She's miscast here: too old, for one thing; and laughably mannered. Other posters have commented that they don't believe her Fanny would bewitch the many men the script claims, and they're right. One sighs comparing this performance to Vivien Leigh's Scarlett - how perfectly the latter captured a siren men found irresistible.
Davis' Fanny is a sad follow-up to Charlotte Vale and Regina Giddons.
I disagree with you not so much in fact but in degree.
Yes, physically she was miscast, and I'm with you too on the "mannered" bit. She's lucky to have had Claude Rains, so beautifully and effortlessly natural, to ground her broadest choices.
But as to age - the character arc sweeps across several decades, so no one actor would have been the ideal choice for the whole movie. And I thought she did a great job showing Fanny's aging process.
The odd thing for me about the movie is, despite my misgivings about Davis and what she did with the role, I watch it again and again. And I love it every time.
I feel the same way... any movie with Bette Davis I will watch over and over, except maybe 'whatever happened to baby jane' (of course)... So remarkable that she was a REAL actress... she didn't mind showing her 'real' face... like the scene in this movie (towards the end) where her hair is thin and her face appears devoid of makeup. Most actresses won't do that, and the ones, these days, who WILL have usually had so much plastic surgery that well what's the point of pretending that they are showing 'their real face' when devoid of makeup.
Frankly I am in my 60s and definitely look at least 10 years younger, but starting about 4-5 years ago I stopped going out withOUT putting on some makeup and carefully fixing my hair... I never cared before, but now i don't like the fact that I 'look 52' (even though I am 64)... really vanity is such a waste of time, particularly as time speeds up every year as one grows older.
So to see Bette Davis without makeup, or wearing makeup to look older (as in this movie), is quite remarkable and worthy of great respect. After all SHE was an actress and yet took the chance to look her age in this movie. It could have ruined her career, but for HER, apparently the ROLE, the ACTING, is what mattered to her. Bravo! Bravo!
Life is a journey not a destination. Fear nothing.
I'm FINALLY watching it mow, ad I type tjis note. I just find her performance so over-the-top air-brainef and campy. Davis is always a delight to watch...but as this rather scatter-brained femme fale (?), it's not very plausible for me.
The scene in which she asks Claude Raines if he'd like to kiss her (seemingly DAYS AFTER they're married), he gestures yes, and then she proceeds to very methodically remove her hat...and it takes forever. It CRACKS me up!!!! He just sort of looks at her like "how the hell long is this going to take?"
So far, this is my least favorite of her films....it's too campy , and I just feel that her character is a CARICATURE....not based in realism at all.