BETTE DAVIS: LARGER THAN LIFE

BETTE DAVIS: LARGER THAN LIFE. Richard Schickel and George Perry. Running Press; 2009.

A huge, beautiful, photo-packed biography-study of Bette Davis, her films, and continuing appeal. The book is actually written by George Perry; Schickel just wrote the introduction. This is by no means essential for any but the Davis fanatic, but it is generally a good read, although there isn't that much new to say about Davis, especially after such solid bios as Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis by Lawrence J. Quirk. [Oddly the book isn't listed in the bibliography, even though it was one of the major bios on the star, and some of the info in that book seems to have made its way into this one.] There are some amusing things in Larger Than Life, the foremost being how Schickel and Perry disagree on the notorious Beyond the Forest [the former loves it; the latter hates it]. My own opinion of the picture is that -- while I understand why some people can't stand it -- it's a pip! There's an unintentionally funny sentence in the book when Perry writes about how Davis gives "an excellent impersonation of the Crawford tones when she poses as her on the telephone" in Baby Jane when it's actually pretty obvious that Crawford dubbed those lines for Davis. In another funny bit concerning The Anniversary Perry writes that one character is "a closet gay who steals women's underwear from clothes lines." The character is actually a closet transvestite [most gay men have absolutely no desire to dress up as women]. Throughout the book there are "sidebars" on important co-stars and directors and the like.

Verdict: Not the best about Bette but certainly not bad. Beautiful production job. **1/2.

THE MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES: KING VIDOR

THE MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES: KING VIDOR. TCM. 2001.

This is a profile of the great director and his films; there isn't much about his personal life, which might have enriched an already fascinating program. However, this is still a solid look at the man behind the helm of such films as The Crowd, The Big Parade, The Champ (with its moving performance by Jackie Cooper); Our Daily Bread, which Vidor financed himself when MGM found the subject matter too unglamourous; Show People (with Marion Davies); The Citadel; all the sepia sequences in The Wizard of Oz; Solomon and Sheba with its great "mirror" battle scene; and The Fountainhead with Cooper and Neal. Vidor discusses the tragic life of James Murray who starred in The Crowd, and even talks a bit about the much-maligned Beyond the Forest, which doesn't deserve the scorn heaped upon it if for no other reason than Vidor directed it and his direction is as vivid as ever. He even talks about working with David Selznick on Duel in the Sun (Vidor was co-director) which started out as a small, unusual western and ballooned into an epic that Selznick hoped would rival Gone With the Wind.

Verdict: Quite entertaining and informative. ***.