon Davis' titanic off-screen persona.
Additionally, Davis' son, Michael Merrill, speaks for the first time
about his parents' violent marriage and his sister B.D.'s blistering memoir,
My Mother's Keeper. And in her first on-camera interview, Marion Sherry,
B.D.'s nanny and widow of Davis' third husband, reveals shocking details
surrounding the mysterious death of Davis' second husband.
The film
explores Davis' troubled relationships with her emotionally distant father, who
abandoned her family when she was 10, and the ambitious stage mother whose drive
was crucial to Davis' early success. It also examines Davis' fiery personal and
professional relationship with director William Wyler (Jezebel, The Letter,
The Little Foxes), who, after completing their third multi-Oscar®-nominated
collaboration, vowed never to work with the actress again. Finally, the
documentary examines how Bette's ill-fated love life could prompt this feminist
icon and four-time divorcee to declare, "Unless the girl adjusts to her husband,
there can never be a happy marriage."
2006 90
MINUTES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AS SUMMERS DIE
Forbidden passion and burning prejudice ignite
in the heat of the deep south.
Emotions are riding high in a small southern
town. A lawyer, Willie Croft (Scott Glenn), is trying to defend an ageing black
woman against the Holts clan, a powerful and greedy family. A family with a dark and sinister past, whose
evil schemes and plots are safe in their incestuous past. That is until lawyer
Willie Croft finds an unlikely ally in Whitsey (Jamie Lee Curtis), a wayward
cousin of the Holts. The pressure's on and nothing's going to stop the Holts
from winning, especially their own kin. As Summers Die is the sensational story
of love and hate, power and passion.
1986
87 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMILY REUNION
Written
for television by Allan Sloane, Family Reunion stars Bette Davis as an ageing
New England schoolteacher who is given an "unlimited" bus ticket as a retirement
present. She uses this gift to visit the farthest-flung members of her
long-estranged family. In her absence, Davis' small town falls prey to
corruptive influences, but with the help of her more honest relatives (four
generations' worth, including Bette's real-life grandson J. Ashley Hyman),
everything is resolved at the annual Founder's Day gathering. Family Reunion
originally aired in two parts, on October 11 and 12, 1981; the preponderance of
Davis' family members and unresolved plot strands would seem to suggest that
this 4-hour film was intended as a series pilot.
1981 4
HOURS 2 DISCS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST
HOME
A suspense drama chronicling the events that
beset a New York commercial artist when he and his wife and daughter move to a
rustic New England village they once visited during their travels, only to find
a ritualistic lifestyle full of foreboding secrets.
1978 2
HOURS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHITE MAMA
Bette Davis was Emmy Award-nominated for her
performance of a penniless widow who refuses to go on welfare and takes in a
streetwise Black teenager as a foster child to earn money to survive. The script
was written especially for her by first-time screenwriter Robert C.S. Downs.
1980
105 MINUTES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A PIANO FOR MRS CIMINO
Bette Davis is a widow whose doctor has
diagnosed her as senile, the courts have deemed incompetent, and her son wants
placed in a nursing home. With the loving support of her granddaughter, the help
of a young lawyer who agrees to represent her, and the new-found love for an old
friend (Keenan Wynn), she makes a determined effort to regain control of her
life and her estate. Emmy Award nomination to editor Rita Roland.
1982
96 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RIGHT OF WAY
This made-for-cable movie, uniting two screen
legends for the first time, deals with the conflict between an elderly couple
who decide to end their lives together in a suicide pact when the wife learns
she has a terminal illness, and their married daughter who, with the help of
local social service agencies, tries to dissuade them from their misguided plan.
Based on Richard Lees' 1978 play which was produced at the Guthrie Theatre in
Minneapolis but never got to Broadway, the film generated some controversy until
its premiere, shortly before which the ending was changed and several characters
were eliminated (although their names remain among the credits). Starring Bette
Davis and James Stewart.
1983
105 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LITTLE GLORIA, HAPPY AT LAST
A stellar cast and six Emmy Award nominations
distinguished this dramatization of Barbara Goldsmith's best-seller about the
bitter 1934 child custody case involving 10-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt,
America's famous "poor little rich girl." In addition to nominations as
Outstanding Drama Special and for its writer, production designer and costumer,
it earned one each for Angela Lansbury as Outstanding Actress (as little
Gloria's rich and powerful aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney) and Bette Davis as
Outstanding Supporting Actress (as Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, the family
matriarch). Lansbury, returning to TV acting after 17 years, made her TV-movie
debut here, and Michael Gross (as Gloria's lawyer/guardian) replaced Ken Howard.
1983
160 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*ALL ABOUT
EVE
From the moment she glimpses her idol
at the stage door, Eve Harrington moves relentlessly towards her goal of taking
the reins of power from the great actress Margo Channing. The cunning Eve
manoeuvres her way into Margo’s Broadway role and causes turmoil in Margo’s
private life. Only a cynical drama critic, played with aplomb by George Sanders,
sees through her, admiring her audacity. Winner of 6 Academy Awards, including
best picture, director and screenplay. 'Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be
a bumpy night.'
