I think, last night, I may have fooled around on Bette Davis……

I’m not sure where my love affair of old movies came from or even when it started. I know that, long before movies were rated, I was my Dad’s movie buddy. He took me to see just about every movie under the sun. Airport, Towering Inferno, The Godfather, True Grit, Marathon Man, All the President’s Men, Heaven Can Wait, A Bridge Too Far. All sorts of great 70’s films. I enjoy 70’s movies, lots of them, but my heart lies with Bette Davis and any movie that was made before 1960. These are movies that I always go back to. These are the movies that define a big part of who I am. Casablanca, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Red River, Maltese Falcon, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Barefoot Contessa, Cool Hand Luke, Sunset Boulevard, Rear Window, Mrs. Miniver, Some Like It Hot, The African Queen, Rio Bravo, The Ladykillers, Night of the Iguana, The Dirty Dozen, Stalag 17, A Place in the Sun, Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Klute, Kelly’s Heroes, Dr. Zhivago, The Graduate, Lawrence of Arabia…oh and my absolute favourite of all time…All About Eve with the scene stealing Bette Davis. Simply the most fascinating female actor in the history of Hollywood film. I’ve watched lots of her movies. Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, The Little Foxes, but my favourite has to be Bette Davis’ role as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star verbally sparring it out with a sneaky understudy who covets fame. This is a classic story of ambition and betrayal. Bette Davis is a force of nature in this film. But don’t take my word for it…take a look at these stats: All About Eve was nominated for 14 Academy Awards (a feat that was unmatched until Titanic). It won six Oscars, including Best Picture. All About Eve is still the only film in Oscar history to receive 4 female acting nominations. All About Eve was among the first 50 films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Like an old friend, All About Eve is always there for me. Rainy days, quiet Saturday nights, slow Sunday afternoons…whenever I have time to kill and I need a good friend I know I can always Margo Channing and William Wilder’s wonderfully directed All About Eve with a script to die for “We're a breed apart from the rest of humanity, we theatre folk. We are the original displaced personalities.” So. Good.
Anyway…I’ve loved Bette Davis and the legend of Bette Davis for as long as I can remember. Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. She continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theatre roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, after Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time. This woman lived life so fearlessly and with such passion and gusto, such an inspiration to me! She was not a beautiful woman, but she was a great actress. With quotes like these …“I'd marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he'd be dead within a year.”…how could you not love her?
Yes I have a girl crush on a long dead Hollywood actress.
So I found myself getting giddy when I realized, half way through my Friday afternoon that I just may be able to squeeze in a date with Bette and Margo and Addison and Eve. Ooooh. My heart leapt a little at the idea that I would be able to cuddle up with the Porkie Yorkie and watch my favourite movie. All of a sudden I had purpose. All of a sudden my chores were easy. Yes. Tonight it’s me and All About Eve !!
Everything was done. It was the moment I had been working toward all day. Pot of tea and a glass of port on the coffee table. All that was missing was the movie. I went to my DVD collection, strolled through the titles looking for the one….and….well…. this is where things went wrong for me and Bette. Instead of All About Eve I chose Cabaret. Whaaaaa? This was not the plan. All day long I was waiting for one thing and then when it came to the crunch I caved and picked something else. What was going on with me? What would I tell Bette? Would she forgive me for ditching her at the last minute? The guilt was overwhelming. But then, it happened. Cabaret came on…the bass trombone started playing. Joel Grey, the Kit Kat Club master of ceremonies in Weimar Republic era Berlin, introduces Miss Sally Bowles……Liza Minnelli steps through the curtain and starts to sing “Mein Herr” . The Kit Kat dancers….ooooh…the Kit Kat dancers. Sigh. Bob Fosse was truly inspired. I am hooked. For the next 124 minutes I hang on every movement Liza Minnelli makes….every smile, every eyelash batting, every gesture when she sings. Every feeling that flashes in her eyes. It’s as if this was the last movie she was ever going to do and she wanted every second to be amazing. (Well she did win an Oscar for her role) The frenetic, fascinating, vulnerable, bohemian Sally Bowles with the big doe eyes and even bigger voice. I was in love. Then the movie was over and I had to come back down to reality. I had left Bette for Liza. Liza. Bohemian Liza. Liza with the teal blue finger nail polish. Liza. Belting out the tunes. Tender and tough Liza whose quotes just make the movie. Quotes like “I'm going to be a great film star ! That is, if booze and sex don't get me first.” and ”Oh God, how depressing! You're meant to think I'm an international woman of mystery. I'm working on it like mad.” I fell madly in love with Sally Bowles. Somehow I think that Bette wouldn’t mind me fooling with another woman. Especially a woman who’s not afraid to say “That's me, darling. Unusual places, unusual love affairs. I am a most strange and extraordinary person.” I think Bette would be proud.