C/D: Bette Davis

Yeah it really rides the line of schmaltz but for me never veered. Makes a good pair with The Heiress.

I've considered how Davis would've worked in The Heiress. Answer: not at all. I can't imagine her playing the gawky, gauche Catherine, and she's unthinkable opposite Ralph Richardson -- she would've eaten him alive.

wdve slayed in many Streep roles tho

Oh my god, every.

I agree that BD couldn't pull off the extreme about-face that OdH pulls off in The Heiress, partly because her "homely" phase would've have been as shocking and her cruel turn would be typical. So much of that movie is the character's infantile behavior/demeanor/mannerisms, and OdH is so brilliant and subtle, and all I can think of is BD in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, totally flailing.

well HHSC is waaaaay past her prime, that's not fair

de Havilland ever so slightly overplays the homeliness, but the subtle framing and the exchanges with Clift, Richardson, and Hopkins help.

She is awesome in "The Nanny". Weirdly, that might be the only thing I have ever seen her in.

This was on tonight, the children in this film are so good - well, one of them was Pamela Franklin, so no surprise her being so good, but the boy in the film only appeared in one other film ("Doctor Doolittle").

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934)

enjoying her (not bad) cockney accent

the character leslie howard is playing wants slapping but i guess that's why it has this title

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is fuuuuuuuuuuuuun.

The title song turns up in some strange places. Fassbinder has the porn seller/police informant Carla sing it to herself in front of a mirror in "Gods of the Plague". Stranger yet though there's this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlrZUO0QlPA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTrlB1rVLk