Product Details

• Actors: Bette Davis, Lauren Hutton, Michael Merrill, Karen Valentine, Robert Wagner
• Directors: Suzie Galler
• Writers: Michelle Gaumann Clark
• Producers: Suzie Galler, Bear Fisher, Martin West, Michelle Gaumann Clark
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Unapix / a-Pix Ent.
• VHS Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1575236680
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,548 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Margo Channing's famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," characterizes well the actress who played her in All About Eve--the inimitable Bette Davis. In fact, Davis's son comments in Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis that watching Margo Channing is much like watching Bette Davis.

Davis's film career spanned six decades, in which she starred in 112 films, receiving 10 Academy Award nominations and 2 Oscars. Yet her life was not always the charmed one of a starlet; from a broken home, herself three times divorced, once widowed, betrayed by her own daughter's scathing biography, Davis found solace in her work, which didn't always come easy for her. When she first approached Hollywood in 1930, the studios didn't know what to do with such an odd beauty. This portrait of the actress covers a lot of ground, and occasionally leaves you wanting more. However, the snippets of an older Davis giving an interview on the Dick Cavett Show are a wonderful glimpse into the regal queen of the screen.

Intimate Portraits skillfully weaves together film clips, interviews with friends and family members, and clips of Davis in later speeches and interviews, making this video a solid overview of one of the first ladies of cinema. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must see this one!, April 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

come on, Bette Davis' fans, this is a brilliant and very moving tribute to our star's star. You'll laugh with her, she'll make you smile and she'll make you cry. It's a wonderful tribute to Bette, thank you to amazon for proposing this particular title.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great 'Get to know Bette better' flick, December 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An indepth look at one of the most enthralling, captivating, legenary women of not only our time, but all of time period. Beginning with Bette's humble roots from a divorced family, through her rise to success and the clssic movie role she turned down, to her battle with breast cancer and death, this gives the story behind the famous "Margo Channing," and what made her a truly strong willed, independent woman. If you want to know what made Bette Davis, Bette Davis, this is your source.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Standard Attempt To Retrace A Great Career., July 6, 2006

By 

rsoonsa (Lake Isabella, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A characteristic lightly gossipy Lifetime Productions outlining of a well-known woman's career, this 45 minute affair is abundantly used for portaging around that in which most viewers will be interested: the cinema performances of the actress who received ten Academy nominations and two Oscars. There are some brief film snippets, including her best-known performance in ALL ABOUT EVE, her final film WHALES IN AUGUST, and extraordinary moments from OF HUMAN BONDAGE, but most of this documentary's footage is used to explore relationships between the petite star and her family and spouses. Perhaps the most interesting moments are slices from a Dick Cavett television interview, where her elegance and comic timing are evident, and where we are privy to her confession that she turned down the role which was later given to Vivien Leigh in GONE WITH THE WIND. Narrated at intervals by Lauren Hutton, the work's largest amount of screen time is given to Michael Merrill, adopted son of Davis and fourth husband Gary Merrill, whose colloquial comments are genial but as presented lack any interpretive element as to what motivated the actress' birth daughter B.D. to write an ignobly unpleasant memoir of her mother. The primary substance of the included information is focussed upon revelations of her unexceptional broken home as a child, her four marriages (three which ended in divorce and one wherein she was widowed) and her very real feud with Joan Crawford, her co-star in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Bette Davis dominates most of her films made during her 18 year tenure under contract with Warner Brothers, but we are given mainly stills of these, while presented with details of her many health problems (cancer, stroke, mastectomy, et alia), interesting in their own way, one might suppose, but more emphasis upon her acting life would be more gratifying.