Brattle’s got Bette Davis eyes
New film fest celebrates starlet’s centennial
They don’t make them like that anymore — words perfectly attributed to silver screen grand dame Bette Davis, whose centennial is celebrated this year, and the incredible body of work she left behind at her death in 1989.
The Brattle Theatre’s Ned Hinkle had the delicious and difficult job of sifting through the Lowell-born actress’ movies for the cinema’s summer tribute series, “All About Bette,” which starts today and continues with screenings on Mondays and Tuesdays through Aug 26.
“It’s difficult with many of the classic Hollywood actors and actresses. They were in dozens and dozens of films, and it’s almost impossible to do justice to them with a 13-film tribute. My criteria was to hit some of Bette’s highlights, for instance, the Academy Award-winning roles she’s known for, and mix those with Brattle favorites and lesser-known movies. Personally, I prefer the roles where she’s edgier, like ‘All About Eve’ and ‘The Letter.’”
“All About Eve” (1950) kicks off the series with Davis’ fabulous portrayal of Margo, an aging Broadway star, who becomes a victim to a scheming young starlet. Watch for a young Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role. Next week’s double feature sees a relatively unknown Davis in a supporting role herself in “Three on a Match” (1932).
“This is one of her early films, and she doesn’t have a large part. But it’s a fun film, more loosely moraled than films of the ’40s. Because it’s pre-Code, it has more drugs and sexual references,” says Hinkle.
Davis is best known for playing unsympathetic roles, none more vividly than that of an alcoholic former child actress in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?,” which screens July 18 and 19 and co-stars Davis’ real-life rival, Joan Crawford. This campy psyche thriller, with Davis supposedly at her most diabolical, has a wonderful plot twist. The series ends with two films set in New England: “The Whales of August” (1987) and “A Stolen Life” (1946).
“It stars Bette as a pair of twins,” says Hinkle of “A Stolen Life.” “She did a couple of times. Both are romantically pursuing Glenn Ford, who plays a lighthouse keeper. It’s a typical New England melodrama.”
Cheesy?
Hinkle laughs, “Only in the best way.”
‘All About Eve’
Today, 2:30 p.m.
Tomorrow, 2 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:30 p.m., through Aug. 26
Brattle Theatre
40 Brattle St., Cambridge
MBTA: Red Line to Harvard
$7.50, $9.50, 617-876-6837
www.brattlefilm.org