Customer Reviews

Bette Davis: A Biography

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1 star:		(7)

 

 

Whilst Barbara Leaming's biography can boast the virtue of originality, the book is skewed from the outset by its author's failure to come to grips with her subject. As both an artist and a person, Bette Davis repeatedly eludes the author's grasp. The result is eminently readable, but ultimately degenerates into a pointless ramble.

To believe Leaming, Bette Davis was a raging, deluded, egotistical drunk. Its hardly news that Davis was not universally loved by all who knew her - but her known acts of generosity and repose are significantly missing from this account. The rampaging monster who emerges is more akin to the BD Hyman diatribes than anything vaguely human or creative. And since Hyman's account, upon which Leaming bases much of her thesis, has been widely discredited, the book suffers a major credibility crisis.

On a professional level things are no better. Leaming rails against Davis for squandering her talents on 'junk' scripts and flashy, showy acting. She fails to recognise that the same charge can be raised against every great actor. How many really great movies did Garbo make? Even at her most mannered Davis was a force to be reckoned with. In her efforts to avoid falling under the Davis spell, Leaming has gone too far afield, dismissing fine performances such as The Catered Affair with only passing mention. Leaming implies that only the three films that Davis made with Wyler merit serious attention - a ludicrous assumption given the quality of Davis work in scores of films. (Not to mention that there is flashy, mannered acting galore in Jezebel!)

For a far more balanced account, try James Spada's "More Than a Woman." Barbara Leaming's book is a fine Devil's Advocate, but it gives the impression of being wholly defeated by its subject.

miss leaming should be applauded on one fact and that is she has done her homework on davis and mananged to do something that other writers werent able to do crack beyond that strong female -image and see the real woman who had tenderness ,vulnerability and heartache, but have to agree with other reveiwer the writing gets a little flat- but kudos for ther research all the way ,good but her greatest is her bio on katharine hepburn which reads like a great novel!!!!111

As far as I'm concerned this is a horrible book on Bette Davis. I found this to be nothing more than a diatribe against a talented and extremly gifted actress (possibly the best screen actress of the 20th century). Ms. Leaming has no compassion for her subject nor any understanding of the complexities, passions, pressures and drives of Ms. Davis.

Bette Davis was a consumate professional, an actress who strove for excellence in both her working life and her personal life, she deeply cared for her family even though there were times when she wanted to scream (family members can do that to you, it doesn't mean that you do not love or care for those around you).

Ms. Davis was bascially an honest person who was truthful not only about those who touched her life but also about herself, telling on herself first and admitting wrongs. She also had a good sense of humor which was never touched on and that is too bad.

She was a human being period, she tried hard to be a good daughter, sister, wife, mother and actress. A woman who was torn by her love between family and career, a woman who left a wonderful legacy of screen acting

In the end, that is what truly matters, that she tried and I feel in more ways than one, succeeded.

My advice to anyone who wants to know all about Bette would be Donald Spoto's "More Than A Woman" or Lawrence Quirks "Fasten Your Seatbelts" the life of Bette Davis.

I have read all but two of the books Amazon lists about Bette Davis. This is one of the best. The writing is assurred but the writer herself has an agenda. Firstly, she frames Bette's most undisputed artistic achievements in terms of either personal failure (counterposed against coinciding personal events) or in terms of being short of what she might have achieved had she eschewed this mannerism or that feud. Uninformed readers would have no concept of how major a movie star Davis was or how hugely talented even her staunchest detractors acknowledged her to be. Additionally, this book was written with a lot of cooperation from Davis' discredited daughter, B.D. Hyman. It would appear that in exchange for unprecedented access to family archives & much direct information provided by B.D. herself, Leaming agreed to downplay the treachery & mistruths of Hyman's own account of her life with her mother. There are also some major factual & interpretive mistakes: that Davis fantasized the mysteries surrounding her second husband's death; that she made up the story of her first husband blackmailing her & Howard Hughes with a tape recording of her affair with the latter; that Davis' legendary battles with her bosses at Warner's were primarily about money & ego posturing & had little or nothing to do with artistic interests; that she was not a substantial source of income for daughter B.D. Hyman's family throughout Hyman's marriage; and that her father was neither cold nor distant towards his wife and daughters in the early stages of his marriage to Bette's mother. In fact, all of these assumptions have been disproven in other, equally thorough biographies, often using primary sources like previous sealed court, bank, and legal documents, as well as credible primary & secondary sources. The book is interesting but as a fan of Bette's abilities & also as someone who is sympathetic to the very real frailties & failures revealed in this and other biographies of her, I found the account to be biased towards a specific conclusion-- essentially that Bette supplemented the hollowness of her actual emotional & personal life by rewriting painful experiences to correspond with plots from her movies.

About 25 pages into this book, the tone has been unmistakenly established. Miss Davis apparantley did not say or do one good thing in her personal or professional life. Ironically the author's intent to portray Bette Davis in the most disparaging way becomes tedious early on, and the focus shifts to the author herself...just why did she find it necessary to tear down this actress on every chapter, page and paragraph? According to the author, Miss Davis has only given 2 good performances, which Ms. Leaming gives full credit to William Wyler. Her 10 Academy Award nominations do not deter the author from this view. Do yourself a favor and skip this bilious book and put on All About Eve instead. Everything you need to know about Miss Davis' talent is in that performance...and many others.

I saw this book in a friends library and started skimming through it, then read it. While it held my attention I was amazed at how hostile author Barbara Leaming was to her subject. She apparently used Bette Davis' estranged daughter for much of her source material, so we're essentially reading an addition to My Mother's Keeper from a supposidly more objective view. Not so. Ms. Leaming assesment of how inferior she thinks Davis' work is, and dirty laundry expose of Miss Davis' home life is occasionally jarring, but not very enlightening. Davis said she herself was no saint. Sure she exagerated, and tried to present herself in flattering terms to the media. What famous person doesn't?

