I’m so happy to be making my debut in The New York Times with re-caps for Feud, the new FX series created by Ryan Murphy, about the legendary feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. There’s so much to discuss that it’s rather overwhelming, and it’s going to be a lot of fun examining all of the different elements that the series brings up. It’s a Master Class in Bette/Joan lore.
My re-cap for Episode 1 of Feud is now up at the New York Times.
Woo hoo! My friend, the New York Times writer! Goose pimples and champagne, dear Sheila!!!!! Love you, xxxx Stevie
Thanks Stevie! Did you watch?
I’m so curious to hear other people’s reactions – especially Davis/Crawford fans.
(Clearly I am loving it – but very curious to hear any and all takes.)
Sheila!
Wow!! Yes, Congrats! how wonderful!!
I got home last night and I just missed a little in the beginning. Before seeing it I thought, what a scary thing to take on as an actress, whatever they do I tip my hat to them! My first thoughts were, the look of it. I said to C, “Crawford’s house looks like your mothers with a bit more money, they really got the time period down!” C’s Mom was a complete clean freak and Lange gets that too. I didn’t know it was from the people who brought Carol though till I read it here. Oh, duh, of course then! What really struck me the most was the vulnerability of Lange. (I just watched Blue Skies the other night and she and Tommy Lee Jones are so great in that) Lange is so good as the insecure Crawford was as an actress as she portrays her. I said to C too, she really goes inside to show how it feels the fear you can have as an actress. How deeply happy she is like a child with her daddy (the director) when she does that first little scene well. Then her deep dismay when Bette comes on in that get-up, oh no, Bette is going to steal the picture! Lange’s vulnerability takes over and has more of an effect then Sarandon as first appearing in character as Baby Jane.
I caught Whatever happened to Baby Jane just the other night for the millionth time too. Right when Davis is kicking Crawford to the ground right after she tried to call the doctor on her. It flashed across my brain that kicking from Davis was more brutal, vicious and shocking then any character kicking someone to death in a Scorsese picture. Davis still has the power to shock me after seeing that movie so many times. Sarandon has the harder job for me because of that. Sarandon’s make-up looked almost tame to me. Like she still wanted to look just a little good. That’s probably not fair but it flashed across my brain. I don’t know why Davis still shocks me just by how she looks. Davis is so good at playing the weasel. But I liked their scene when Sarandon catches Lange sneaking a drink and surprises us by asking her for one too. Lange’s daughter, that little girl in MadMen is always consistently good too. I’m looking forward to seeing more, and seeing the first one again, and so excited to hear more from you on this film!
Regina – so glad to hear you’re watching!! So far I think it is super smart about acting – and actresses – and I can say that about so few show-biz tales. It’s HARD to make something honest about stardom. I feel protective towards Bette and Joan, and also somewhat annoyed that their work has been classified as “campy” – when that just could not be farther from the truth. (Although people like drag queens, etc., have been responsible for carrying the torch for these ladies long after the straight world turned away. So that’s a beautiful thing!)
// I said to C too, she really goes inside to show how it feels the fear you can have as an actress. //
She really really does. Lange is KILLING it at that level. And Joan is SO good in Baby Jane – it’s the less flashy part, but her emotional torment and sense of being trapped is palpable. The movie just wouldn’t work without it! It’d be the Bette Davis Show.
// It flashed across my brain that kicking from Davis was more brutal, vicious and shocking then any character kicking someone to death in a Scorsese picture. //
I 100% agree.
These are two VERY personal performances. I think that – at their best – their work was always personal. But there is a desperation here – a raw visceral quality – that seems to tap into something extremely real.
// Sarandon’s make-up looked almost tame to me. Like she still wanted to look just a little good. That’s probably not fair but it flashed across my brain. //
I think SS is having some issues with re-creating Davis’ scenes as an actress. I’ll get into that in the next re-cap. Davis is so difficult – Davis was such a brilliant and instinctive and one of a kind actress. How do you “imitate” that? Or re-create it? SS has always been a very naturalistic actress too – and doesn’t have the stylistic sensibility to get into just how SPECIFIC those old-time Hollywood stars were. It’s an interesting conversation anyway- how acting styles have changed, how the styles of Davis and Crawford are really a lost art. There’s a mistaken impression with some actors that good acting was invented by … Marlon Brando. Or De Niro. Or whatever. But those dames were at the top of the top. And they felt everything – (there’s a very funny story about Crawford doing a wardrobe test, and starting to weep the second she put her costume on – the director cracked, “I’ve never seen an actress cry at a fucking wardrobe test before.”) these were not empty performances – but they also understood style and gesture and all the rest.
// But I liked their scene when Sarandon catches Lange sneaking a drink and surprises us by asking her for one too. //
Yes! That was so great!
I’ve already seen the show described as “catty.”
I think that description is so disrespectful and diminishing. These women were fighting for their lives, their dignity, respect. Sometimes that shit gets ugly – especially when everyone makes it clear that nobody wants you anymore – that after a certain age as a woman you are expendable. Both these broads were like, “Eff THAT.”
