Alex? Stevie? Mitchell? Bette Davis fans? Here you go:
Beyond the Forest 1949
Beyond the Forest 1949
Consistently (though inadvertently) hilarious; there's not a sane dull scene in this peerless piece of camp. This is the melodrama in which Bette Davis tosses her black wig and snarls the line "What a dump!" -- which Edward Albee took for the opening of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? An evil Emma Bovary, she's a sloven married to a Midwestern doctor (Joseph Cotton); she treats him abominably, and every time she has a chance, she surrenders herself with hysterical enthusiasm to the hot-eyed embraces of a Chicago magnate (David Brian). Her obsession is to blow town, join her lover, and be a fancy kept woman; she nearly obsesses the soundtrack with variations of "Chicago, Chicago". The director, King Vidor, seems to be inventing his own brand of hog-wild Expressionism; covered with droplets of erotic sweat, Davis shakes her ample hips, kills an old man (Minor Watson), plunges down a mountainside to end an unwanted pregnancy, and dies within sight of a choo-choo pulling out for Chicago, Chicago. Max Steiner's music cues her every stormy mood.
Sounds delicious!!
Posted by sheilaHAHAHAHAHA - This movie is a hoot. Bette herself labeled this her ultimate turkey in a career strewn with them. She looks like a dumpy Indian squaw in a long black wig, and spends the whole movie itching to get outta town. Every time her thoughts veer to Chicago, Max Steiner echoes it with "Chicago, Chicago" on the soundtrack, accompanied by train whistles and chugchug sounds.
There's no real reason she couldn't get on the train and split, and after 90 minutes of Davis sashaying around in her full skirts and stringy wig, you want to call her a cab forChristsake.
A hilarious bit of censor editing has Davis visiting a lawyer's office instead of a doctor's office when she self-aborts by throwing herself down a mountain. You think, "Huh - why is she visiting a lawyer?" It's ridiculous.
The end has her literally crawling on the train platform, trying to get on that damned train, with Bette "working it" completely with her face, arms, torso, even her feet. Evidently, the director gave her the ol' "The train is a penis and you're a vagina" note. There are moments in this movie where you look away in embarrassment, and others where you hoot. Oh, guess what, she dies on the platform (trainus interruptus?).
If you took a tequila shot every time "Chicago, Chicago" played, you'd be soooo wasted by the end of it, and maybe could relate to Davis. Sounds like grisly fun!
Posted by: Stevie at May 11, 2005 11:42 AMStevie - it sounds absolutely marvelous. And ridiculous. I love the combination (uhm - Straitjacket anyone??)
Gotta check this one out.
Posted by: red at May 11, 2005 12:03 PMI think you'd love it, Sheila. I just found this on the web:
The film begins with a warning title:
This is the story of evil. Evil is headstrong - is puffed up. For our soul's sake, it is salutory for us to view it in all its ugly nakedness once in a while. Thus may we know how those who deliver themselves over to it end up like the Scorpion, in a mad frenzy stinging themselves to eternal death.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Posted by: Stevie at May 11, 2005 1:06 PMOne of my favorite Charles Pierce jokes as he is dressed as Davis in "Forest":
(Please repeat this as Bette Davis)
"So there I was! CRAAAAAWlng! CRAAAAAWling up the tracks to Chicago! With PeritoNITIS! A Greek I picked up in a bar, not bad."
Posted by: Alex at May 11, 2005 2:59 PMAlex - HAHAHAHA! When you think about how much laughter this camp classic has generated over the years . . . .
Posted by: Stevie at May 11, 2005 3:44 PMI remember Bette Davis crawling backwards down the stairway, a gibbering shrieking cross-eyed mess in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. She was so COMMITTED to it ... and yet we all were HOWLING about it afterwards. She's so awesome, and when she gets campy - there's nothing better.
Posted by: red at May 11, 2005 3:51 PMExactly, Sheila - she GOES for it, so completely, and when it's good, it's very very good, and when it's bad, it's camp.
Posted by: Stevie at May 11, 2005 9:28 PM