as MILDRED ROGERS
Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage is a performance that took the cinematic world by storm in 1934. This is a performance that the folks at Life Magazine cited as "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress." This is a performance that so impressed the people of Hollywood that when Davis was unexpectedly denied a Best Actress nomination, there was such a backlash that the Academy was forced to allow write-in votes just so she could be in contention. I wanted to give Davis the typical nominee treatment despite her work not being an official Oscar-nominated performance firstly because she ending up getting enough write-in votes that year to place third, bumping out actual nominee Grace Moore into fourth. But above all, I wanted to honor this performance in appreciation of the legendary Miss Davis--a lady who wanted nothing more at the time than to nab roles in which she could sink her teeth into, to showcase the range and talent she knew she had--the very range and talent that Warner Bros. was stifling. This was the performance that got Oscar to notice her, whether he wanted to or not, and she would continue to get him to notice her for upwards of the next quarter century.
I may be stating the obvious when I say that there is something incredibly hypnotic about Bette Davis' God-given set of eyes (and I'm haunted by them every time I think about this film). I'm not the first to feel this way, and I won't be the last--so resonant were these eyes that they drove someone to write a song about them in the early eighties! Something tells me Davis would have been an excellent silent film star, as her eyes are tailor-made for silent films, almost exploding out of the frame in each of Davis' close-ups (to which she has many). In fact, there are times when I feel her performance would have been better had it been silent, because her cockney accent was not only distracting but rather annoying at times (though I admit I know nothing about cockney accents). Like, really annoying. Such an anomaly it was to witness such vivid emotion expressed through her face yet jarring cacophony coming out her mouth. But let's not focus on her horrid accent, let's talk more about those eyes! As Leslie Howard fawns over her at dinner, we see the camera close in on Bette as she sips her champagne and we're witness to the dark rings beneath her eyes and the arch of her brow--so penetrating and just a touch sinister. Bette's line reading of "he won't give me anything," in reference to the man who has impregnated and abandoned her, is complemented with an expression laced with so much shameful and bitter sorrow that makes you really feel for this monstrous woman.
Great read! I must say I do not care very much for her in this one - she's just too much for me, she really grew as an actress a couple of years later when she learned to controll her tendency for overacting. But the performance is nonetheless a milestone.
ReplyDeleteShe definitely a bit much at times, but nonetheless I couldn't keep my eyes off her. Such a screen presence!
DeleteNot my fav performance of hers, but it's a good one.
ReplyDeleteYet, I'm never sure how to look at the nomination, this whole official-nonofficial very confusing.
I'd probably also discuss/rank it if I'd end up with 1934.
I think you should include her! They were all such messes back in the day. But she still got votes, and votes lead to victories...A Midsummer Night's Dream won Best Cinematography without having been officially a nominee. So what if Davis had won? I'm sure she placed just as high if not higher than some of her other eventual nominations. Anyway, that's just my opinion
DeleteMy problem's just that the Academy doesn't officially embrace it. They're stubborn. They should just make it "official". :)
DeleteI think the Academy has finally embraced her as a 1934 nominee because she is listed on their website oscars.org as one of four nominees that year, with an asterisk explaining she was a write-in nominee, but a nominee nonetheless. Myrna Loy surely got write-in votes for The Thin Man, but they don't recognize her because she didn't come in ahead of any of the original three, which I think is the key. Bette did. Paul Muni did in 1935 for Black Fury (2nd), and Hal Mohr won cinematography.
DeleteUnfortunately, I find this Davis performance all too typical of her acting or, I should say, ACTING. It may have gotten her notice but I don't think it stands up today. Strident and overbearing without enough gradations in pitch, she enters her scenes set in her approach without ever giving to/taking from her scene partners. It's as if she's acting in a void populated only by her (a problem which mars much of her work). I find Davis an acquired taste that I haven't much taste for acquiring. Still, I think she's terrific in 'Foxes' and 'Baby Jane' and just a tad less so in 'The Letter'. Here, she's just too much muchness for me to take.
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