Jezebel (1938)

Probably (excluding All About Eve) the finest pictures Bette Davis made were under the direction of the great William Wyler. And Davis never looked better than in this film.Despite sterling performances from Henry Fonda and George Brent, Fay Bainter and Spring Byington, Henry O'Neil and Donald Crisp, Jezebel is really Davis' movie as the camera caresses her in close ups time and again, and she rewards it's attention with an A - class performance.Davis also made The Letter and The Little Foxes under Wyler's direction, she loved working with him, his attention to detail, her preparedness to redo scenes over and again until the Master was satisfied (Wyler was known to demand take after take - in some cases, 50 or 60 times - until he got what he was looking for) and of course, the finished product.Jezebel was made in 1938 as Warner Bros wanted to cash in on the success of the book form of Gone With The Wind, a best seller - and another story of the fall of the South and a headstrong woman whose stubborn streak costs her the man she loves - and get Jezebel out in the theatres before GWTW which was in pre-production, when Jezebel was being shot.Jezebel is actually set before the Civil War (unlike GWTW) in the early 1850's when the South was a thriving place, and men held great store in their honour,and women well versed in meeting the strictly defined code of dress and behaviour that was so fundamental to life in the Olde South.For reasons known only to herself, Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) decides to ignore such boundaries and when fiance Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda)arrives to take her to the ball, he finds, to his horror that she has chosen to wear a red gown instead of the white one society expects her as a single woman to wear.She is humiliated by the reaction of her contemporaries at the ball - especially when Pres refuses to allow her to slink away. And when the dance has been completed he takes her home and politely wishes her "Goodbye" not "Good Night", thus breaking their engagement.This may sound crass in the 2000's, but in 1852's New Orleans Julie's scant regard for the manners of the day and her insensitivity to the feelings of others forced Preston to realise a life with her would be one long,never ending battleground.This is the first copy of Jezebel I have owned - because of the poor quality of the film in the past, I decided against buying one.But the restoration has been superb and has allowed those of us not old enough to appreciate it's original mint condition on it's cinematic release back in '38 to see this masterpiece the way it was intended.Bette Davis won an Academy Award for best actress and Fay Bainter won for Best Supporting Actress. Both awards were well earned.The direction and photography, are wonderful, and despite Warners making Jezebel in black and white, it looks fantastic and gives the viewer a realsense of the majesty and beauty that was the pre-Civil War south.

fast delivery, great movie

All her moves

This entire movie is focused on her RED dress. Colorize this movie! We have the technology. It is so utterly absurd to continue to refuse to colorize a black and White movie with a RED Dress plot line when there is no justifiable excuse. It is the only reason I gave it 4 stars. The movie deserves 5 stars. The arrogant A$$ who refuses to colorize the film deserves zero stars.Do you have any idea how much money you would make selling the colorized version? Anyone who wants Black & white can already buy it in its original version. How about humoring the rest of us while we are still alive to appreciate it. Don't wait until your audience dies off and no one old enough left to care. (Like they nearly did for the Dallas TV series. All those years wasted. Not to mention how many died just waiting for the DVD's).Better yet, create a DVD set with a colorized restored version and an original Black & White version and a B&W restored vision. Then everyone will be happy with the version of their choice.There is no clapp trapp which will convince anyone or justify keeping this movie in Black & white only. If any movie needed to be colorized, it is this one. The entire plot was about the RED dress. The only reason Black & white ever existed is because they did not yet have the technology for color. After color was available, the only reasons for Black & white was cost or availability. It was the same for TV as it was for film. If color had been invented first, there would be no Black & White movies or TV. As it is, we invented methods to colorize to fix what they could not do when they filmed these movies & were either limited by technology, access or money. At the time of filming, all 7 of the Technicolor Cameras were tied upon filming Gone with the Wind. There were no color cameras available for Jezebel. Not to mention the cost.Black & White isn't art. It's nothing but lack of capability. Most of us were born with color vision. Not Black & white. I've been waiting over 50 years to see this film in color. I'd colorize it myself if I had the capability. I'm quite serious. I colorized our family photos. We now have both versions. Everyone is happy. Photos were another media limited by technology, access & money.To the person responsible for keeping this movie in Black & white:We are willing to pay for the pleasure of seeing this movie in color on DVD. You would make more money if you colorize it while we are all still alive to buy it. We do NOT want see a remake. We want the original movie IN COLOR! Include all 3 versions on a DVD set to satisfy everyone.I don't care how important you think you are. I saw Spielberg's name mentioned as the possible responsible party. (We also remember how he backstabbed Kubrick over AI.) Either way, anyone who denies the audience the long awaited colorization of this film is a selfish, self centered, arrogant A$$. You've lost our respect. Hopefully, we can return the favor on something you want.

I first saw this movie back in the '50's when most early channels were spending a lot of broadcast time on showing movies. This was before the backlog of movies ran out, and we entered the realm of miniseries and made for TV movies. It really impressed the kid in me, and I focused entirely on Bette Davis' character, forgetting almost entirely the subplots involving her brother, played by George Brett. Fonda was good as Davis' love interest, but not as strong as Clark Gable in the even more iconic "Gone With The Wind", with which "Jezebel" shares a few plot themes.I bought the movie in order to be able to show how different the impression we have of a character nicknamed "Jezebel" is from the real character in the Bible. Bette Davis' character does not follow the common parody of Jezebel as a wanton harlot. Instead, she is a person who is petty and wants her way, including getting her man, even when he becomes unreachable, by marrying a northerner. (Similar to the plot with Scarlet O'Hara and Ashley Wilkes.)I would argue that Davis' character, Julie Marsden, did not reform her ways at the end of the movie (I will avoid a spoiler here and not describe what happens). Rather, she follows her primary instinct, which may look like love, but is it?Since the movie were an alternative "Gone With the Wind", I'm surprised it was not filmed in color. The scenery and costuming are so sumptuous, it seems a waste to film it in black and white. But, 10 minutes into the film, and you really don't notice it that much.A very durable film.