Leaming continually degrades the star with negative reviews of the majority of her films. The author even has the nerve to state that William Wyler's three films with Davis were her only real quality films. Hogwash. Of Human Bondage can still mezmerize a modern audience when Davis is on screen. "The Petrified Forest" is still moving. Dark Victory, Marked Woman, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, even Now Voyager are great entertainment. All About Eve is incomparable. Greta Garbo twitches her brow and moons all over the place in her films. Catch her in Grand Hotel if you want see real ham acting. Norma Shearer can actually make you cringe with her artificial mannerisms. Even Katherine Hepburn warbles and tears up just a little too much in some of her films. Crawford had a limited range, but was always worth watching. Davis had more range, although comedy eluded both her and Miss Crawford.

Davis was the first and the last of her kind of stardom. She wasn't beautiful, not even pretty, yet she is incandescent on film. At her best, and she was frequently at her best in her roles, regardless of the quality of the films, she is fresh and exciting. Did she ever do a performance to match Jeanne Falconetti's in The Passion of Joan of Arc or any of Ingmar Bergman's great leading ladies? Debatable. However, Davis was every bit as great as any of her contemporaries in Hollywood. Look at the number of her films and biograghies released on Amazon.com and compare her to other stars.

Incidently, Bette Davis' son Michael Merrill has stated great affection for her, as she did towards him in her lifetime. A really tacky, secretive, probably illegally recorded conversation between Miss Davis at a dinner with Mae West perfectly exemplifies the crassness of Leamings intentions.

Biographies often tell us as much about the biographer as about the subject, and I felt I learned far too much about Barbara Leaming from this relentlessly critical book. Bette Davis was undoubtedly a difficult and unhappy woman, but Ms. Leaming puts the worst possible spin on every one of Bette Davis' personal and professional decisions. Her criticisms often approach the irrational. Bette Davis was a workaholic; Bette Davis was a malingerer and a hypochondriac. Bette Davis relied too much on physical business and tics in her acting; Bette Davis relied too much on bloated dialogue. Bette Davis never loved anyone; Bette Davis' lifelong passion for William Wyler and obsession with her daughter warped her life.

Oh, and Ms. Leaming would have us believe that "Jezebel" and "The Letter" were Bette Davis' only truly great performances. If you'd only read this book, without having seen the films, you would think that "The Little Foxes" was a disaster, "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" an embarrassment (when I'd call it a curiosity), and "Now, Voyager" nothing special.

Finally, I'm all for a clear-eyed view of the subject, but did we really need the complete transcript of Bette Davis' drunken evening with Mae West, when both women were well past their prime? I didn't.

Fans of Bette Davis won't like it because it is not flattering. Author is somewhat cold, but the dirt dished here is probably best served cold and objectively. Flew through this book in one night.

...and what a star.

You can read the bio anywhere...born 1908 to hard-boiled New England family...could have been child of wealth but for divorced parents...coddled and championed at every turn by mother Ruthie, who had Hollywood dreams of her own...finally hit it big at Warner Brothers, where she spent 18 years arguing over contracts, scripts, directors and co-stars (thanks, Mother Ruthie, for making her believe that everything should go her way)...ended Warners 1949 and except for "All About Eve" and much later "Baby Jane", career steadily declined with lack-luster self-productions and horrid, intermittent screen appearences...finally another chance on TV, especially "Hotel", but lost again, this time to stroke...vicious book by adored daughter B.D.,...at the end, the brilliant and acclaimed "Whales of August" with Lillian Gish...cancer, more debilitations, distant daughter, paid companions (notably Kathyrn Sermak---read "This 'n That" by Michael Herskowitz for that story)...strong-willed and determined to the end not to exhibit weakness...death 1989 at 81.

What for me made this book different was the detailed but not over-bearing descriptions of each of her film experiences and how they both mirrored her life at the time and provided fodder for her future actions---whether in present or past tense, she always seemed to be playing out one of her screen performances.

Two backdrops also made for enjoyable reading...
...her mother Ruthie's insatiable push to make Bette a star--and, vicariously through her daughter, herself as well--and Ruthie's constant meddling in all (but one--thank you William Grant Sherry, B.D.'s father) of her daughter's marriages, and as many of Bette's personal and professional affairs as she could wiggle herself into
...Bette learning from her mother how to cruelly dominate, first her own sister Barbara and then everyone else who happened to cross her path as well, then unsuccessfully attempting to do the same to B.D. (and despite "Mother's Keeper", she adored her B.D. to the very end)

There are so many iterations on a life--Bette is no exception-- that one can read. What makes the difference is presentation of the material in both an informative and enjoyable format. This book held my attention from the very start.

About half way through this book, I started to scan ahead for details about Bette Davis's later films because of the lack of attention to detail about certain films. And I'm disappointed to say that some of Bette's most interesting films aren't even mentioned in the text. Ex-Lady, which apparently Bette expressed a soft spot for and which she though she gave a deep and complex performance in, isn't even mentioned, nor is Pocketful of Miracles nor Death On The Nile which is a great shame, being one of her best 70's films. Cardplayer, Mrs Cimino, As Summers Die are brushed over as are most of her earliest work as well. Leaming's only out to make a quick buck obviously. Leaming seems to be intent on telling us again and again what a drunken b***h Bette Davis was and how self destructive she was on her own career. Yet Leaming herself wants to make sure how her own career pans out after this blasting of an American legend. Bette's career speaks for itself. Avoid this book and go instead to Christopher Nicken's pictorial biography of Bette. I hated Leamings book and glad I didnt' buy it. I borrowed it from the library. One star out of five.