Catty my ass!!
NEW YORK TIMES!!!! How great is that! I recorded it to watch this week. I can’t wait to read your thoughts as soon as I watch it! Way to go!
Lisa In Fort Worth
Thank you Lisa! Yes, it’s been a very exciting month round these here parts.
Let me know what you think once you’ve watched!
NYT!!! Wonderful. I cut cable a couple of years ago, and will pay Amazon for the new season of THE AMERICANS (my current fave) but have so much to watch right now I’ll wait till this moves to Netflix or Hulu in a couple of months. So proud you got the gig! And will save all your recaps for when I watch it.
Melissa – thank you so much! I’m so happy to have been asked. It’s been a thrill – especially to be asked to write about THIS project.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts once you’ve seen it!
From what I hear, I may have to pay to watch it sooner rather than later. It sounds really good. I don’t have the investment in these two women that you do (or Elvis, though I’ve learned a lot from you), but I honor them for what they did. I always had trouble watching MAD MEN because I worked in advertising (TV commercial production) in NYC in 1968 and 69 when I first arrived and was very very young. My first job after college. It was terrifying. And not much fun. Women went nowhere. I mean nowhere. And I look at these two actresses and I wonder where they got their strength. I’m talking about Davis and Crawford, but I could just as well be talking about Sarandon and Lange, really. I think of you when you were acting, and the guts it took to just get out of bed in the morning and go to an audition. It’s one of the reasons I always treated actors well; they earned it, no matter how much or how little they’d succeeded in doing. I love actors for that reason. They are so brave.
I am still amazed at the amount of hostility shown towards actors when they dare to make demands, or want to be treated well, or want to do good work. This hostility is everywhere – including film writing, and I don’t know where it comes from. Lack of respect for the craft itself. Jealousy from a middle-class community towards the wealthy. Whatever. Bette Davis said over and over again that it wasn’t about the money for her – but once she was in a position to make demands, she made them – because money (ie a big salary) meant they valued her, were invested in her. It was mutually assured success. This is just good business sense. Both women were excellent businesswomen. You really can’t be a successful star (not for that long anyway) with good business sense. The show is really excellent on that very specific level. The “feud” is just the hook on which they can hang all this commentary on power and business and negotiation.
Congratulations!
I need to educate myself on their work. I have ‘Now, Voyager’ and ‘Mildred Pierce’ in the queue – what else would you recommend?
ooh! I love questions like this!!
For Bette: definitely Now Voyager! Classic performance. I would also suggest The Letter (it is an all-time great performance – given by any actress ever – in my opinion) and All About Eve. Little Foxes is also incredible.
For Joan! She had so many different phases in her career. She started in the silent era as a wild flapper girl! But I’d say yes, Mildred Pierce – my favorite performance of hers is in Sudden Fear – I’ve written about that performance a couple of times. She gives really good performances in Possessed (she was nominated), and Damned Don’t Cry. There’s also some great performances in the 50s (Sudden Fear was in the 50s). Johnny Guitar is INSANE. Harriet Craig is terrific (that’s one of my favorites of hers.)
They were such different types, so singular. It’s thrilling to watch them go toe to toe in Baby Jane!
Maybe some other Bette/Joan fans in this thread can recommend their faves too.
Dan-I’m envious that you might be discovering some of these movies for the first time!
I second all Sheila’s recommendations, and especially agree with The Letter and All About Eve-two of my favorite Davis movies. A fun one with her is It’s Love I’m After, with Leslie Howard and Olivia De Havilland-the relationship between her character and Leslie Howard’s is a lot of fun. Jezebel would be on my “must” list- is an incredible performance, so powerful.
One of my favorite Crawford movies is Untamed from about 1928. She is so natural and adorable in this movie, and I think that is the movie where I realized she was just a tiny little thing. I also loved her in Susan and God (1940), this is the movie where it struck me what an incredible listener she was when playing a scene. Another favorite of mine is When Ladies Meet (1941)-I love the sets, and the rest of the cast. Joan, Greer Garson, Herbert Marshall, Spring Byington and Robert Taylor? Heck yes!
// this is the movie where it struck me what an incredible listener she was when playing a scene. //
I love that observation. She definitely does not get credit for how well she listens.
Sheila, congratulations on the NYT piece-of course it was wonderful! I loved the first episdode of Feud, and CANNOT wait for the next one.
You mentioned above that someone described this show as “catty”, and not only is that disrespectful and diminishing as you said-it is just a plain lazy critique. Oh, two professional women who may be at odds? Catty? Are you freaking kidding me? Am I back in the 1960’s by chance? If anyone deserves that description is would have been Jack Warner in that scene when Aldrich is trying to get him on board with the project.
I do think my favorite scene was in the dressing room, when Davis compliments Crawford, and the way Joan lights up. Then Bette had to come right back with the “lose the shoulder pads and take down the lipstick”, or some remark to that effect. I almost felt like Davis was doing the old “don’t get all mushy on me”, but in her own brusque way, trying to help Joan too.
