MGM/UA Plans Major March Release of Davis Movies

Most of the best films of Bette Davis, who died last Friday, already are on home video, but there are still a few quality ones that haven’t been released.

MGM/UA, which has a large Davis library, had planned a major release for April, but now is moving the date up to March, according to programming director George Feltenstein.

The titles, which will retail at $19.98, include “Dangerous”--the 1935 drama featuring her Oscar-winning performance--”The Man Who Came to Dinner’ (1941), “The Great Lie” (1941), “In This Our Life” (1942), “A Stolen Life” (1946) and “Deception” (1946).

Also part of that release will be two movies previously out on CBS-Fox--”The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (1939) and “The Petrified Forest” (1936). The rights to these movies have reverted to MGM/UA. Feltenstein said “Elizabeth and Essex” will be duplicated from an improved print.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking to savor Davis’ finest work now, focus on movies made between the mid-’30s and early ‘50s. By the late ‘50s, she was doing character roles. Only a handful of her films from then on are worth your time.

Here are some of the most prominent Davis films that are available on home video--all for $24.95 or less:

“Of Human Bondage” (Congress, 1934). The tragic tale of a doctor’s (Leslie Howard) obsession with a trashy waitress (Davis). Though impressive back then, her performance now seems like overacting. Still, it’s the role that made her a star.

“Jezebel” (MGM/UA, 1938). Davis won an Oscar for her role as a sassy, spiteful, Scarlett O’Hara-like character in this absorbing pre-Civil War drama. She’s delightfully tempestuous until she turns noble at the end. Henry Fonda co-stars as her fiance. The Oscar notwithstanding, this is good but not great Davis.

“Dark Victory” (MGM/UA, 1939). In possibly her most famous tear-jerker, Davis plays a selfish, carefree socialite who finds out she’s dying of a brain tumor. While doing some re-evaluating, she’s consoled by husband-surgeon (George Brent). Sure, it’s excessively manipulative and riddled with cliches, but just try to sit through it with dry eyes.

“The Little Foxes” (Nelson/Orion, 1941). To veteran Davis fans, her scheming, callous Regina--one of the screen’s great evil leading characters--is Davis’ crowning glory. Based on Lillian Hellman’s play, this meaty melodrama chronicles how greed destroys a Southern family. For those unfamiliar with Davis in her prime, this is the movie to see.

“The Letter” (MGM/UA, 1940). Set is Malaya, it features Davis in one of her finest villain roles, this time playing a murderer who’s hiding behind a self-defense plea. Directed by William Wyler and co-starring Herbert Marshall.

“Now Voyager” (MGM/UA, 1942). Davis’s best soap opera, though not her best performance in a soap opera. She plays a sheltered spinster who flowers into a sophisticate under the guidance of a psychiatrist (Paul Henried). Henried’s dual cigarette-lighting scene was long considered one of the screen’s great romantic moments. But, in this anti-smoking era, it’s just a curiosity.

“Mr. Skeffington” (MGM/UA, 1944). Possibly Davis’ most overlooked, underrated drama, this sprawling soap, covering several decades, is about a selfish woman (Davis) who marries a stockbroker (Claude Rains) out of greed. Later on, the relationship ripens into love. Davis’ intense, all-out performance belongs in her Top Five.

“All About Eve” (CBS-Fox, 1950). To many critics, this is Davis’ best performance--as tough, cynical Broadway actress Margo Channing, who’s the target of the trickery of deceptive Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Possibly Davis’ most famous movie, it’s a good introduction to those who know little about her.

“A Pocketful of Miracles” (1961, MGM/UA, $19.98). The best of Davis’ old-lady character roles. In this adaptation of a Damon Runyon story, she plays Apple Annie, a derelict who, to cover up a well-meaning lie, has to be transformed into a society matron.

“Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (Warner, 1962). Fun, campy, horror tale, with Davis, as a sadistic ex-child star, grandly caricaturing some of her old roles. This one, co-starring Joan Crawford, resurrected Davis’ career and earned her a best-actress nomination.

“The Whales of August” (Nelson/Orion, 1987). Talky character study consisting of two elderly sisters fussing at each other in a Maine summer cottage. More of interest as a bit of film history, watching Davis work with another cinema grand dame, silent-star Lillian Gish.

Few of Davis’ movies from the early 1930s are available on home video, including her first, “Bad Sister,” a bad 1930 film notable because it was one of Humphrey Bogart’s earliest movies.

Of the Davis films not yet on video, the ones to watch for are ‘Kid Galahad” (1937), “Old Acquaintance” (1943), “The Star” (1952), “A Catered Affair” (1956) and “Storm Center” (1956).

“Beyond the Forest,” a 1949 murder mystery, isn’t on home video either. Co-starring Joseph Cotten, the film isn’t particularly suspenseful, but it’s noteworthy because it features Davis delivering her signature line, “What a dump.”

Davis’ last film, “The Wicked Stepmother”--which received only limited theatrical release and was controversial because of the star’s well-publicized battles with director Larry Cohen--is due out on MGM/UA on Nov. 14 at $79.95.