Bette Davis is miscast

I liked this movie, but more for the story than the performances. The story is excellent and the characters are varied and interesting. But Charles Coburn as the rich uncle was just not able to be convincing as giggling while his niece Bette Davis tickles him. And Bette Davis should have left this role to somebody else.

For a start, Davis is too strong a personality for the role. Especially in the scenes with her rich uncle, she needs to be childlike, kittenish. She just does not look natural jumping onto the couch with him with her legs curled up beneath her. She brings off the manipulative side of the character, but not the baby, the spoiled brat who never grew up.

Second--I hope this doesn't offend Davis fans too much--she's just not good-looking enough for the part. Her teeth are particularly noticeable in this film, but in general what was needed was an actress whose femininity made it believable that the two men would fall so easily under her spell, even after her betrayals. We needed a Stanley who could melt our hearts, a soft Stanley, not one who barked at her men, a selfish little vixen who pouted and wheedled and was an expert at the you-big-brute brand of flattery, one whose indifference to others arises not from defiance and strength but from thoughtlessness, carelessness, childishness. We needed Vivien Leigh from Gone With the Wind, not an offshoot of Davis in All About Eve.