Today is a sad day, I had no idea that Robert Osborne had died until I saw it on TCM a few hours ago. What a loss to all of us who love classic films. I met him at the first TCM Film Festival we went to-we were lucky enough to catch a lot of his interviews, right there in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. Then we had a meet and greet and I got to chat with him a bit. I was almost nervous to see him in person, I loved him so much from TCM, I was afraid he wouldn’t live up my imaginings of him. I can happily say, he exceeded all expectations. He was unbelievably gracious, whether the camera was rolling or not. When we met, I chatted how much I had loved when Cher was a guest programmer with him, and how great it would be if she was on again. So we talked a bit, and I can say to be the focus of Robert’s attention, even for a bit-was a real gift.
A lovely man, and he will be sorely missed.
// I almost felt like Davis was doing the old “don’t get all mushy on me”, but in her own brusque way, trying to help Joan too. //
Yes, I loved that moment.
I’m glad you are enjoying the series. I am too! There seems to be a lot of complaints about its attitude – I don’t know, I find it to be very smart about show business, in particular. And also approaching it with an inquisitive mindset about what might really have been going on. With both of those dames.
And in re: Robert Osborne: I KNOW. What a loss this is. He was such a wonderful and knowledgeable presence. How lucky you are that you got to meet him and speak with him!
Sheila
For Dan – check out Sheila’s Feb 2017 Viewing Diary, (that I’m only getting to now and lots of other fantastic posts) for some great Bette Davis movies. She mentions The Star, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, and my all time favorite, Mr Skeffington! I love Mitchell’s remark, “BD gives a performance that is ABOUT vanity with NO vanity.”
Sheila, I can’t wait to see and hear what you have to say about Susan Sarandon coming up. Yes, I agree, it is a big challenge for her, her always being a very naturalistic actress as opposed to BD who wanted to be bigger than life. Meryl Streep would be the obvious choice here, as BD choose her herself to be her successor. (haha, always the best) but true. And in real life BD was as funny as hell. I’m looking forward to seeing what Sarandon does with this great challenge!
Regina – I cannot believe – still – how intense Mr. Skeffington is. It may very well be Claude Rains’ best performance. Although how do you choose?? The scene at the restaurant with his daughter makes me sob every time I see it! And Bette!!
When was Skeffington? The 40s, right? Her makeup job really predicts what was to come with Baby Jane, doesn’t it – and she was a young and beautiful woman then. God, she had brass balls.
I do think Meryl is really the only one who is sort of naturally in that progression. Character acting write large. With that kind of commitment to being another person. Not too many people CAN do that kind of work – wouldn’t you agree? Even though a lot of people try.
I love Sarandon’s naturalism, her emotionalism – and I think it’s fabulous that her particular brand of openness is part of her characterization, because Bette is often thought of as a bitchy person, when of course – the woman HAD to be open to give some of those performances!
The moment at the end of the pilot when Davis was crying watching the dailies … after Joan got up and walked out … I thought it was such an interesting moment. A feeling of loss? A feeling of “Oh my God do I look like that?” Or “Are they going to tear me to pieces for this performance?” Or … was she just moved by what she saw up there? There was so much going on in that moment and I thought it was beautiful!
I totally agree, I loved that scene at the end of the pilot, and the actresses different reactions to it. I wondered the same things you did-what were they reacting to? To see themselves in dailies again, or to see that they are older, or just happy to be working? I’ve always had the feeling that Crawford was very much about her look, even before this show-even though she obviously cared very much about the work. I think it was twofold for her, the work, and because she felt like owed her fans a certain image.
With Davis though-she was always so willing to make herself look unattractive-she embraced that. I feel her tears might have been happy, to see herself on the screen again.
I’m just entranced by these two women, Crawford was very much on her own from a very young age, where Bette had her her mom and her sister. I can’t help wonder if that contributed to the differences in their outlooks. I could see Joan looking to Bette for validation, but I can’t see Bette feeling that about Joan.
Love this discussion, and can’t wait for tonight’s episode!
The new re-cap is up!
// I feel her tears might have been happy, to see herself on the screen again. //
I like that interpretation. She loved working so much. She hadn’t done a movie in 3 years or something like that. I think somewhere – despite her anxiety about just how far out the character was – she was happy with her work. It felt good to really get INTO something again.
Episode 3 gets into their backgrounds with their mothers – and how it formed them. So you’re predicting a little bit where the series is going!!
Look forward to hearing your thoughts about episode 2!
I seem to recall an Orson Welles quote that “first of all a movie star is a woman.”
Loved your recap. Looking forward to the rest. The period capture is so good in Feud. Hedda Hopper pounces as she does because they all understand the conventions at play. Powerful person in her own sphere.
KathyB – thank you for reading and the kind words.
Judy Davis is so great. She has a couple of moments in the next episode – reaction shots to something Joan says – that make me laugh out loud.
I’d love to see a whole movie about the feud between Hedda and Louella Parsons.
NYT! Thrilling! Congrats!
Thank you, Melissa!