Customer Reviews

Hollywood Rivals - Joan Crawford vs. Bette Davis

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I remember reading Shaun Considine's "The Divine Feud" when it was first published many years ago and although much of it was speculation, (I.E., Joan Crawfords same sex crush on Davis; Davis' affair with Franchot Tone), The Mutual dislike these two ladies had for each other was quite an open secret. In fact, the two often took shots at one another in interviews given late in their careers. The "War" heated up after they had filmed "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" together, and Mr. Considine's book was peppered with factual reports of their mutual antics during the making of the film and their aborted follow up "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" in which they were scheduled to co-star again. (Crawford withdrew and was replaced by Olivia DeHavilland). I was hoping that maybe we would see some outtakes from these two films. There is nothing here but a collection of film clips from their films presented in no particular order and often at odds with the dull narration. There is nothing here you have not seen and don't already know about. The narrator hedges the producers' bets by stating periodically that there was a "rumored" feud between the two stars. That is all you will hear about the rivalry on this disc! The transfer quality is abysmally poor. It's the worst I've seen in years from films that have already been remastered. Passport should be ashamed of themselves for issuing such a low quality product. Twenty years ago I thought that "The Divine Feud" would make a good movie of the week for TV providing it could be properly cast. Now, I'm afraid too much time has gone by. I don't think any studio would bother with it as younger audiences hardly know who these ladies were. Maybe Stephen Sondhiem will turn the book into a Broadway Musical. I nominate Bernadette Peters for Bette and Patti Lupone for the role of Joan. If I could, I would give this DVD 1/4 Stars (for the Box). You can throw the DVD in the trash.

I should have believed the other reviewers. Being a die hard fan of both actresses, I thought, "how could this be bad". This was 50 minutes of absolutely NOTHING. It was cheaply put together. I learned nothing from it. What a waste of money! If I could have given it zero stars I would have.

Not informative,Not interesting,It's not even good enough to be called Sleazy.Absolute JUNK!Certainly not a documentary.

This DVD has poor picture and sound quality. The information is not always correct nor does the narrator give any sources for the quotes attributed to Bette and Joan.
The worst part of this DVD is the narrator. He is obviously an amateur and narrates the story as if he is reading from the yellow pages.
He makes idiotic statement like "Olivia replaced Joan in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte and that really uped the old lady quotient."
This is one of the dumbest, but there are plenty more where that came from.
I suggest you save your money and your time and skip this puerile DVD.
This DVD is so stupid you will actually feel your IQ going down as you watch it.

This DVD documentary got me excited when I first became aware of its impending release. Priced at under $10 I wasn't turned off by the unfavorable reviews because I figured it's worth the gamble. Well, it wasn't. The first ten minutes told me I had wasted my money. Had I not been such a fan of Crawford I would have probably turned it off before the end. I stuck it out but it's certainly a bitter disappointment.

Do NOT waste your money on this ridiculous piece of junk. There is so much misinformation and an obvious Bette slant: Bette was the "actress" and had a great career after Baby Jane and Joan "merely" a star who ended her career in bad films. Davis ended her career in a film far worse than TROG so I find this rather amusing.

At any rate, this is mostly a poor rehash of facts found elsewhere in Joan Crawford:The Ultimate Movie Star and Bette Davis: A Basically Benevolant Volcano.

The all-knowing critique by Nelson Aspen below
states that Shaun Considine's classic tome -
Bette and Joan - The Divine Feud - "is surely
the source" for the Hollywood Rivals DVD. If
the reviewer had checked he would have
learned that the author did not contribute or
authorize anything from the book to be used in
the budget DVD. Nor did he contribute to the
more lavish but erratic DVD collection of Miss
Davis and Miss Crawford recently released by
Warner Brothers - even though the latter lifted
the title of his book - "Bette and Joan" - for the
lead in their full page ads, followed by
"Hollywood Rivalry, Hollywood Royalty."

Nice try, to take advantage of the feud, which
is covered to a farethee well in the book by
the writers, directors, publicists, makeup men,
hairdressers, co-stars and ex-husbands, etc.,
who were there and who could distinguish
between what was smoke and what was fire.

So be safe and happy. Skip the DVD newsreels
and the astute comments by "the film historians"
who weren't anywhere near the two powerful
screen divas. Invest your money and buy the
crackling, rollicking book instead.

What a piece of junk. Such a letdown! I won't go into the boring details - just take my word for it..... DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As others have already stated, this DVD is not worth getting. It was very poorly produced on an apparent very low budget because the sound and pictures all looked sub-standard. But the content was just as inferior because there was more than just a couple inaccuracies. And why did they have to put an older picture of Joan and a younger picture of Bette Davis on the cover? I would have loved to see a picture of Miss Crawford from the 30's because this was when she was at her most photogenic, but Joan was always very beautiful, at any age! If you're interested in watching a quality documentary about Joan, I recommend the A&E biography which is often shown on Bio Classics.

This DVD is painful!

funny but painful... u have to reallly love joan or bette something awful to buy this
or just be very determined to have cause this dvd is just WOW! but like I said theres a few good parts