Customer Reviews

The Anniversary [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a surprisingly deft black comedy with Bette Davis at her most wicked. The screenplay by Jimmy Sancster, which is adapted from a play written by Bill MacIlwraith, retains the flavor of a stage play.

Bette Davis plays the role of Mrs. Taggart, the wealthy, flamboyant, one eyed, matriarchal head of a family of three grown sons, all of whom kowtow to her every whim. She knows all their weak points and uses her knowledge to check mate them and head them off at the pass, should they get any ideas about getting out from under her thumb.

Though her despised husband has been dead for ten years, she still celibrates her wedding anniversary by having her three sons home for a celebration, and a motley crew they are, indeed. When they show up this year for the anniversary celebration, however, they decide to shake up old mom by making a break for freedom from her rule. Trust me, this will cost them dearly.

Bette Davis is outrageous and lights up the screen, as she hams it up delightedly. The dialogue is rapier sharp and brilliantly witty, allowing Ms. Davis to dazzle as she chews up the scenery. Looking every inch the fabulous doyenne that she is, she wears an eye patch color coordinated to match every one of her colorful outfits.

This is an entertaining black comedy that all Bette Davis fans will, undoubtedly, enjoy.

If you want to see Bette at her most outrageous and flamboyant, you've come to the right place! Here she plays the diabolical Mrs Taggart who, hands down, would win the "Most Dominating & Manipulative Mother" award. She has three sons, one a transvestite, one a coward, and one (a little harder to control) with a new fiance to whom Davis requests: "Would you mind sitting elsewhere? Body odour offends me". Davis looks like she has a field day playing the part, as most viewers will have watching the film. The film is chock full of good lines. Eg: To the cross-dressing Henry: "Wouldn't you like to get help, to stop being a pervert?" to which he replies "I like being one". The film is a full-scale opera of black humour, devious cunning, manipulation and aggression. What more could you want?

Hammer Studios are definately best known for their Gothic horror efforts usually starring horror icons Peter Cushing and Chrsitopher Lee, however on occasion they did stray from their usual product with often very pleasing results. "The Anniversary", has always been one of my great favourites among the body of work of both Hammer Studios and the legendary Bette Davis. Having already appeared in Hammer's dark drama "The Nanny", in 1965 Bette Davis took on a very different type of role for her second Hammer engagement playing a wonderfully over the top "mother from hell", who manipulates and controls her three weak willed sons in a macabre game of cat and mouse. Rarely in her later years did Davis have such a meaty role as in "The Anniversary", and she has the time of her life totally upstaging everyone and everything to unforgettable effect here. Her castrating and caustic mother makes "Mommie Dearest", look like a sunday school teacher and audiences are guaranteed a grand old time watching one of Hollywood's greatest acting legends dominating the screen from beginning to end and showing all and sundry what larger than life acting on screen is all about.

You really have to hand it to the Movie Divas of yesterday, don't you?

I mean, when faced with financial and professional stagnation, what did they do? Go on Oprah and whine about bankruptcy? No. Turn to drugs and make enormous fools of themselves in the National Press? No chance. Did they suddenly discover a 'cause' to get themselves back in the spotlight, in vainglorious hopes of getting more movie roles sent their way? Nope. Or did they even retire graciously and quietly, living out the winters of their lives in seclusion and silence? Oh, my, but no.

They made movies like this one!!

Joan Crawford did 'Trog' and 'Berserk', Lana Turner appeared in 'Madame X' and 'The Big Cube', Shelley Winters had 'Cleopatra Jones' and a string of memorable TV appearances, and of course, La Bette Davis made, among others, 'The Anniversary'.

For which I, for one, will be eternally grateful.

'The Anniversary' isn't a great movie in terms of supporting cast, direction, or script. Even the production design is a little flat, a little stagey. But Bette shines - absolutely radiates star power - in this oftentimes-slow twilight years Star Vehicle, as Mrs. Taggart, the revoltingly machiavellian Matriarch of the highly dysfunctional Taggart clan. Gathering her sons and their other halves together on the occasion of her fortieth wedding anniversary, Mrs. Taggart, when faced with filial mutiny, does her level, manipulative best to put a stop to all forms of dissention, including disinheriting her grandchildren, turning her eldest cross-dressing son over to the police, and trying to frighten her would-be daughter-in-law into miscarrying her unborn child.

Sounds pretty grim, on paper - but Davis' perfectly pitched high camp performance saves this movie from being simply another late sixties melodrama. I mean, you'd hardly expect to find such a steel-willed woman playing with a Mannekin Pis-shaped watergun or french-kissing her youngest son in front of his siblings, but there you go: Davis clearly knew that she could have fun in this role, and have fun she does - and we're thrilled to be along for the ride.

