Customer Reviews

All About Bette: Her Life from A-Z

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This book is good as a factual guide about la Davis' life. But the author sneers and blasts nearly all of Davis' movies, merely repeating what other uninformed hacks have critiqued. He misquotes all over the place. Instead of Davis saying in the movie "Beyond the Forest" the line: "If I don't get out of here, I'll die!", the author has her saying "I've got to get out of here!" His contempt for his subject makes him a very unlikely candidate to asess this great artist whose movies today hold up better than nearly any other star of the 30s and 40s. While he completely destroys Davis' films like "Beyond the Forest" and "In This Our Life," both films have generated tremendous re-evaluations for being the masterpieces they are.

You could never use this as a reference book, because it is so biased. His reviews of her films are stupid, with stars to mark the merits of a particular film. He also uses BD Merrill's awful book to vent his rage for Bette Davis, that makes one wonder why sucha book was written.

My favorite evaluation: BD has a great marriage, and all through the years since BD married, Bette has been so jealous of BD beacuse all of Bette's own marriages failed.

When TCM did a documentary after 20 years of Bette's passing, BD was interviewed and her comments about Bette and everything else on earth were at best psychotic. She was always troubled and very scared of the world. She needed Bette's attentions constantly, and she needed her money to finance her and her husband's Fascist ministry that has about as much to do with Christ as Mein Kampf.

Also, I am from Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I lived there for years and through the years Bette Davis did, very close to her house. Bette Davis was a generous contributor to the local community, she was a great sharerer of her personal career, and a stalwart, audacious artist whom the author of this low end book could never encompass.

Randall Riese takes a different approach to the life of this legend than other authors have done in the past. The result is a virtual encylopedia of Bette's life and career. This book is a good reference tool for the begining davis fan. You can look up her films, her co-stars, directors, almost anything. The book is filled with info nuggets and photos that haven't been published before.

A lexicon of Bette Davis. Unique in its style, but thoroughly enjoyable. What's great about it is the fact that you can pick and choose which topics you'd like to read about, and skip over those that don't spark your interest. For example, it lists every street address and city in which Bette lived, and in what years. Unknown facts like those make this book exciting to read. And being from Boston, born and raised, anything on Bette Davis (especially since I can actually visit her homes in Lowell & Newton) is worth reading. In response to one of the previous customer reviews on this book, yes it's true that this author does bash and criticize nearly all of Bette's films. I heartily disagreed with some of his reviews, but just remember, everyone's entilted to his or her own opinion. What they say is not gospel. A great concise conpendium of facts perfect for the Bette Davis fan.