BETTE DAVIS, GEORGE SANDERS, ANNE
BAXTER, CELESTE HOLM
1950 138 Minutes B&W
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION
The only film to unite arch rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford- two of the
biggest divas in Hollywood- comes to DVD for the first time in What Ever
Happened To Baby Jane? Two Disc Special Edition. The film has been digitally
restored on DVD and includes four documentaries about the film and its two
stars.
Bette Davis plays former child star 'Baby' Jane Hudson who is taking care of
her wheelchair bound sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), herself once a leading
movie star whose career eclipsed her sister Jane when they became adults. Now
both forgotten aging relics of old Hollywood, the sisters live together in a
chilling atmosphere of bitter sibling rivalry and mutual distrust. Their
relationship breaks down completely when Jane decides to relaunch her career as
an entertainer and holds her sister prisoner in her own room. This much-loved
claustrophobic thriller from director Robert Aldrich is based on the novel by
Henry Farrell and remains a horror classic.
1962
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*THE ANNIVERSARY
The legendary Bette Davis stars as
Mrs. Taggart, a venomous one-eyed matriarch who — despite her husband being long
dead — demands her three grown sons gather for her 40th anniversary. Eldest
Henry is a mild-mannered cross-dresser; middle child Terry is a henpecked
weakling; and carefree youngest son Thomas arrives with his pregnant fiancée.
But this bumpy night has only just begun, as family secrets will be revealed,
cruel insults hurled, and frilly underwear stolen. Even if the siblings can
survive the festivities unscathed, does the biggest mother of them all have a
shocking final surprise for everyone? Christian Roberts (TO SIR, WITH LOVE) and
Sheila Hancock co-star in this deranged black comedy written and produced by
Jimmy Sangster (THE NANNY, WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?) and directed by Roy Ward Baker
(DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER) that Bette Davis fans still call
one of her most outrageous performances ever!
1968
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS
When a normal American family moves
into a beautiful old English house in a wooded area, strange, paranormal
appearances befall them in this interesting twist to the well-known
haunted-house tale. Their daughter Jan sees, and daughter Ellie hears, the voice
of a young teenage girl who mysteriously disappeared during a total solar
eclipse decades before...
(1980) DIGITAL TV RECORDING
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WHALES OF AUGUST
Two of the greatest motion picture actresses
of all time Bette Davis and Lillian Gish unite their legendary talents in this
beautifully photographed, intensely emotional drama that offers unexpected and
quite marvelous rewards (The New York Times)! Libby (Davis) and Sarah (Gish) are
widowed siblings who have vacationed for half a century at a seaside cottage in
Maine. Now intheir eighties, the sisters have unexpectedly arrived at an
impasse: While Sarah embraces change and the possibility of romance with a
courtly Russian suitor (Vincent Price), the stubbornly bitter Libby rages at the
inevitability of death. As the summer months wane, can Libby and Sarah
rediscover the powerful bonds of memory, family and love?
1987
95 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BETTE DAVIS
INTERVIEWS:
The Full BBC Wogan Show
Interview 1987/ Good Morning Britain interview with Anne Diamond 1987/ Barry
Norman Film '88 "Bette at 80"/ The Donahue Show Clip 1987/ BBC Arena Documentary
" Basically A Benevolent Volcano" 1983 Disc has chaptered menu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BETTE DAVIS - THE DICK CAVETT
SHOW INTERVIEW
1971 60 MINUTES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC ARENA: BETTE DAVIS - A
BASICALLY BENEVOLENT VOLCANO
Documentary about the film acting
career and life of Bette Davis, with extensive interview footage with Bette
Davis and comment from Anne Baxter, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Olivia De Havilland,
Joseph Mankiewicz.
1983 60 minutes DIGITAL TV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PHIL DONAHUE
SHOW: BETTE DAVIS
Bette Davis visits Phil
Donahue to promote her book, "This 'N That." This was one of Miss Davis' last
appearances before her death in 1989. Complete with original
commercials.
1988 ~ Syndicated TV 1
HOUR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*BETTE DAVIS - ALL ABOUT
BETTE
Known equally for her steely persona as her award-winning talent, Bette Davis
was Tinseltown's greatest diva. Her legacy is documented in Hollywood Remembers:
All About Bette. Davis took the movie business by storm playing everything from
a fragile blind woman to a vicious killer. Her years at the various studios
taught her to deal wisely in business matters while jockeying for better and
better leading roles. With two Academy awards under her belt, Davis continued to
dominate the box office late into her career. Archival footage and film clips
complete this Jodie Foster-narrated look back at the first lady of the American
screen.
1994 47 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*BETTE AND JOAN - BLIND
AMBITION
Bette and Joan: Blind
Ambition contrasts the two actresses and discusses the feuding that
blossomed when they finally worked together on Baby Jane.
2005 60 MINUTES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A&E BIOGRAPHY: IF LOOKS COULD KILL
Profile of actress Bette Davis, through clips
from her most memorable films and interviews with friends.
1994
60 MINUTES
BETTE DAVIS - THE BUMPY RIDE TO STARDOM
A chronicle of Bette Davis' career from her
earliest work to her most current efforts.
1990
30 MINUTES
BOTH ON ONE DISC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------