Highly recommended as a candy-light, no-brainer campfest of huge proportions, 'The Anniversary' is an excellent addition to any comedy collection.

This is probably one of the all-time BEST performances by Bette Davis you will ever see. As I understand it, this is not easy to find and if you are a true Bette Davis fan, you simply MUST have this!

The simple plot revolves around Ms Taggert's (Bette Davis) yearly tradition of celebrating her wedding anniversary even though her husband has been dead quite some time. Not only does she insist on comemorating the occasion but DEMANDS that her sons, ALL of whom have their own issues with Mother Dear, attend along with their respective families. Then Bette proceeds to tear into them unmercifully because she knows they will put up with it all for the sake of good ol' moola! Knowing this, Bette pulls no punches and delivers one of the funniest, most brutal, scathing, lowdown, and over-the-top CLASSIC performances in film history.

This is vintage Bette. Trust me. No Bull. You simply MUST see this! It is just a stitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ANNIVERSARY is perhaps the most unusual film in Bette Davis' filmography. Coming after three fine "horror" thrillers, this one often gets pegged as another entry in the category (and was marketed as one by 20th Century-Fox who clearly was at a loss at how to sell it), THE ANNIVERSARY is actually a black comedy-melodrama with Davis playing such a monster mother she makes Gladys Cooper in NOW VOYAGER look like Stella Dallas in comparsion. Davis stars as Mrs. Taggart, owner of a construction company who keeps her three ineffectual adult sons on a tight leash. Unfortunately, the director failed to do likewise to Miss Davis but she can scarcely be blamed when the screenplay dares her to overact. Surprisingly successful playing a British matron (she does have the bad teeth for the role), Bette has a ball (and certainly a major segment of her audience will as well) but the bad taste and bad manners wears thin before long and the storyline, whatever it is, is just not interesting.

The movie is strong on outrageousness but weak on credibility, stunningly vicious remarks or actions are overlooked as if nothing happened moments later. Some of the insults are funny but the laughs are surprisingly few in this picture which has long stretches of melodrama. On the plus side there are two young actresses, Sheila Hancock and Elaine Taylor, who do very well and are able to stand up not only to Mrs. Taggart but to Bette Davis. The sons, unfortunately, are written off as drips although the hopelessly dominated middle son is well played.

THE ANNIVERSARY was for years a little seen film and television airings have always been extremely rare probably due to it's adult humor (although you will now see rougher stuff on TV cartoons). It's hard to miss in Bette Davis books with it's stills of Davis in a eyepatch or clutching a pissin' statue and I suspect many Davis fans have sought it out on video and DVD sight unseen.

This movie was apparently a bomb at the box office and started the most elusive chapter in Davis' career, 1968-1975 where she made some scarcely seen films like "Connecting Rooms", "Bunny O'Hare", and "The Scientific Cardplayer" as well as a few instantly forgotten TV projects. Bette Davis, like Mrs. Taggart, did not know the meaning of conceding and marched on and actually found a number of worthwhile and well-received projects in her senior years from 1976 until her death in 1989.

This is one of the best Bette Davis movies I have ever seen! I couldn't controll myself! Bette has some of the funniest lines In the history of film! Well worth your time and money and if your a Davis fan,save a spot on the shelf between Baby Jane and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte! that spot is well deserved!

This movie isn't your typical Bette Davis movie, but it had me laughing so hard and is GREAT! I would definately recommend, especially if you collect them as I do!

THE ANNIVERSARY is an amazing tale of motherhood gone horribly awry. Mrs Taggart (screen icon Bette Davis) is the matriarch of a bizarre family. With her husband long dead, Mrs. T keeps her three grown sons under her wing (control) through extremely devious means. She will utilize any device, trick, or extortion in order to hold onto
her boys! Tonight, on her 40th anniversary, two of them will attempt to leave her grasp. Mum's reaction and subsequent schemes are the black heart of this wonderfully twisted story. Watch as she plots and weaves her inescapable web! Ms. Davis is absolutely satanic in her sinister role! THE ANNIVERSARY is one of my favorite black comedies. Buy immediately...

One of the later, more obscure movies in the Bette Davis catalogue, The Anniversary is based on a play and is rather static visually as a result. Davis plays a bitch-on-wheels matriarch whose verbal viciousness keeps her adult children cowering. While the supporting characters are not particularly well drawn, this is a wonderful flick to watch if you're a Miss D fan or someone dreading the torment of dinner with a parent from hell. Believe me, your own parental units will look cherubic by comparison to the eyepatched Bette Davis!