Jezebel (1938).

Jezebel (1938). Drama film directed by William Wyler.Cast: Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, and Fay Bainter. The film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Robert Buckner, from the play by Owen Davis, Sr.

The story is about a headstrong, controlling, young woman named Julie Marsden, who is engaged to a sucessful banker, Preston Dillard. Wanting to get even with Preston, for not dropping his work to help her shop for a dress, she orders a beautiful red dress to wear to ball. It was the custom for all the proper unmarried women to wear white dresses and no one could say anything to change her mind.

Preston and Julie's, entrance is met with disapproval by everyone at the ball. She is embarrassed and begs Preston to take her home, angry he forces her to dance with him. All the other dancers leave the floor, leaving them alone. When, the orchestra stops playing, Preston orders them to continue and they finish the dance.

Preston breaks off their engagement, not before Julie slaps him in the face. Aunt Belle Massey, tells her to go after Preston and beg his forgiveness, but she refuses, believing that he will come back to her. He leaves town and heartbroken Julie, closes herself off from the world.

A year later, Preston returns, to help Dr. Livingstone, try to prevent an outbreak of yellow fever. Julie goes to him and begs for his forgiveness. That is when Preston, introduces her to his wife Amy, who he married while away. Heartbroken, Julie has a skilled duellist Buck Cantrell, challenge Preston, but the plan backfires. Preston's brother Ted, is the one who accepts the challenge.In a twist of fate, Ted wins.

A epidemic of yellow fever hits the city and Preston becomes ill and is quarantined on an island. While Amy, is making plans to go to care for him, Julie stops her and begs to go in her place.

This is a wonderful period film.. This maybe one of Bette Davis' best and most memorable performances. Fay Bainter, gives a wonderful performance as Aunt Belle. Henry Fonda, performance shows a hint of his future as a Hollywood star.

Fun Facts:

Has been called a black-and-white version of Gone with the Wind (1939), which was in its pre-production stages at the time.

Some scenes were filmed around Henry Fonda, to allow him to be with his wife as she gave birth to their daughter Jane Fonda, including scenes with the sometimes-prickly star, Bette Davis. As the star of the film Davis was within her rights to insist that Fonda remain until their scenes were finished, but she allowed him to complete his shots and leave.

Margaret Lindsay (September 19, 1910 - May 9, 1981). She was best known for her supporting work in films of the 1930s and 1940s such as: Jezebel (1938) and Scarlet Street (1945) and her leading roles in "B movies" such as the, Ellery Queen series in the early 1940s.She is best known for her performance in the film, The House of the Seven Gables(1940) .

Dragonwyck (1946)

Dragonwyck(1946). Period/drama. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck and Ernst Lubitsch. Based on the novel Dragonwyck by Anya Seton. Music score: Alfred Newman. Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller. Cast: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price, with Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Harry Morgan and Jessica Tandy.

Dragonwyck, is one of those films that would lose it's moody atmosphere if it were in color. I thought Vincent Price did an outstanding performance in one of his first films. The story starts as the innocent farmers daughter Miranda (Gene Tierney), excited to learn that she is related to the rich Van Ryn. And is being invited to visit their beautiful mansion to take care of his young daughter.. Miranda is instantly attracted to the handsome Nicholas, the owner of "Dragonwyck". Mean while, Nicholas busy fighting off a revolt of his tenant farmers and coming up with a plan to get rid of his wife. (Because she has not given him a son.) Miranda moves back home with her parents after the wife's death. Not long... Nicholas comes for her and they marry and Miranda gives birth to a son, the boy is not healthy and does not live. Nicholas begins to slip into insanity, moving to the attic of his mansion to live in his world of drug addiction..



A broken hearted Miranda looks for help from the the local doctor, Dr. Jeff Turner (Jeff Langan). Dr. Turner falls in love with Miranda, and he eventually learns that Nicholas killed his first wife to be with her, and he fears that Miranda might be next on the list.
Dragonwyck Movie Trailer.

FUN FACTS:

Gregory Peck was the first choice to play Nicholas Van Ryn, but he bowed out when he learned Ernst Lubisch was dropping out as director. When second choice Laird Cregar died, Price was assigned.

Vincent Price lost 30 lbs. for the film.

Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990). Revere was a direct descendant of Paul Revere. She made her Broadway debut in, The Great Barrington (1931). Three years later, she went to Hollywood to reprise her stage role in the film, Double Door. She returned to Broadway to create the original role in the 1934 production of, The Children's Hour, and in later years she appeared on the New York stage in As You Like It, The Three Sisters, and Toys in the Attic (play), for which she won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.

Revere worked as a character actress in many films, performing in nearly three dozen films between 1934 and 1951. She frequently was cast in the role of a matriarch. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress three times and won for her performance in the film, National Velvet. Some of her other films include: The Song of Bernadette, Gentleman's Agreement, The Keys of the Kingdom, Body and Soul and A Place in the Sun.

She did not perform again on film for the next twenty years, finally returning to the screen in, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. She also began performing on television soap operas such as: The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow and Ryan's Hope.

Revere and her husband, theatre director Samuel Rosen, moved to New York and opened an acting school, and she continued to work in summer stock, theater and on television.


It is a fictional story of Miranda Wells and her marriage to Nicholas Van Ryn, set against an historical background of the Anti-Rent Wars, the Astor Place Riots, and steamboat racing on the Hudson River.

The book focuses on Miranda Wells: her longing for her rich cousin Nicholas Van Ryn and her marriage to him and her discovery of her husband's dark and twisted life.

The novel was adapted into the film Dragonwyck, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price.