When the film was screened this past summer on TCM, host Robert Osorne touched upon this and gave a possible explanation: director Huston was romantically involved with de Havilland during the filming, so Bette felt he'd give preference to Olivia for this reason. Preemptively, she gave one of her most over the top performances.
shareHe did not have the skills at that time to reign her in like Wyler and Goulding could. She definitely went wild in this. I thought the direction less than stellar. Coburn was way over the top.
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Can't say I agree. I feel both Davis and Coburn were marvelous. Their
uncle/niece relationship is very similar to Hitchcok's "Shadow of a
Doubt." Both are not very nice people, yet Davis' character is clearly
unbalanced. This makes her performance make sense. And I've seen her
far worse - especially her Oscar-winning performance in "Dangerous." She
is beyond dreadful in that movie.
Please don't misinterpret my use of the term "scenery chewing"...not meant in the pejorative at all. I think it was important to the delineation of Stanley's character and lack thereof. Bette always said her audience expected larger than life performances from her and I would not disagree!
shareActually, her performance here was pretty low key in comparison to some of her later ones.
Anybody ever see BEYOND THE FOREST?
Yes ,Bette always said she was to old for that part and the husband was too young and handsome .BEYOND THE FOREST is Bette Davis fighting against the studio that she had been at for 18years and she knew she could do better elsewhere .But I still like it.
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