Bette Davis--so bad she's good

When she was bad, she was very very good. That's the take on many Bette Davis films, especially later in her career. Well Wednesday night I watched In This Our Life (1942) and Bette was very very bad. In fact, there is one line early on after she's run off with her sister's doctor husband where she coyly turns to him and blinks her big olive eyes and says, "You'd like to spank me right now, wouldn't you?" and Toni and I looked at each other and we both nodded. She then proceedes to ruin her new husband's life, then comes back to the family and tries to ruin her sister and her old boyfriend's life as well, before turning her sights on a family friend. She's just rich enough, spoiled enough and thoughtless enough to come out on top, but this being the 1940's, someone will stop her. It's not the best melodrama I've ever seen, but with Bette Davis in full bad girl mode, Olivia de Haviland in good girl mode and a cast of stalwarts including Dennis Morgan, George Brent, Charles Coburn, Hattie McDaniel and Billie Burke in support, it is readily watchable. This was one of director John Huston' s earlier films. Within a few years he directed African Queen (why isn't this out on DVD yet?), Asphalt Jungle, Key Largo and many other classic films.

Speaking of classic films by great directors, last night I watched The Edge of the World(1937), a stark, early flim by Michael Powell, a British director whe later created I Know Where I am Going, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Peeping Tom, and The 49th Parallel.
Most of his films really get into location as a theme, a character or as a protagonistic feature. Edge of the World was filmed on a sparsely populated island off of Scotland, where everyone knows everyone but there is little future and commerce, so the young people leave for Scotland as soon as they can to find work. This scenerio splits the young lovers, before he knows that his girlfriend is pregnant. The film depicts life as a grim, cold struggle against the elements, but they live their simple lives in such grand and awesome surroundings (crashing waves against rocky coast land, soaring cliffs that suddenly plunge down to the crashing ocean, rustic stone houses and fences which blend into the landscape) that you watch in amazement---how can they be so lucky as to not appreciate such surroundings. The Edge of the World is fairly short (75min) and in black and white. Also on the dvd is a 23min short Return to the Edge of the World (1978) which has the aging film maker going back to interview some of the locals who appeared in the original film. Very interesting.