MovieChat Forums > Sunset Blvd. (1950) Discussion > Betty is unlikeable

Betty is unlikeable

posted 8 years ago by fleurfairy
2 replies | jump to latest

More so than Norma or Joe. Her character was either badly developed or a under-the-radar villain. She is engaged to Artie. Yet flirts with Joe (after self-righteously criticizing his recent work). Makes up some project for she and Joe to work on so she can be closer to him. Flirts with Joe in Artie's presence. Makes out with Joe. Comes to Sunset Boulevard and makes this big maudlin speech about how she can't bear to look at Joe anymore after finding out he is a kept man. Like she's not cheating on her fiance. Betty was a b*tch. I relish when Norma calls her and drops the bomb.

[–] liscarkat (18919) 2 years ago

Yep.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Yes, but Joe finds her drive appealing, and an antidote to his pointless, timeless existence with Norma. Betty is a cunt, but she's ambitious and intensely involved in Hollywood and the real world, and she gets Joe wanting to be involved and ambitious too, and that gets him working again instead of drifting through life at Norma's expense.

I think her being a bitch was quite deliberate. Joe isn't given a choice between a good woman and a bad one, he's given a choice between two women with flaws as huge as his own. Of course he SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ends up with neither, but the one he wants is the one who has a more positive effect on him.