For this installment of our Bette Davis study, we’ll explore another significant role for Davis as “Julie Marsden” in William Wyler’s JEZEBEL (1938). As we have addressed in our introduction, the often contradictory and complicated, undoubtedly attention-grabbing, and fiery, yet with a heart-of-gold persona of Bette Davis, “Julie” will pull us in to a similar path of discovery.
JEZEBEL was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Ernest Haller), for Best Music (Max Steiner), and Best Picture in 1939’s race for excellence. Both Fay Bainter (Best Actress in a Supporting Role) and Bette Davis (Best Actress in a Leading Role) would bring home the Oscar statuettes for this film. Bainter was also nominated for Best Actress the same year for her leading actress role in WHITE BANNERS (1938). This is one of Bette’s most renowned roles, with good reason. Bette would go on to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for the next four consecutive years – DARK VICTORY (1939), THE LETTER (1940), THE LITTLE FOXES (1941), and NOW, VOYAGER (1942).
JEZEBEL was frequently referred as “Bette Davis’s Scarlett O’Hara.” The similarities to GONE WITH THE WIND, especially a dining room scene discussing possibilities of war, were notable by David O Selznick, who groused to Warner. However, JEZEBEL is based upon a play, which came out years prior to Margaret Mitchell’s popular novel, published originally on June 30, 1936. For many years to come, Bette loved to tell the softened tale that she was the original pick for Scarlett O’Hara, but the Warner disputes allowed the opportunity to slip away. [Warner Brothers filed a legal injunction against Davis on September 9, 1936 for breach of contract (which WB won), when she ran off to London in protest of better parts.] The stricter truth is that Warner Brothers did drop the option for GONE WITH THE WIND to punish Davis, and Selznick wasted no time in scooping it up. Selznick invested in a huge publicity campaign to find the perfect Scarlett, which skyrocketed Mitchell’s book sales and drove public interest into a frenzy, before filming even began.
This was Jack Warner’s chance to purchase the rights to JEZEBEL, and make their own version of ‘Scarlett’ with a timely release before GONE WITH THE WIND. Warner convinced Davis by offering her the role that she was born to play, with a huge budget, a top director, and A-list casting- not to mention, offering to pay for her share of the legal expenses incurred from their lawsuit. Putting pride aside, Davis knew this was the big break she needed, and Warner knew this was the perfect win-win scenario to keep their star happy.
There were a few other actresses that could’ve gotten the jump on this signature role. Director Wyler’s recent wife Margaret Sullavan for one, but she was hardly the right fit. Initially, Warner Brothers thought Ruth Chatterton would be a possibility. And the actress that would be the biggest obstacle was Bette’s arch nemesis Miriam Hopkins. Not only did Hopkins star in the lead role in the Broadway production, she also owned part of the play rights. After playwright Owen Davis Sr. agreed to sell his play to WB; the studio led Hopkins to believe she’d have first chance at the part once the screenplay was complete. If she agreed to sell. This would be another white lie. Hopkins sold her rights in January of 1937, while the studio was actively preparing the role for Bette.
As head of production for Warner Bros., Hall Wallis approached William Wyler to direct JEZEBEL in the summer of 1937. Wyler was then under contract to Sam Goldwyn, but free to take on outside work. William Wyler was a fitting choice as he had prior success in adapting several plays to film. While the JEZEBEL play was considered a Broadway lemon in its short Broadway run of 30 shows- it opened in NYC’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre December 19, 1933). Wyler was already familiar with it, having seen it on Broadway himself, and even suggested to Carl Laemmle, Jr. when he was directing at Universal Pictures:
“I believe JEZEBEL contains an excellent foundation for a picture. It’s a very dramatic love story… The weaknesses of the play can be overcome in a picture through the addition of incidents and sequences only suggested and talked about. A good deal of action can be added. The atmosphere and costumes lend themselves to beauty in production.“*
German immigrant William Wyler (1902 – 1981) had come through the silent era, then to Universal, before joining Goldwyn as a young director with great technical skills, a finessed vision for storytelling, and building structure of the narrative. Wyler’s signature techniques included deep focus photography, long takes, and staging scenes within a scene to add depth and dimension. He was notorious for being a perfectionist and taking repeated takes of a scene- sometimes dozens of takes- to get the perfect result of a performance.
In an early scene, Bette Davis’s “Julie” is walking through a doorway with a riding crop. Wyler instructed her to practice swinging it as she walks and flip the train of her dress with the crop, in a way that appears second nature. Despite her own confidence in readiness, Wyler made her re-take this scene thirty-three times. Furious, she demanded to see the takes, but after watching them for herself, she admitted her progress was apparent. Soon, Bette grew to trust his meticulous methods.
Bette Davis had less than a friendly first impression of Wyler years earlier when he made a wise crack about an improperly fitted top that he assumed was intentionally flirty. By now both were embarking upon huge leaps in each of their careers. Bette’s growth under Wyler was tremendous. Under his direction, she learned to calm her nervous energy and fidgeting, and that silence can speak volumes through the eyes for those vital close ups.
Although Wyler worked with Gregg Toland as cinematographer for six of his films, with Toland’s signature use of deep focus. On JEZEBEL, he worked with Ernest Haller. Haller had photographed Bette in DANGEROUS (1935), in which she won her first Oscar. For her unique facial qualities, Haller was familiar of the proper angles to show her in the most photogenic and best light. Haller photographed her for both of her Oscar wins.
Wyler’s vision also took what was originally a half page of script and a day of filming for the Olympus Ball scene, into nearly a week’s worth of filming for that sequence. It turned out to be the most visually stunning and most memorable scene in the film. In his drive to fulfill the best results, he took their already hefty budget of $800,000 well over, into $1.25 million, and nearly twenty-eight days over schedule. Filming dates: October 25, 1937 – January 17, 1938.
Bette Davis and William Wyler became a famously successful, and sometimes fiery, pairing. Davis on working with Wyler on the film: “It was all Wyler. I had known all the horrors of no direction and bad direction. I now knew what a great director was and what he could mean to an actress. I will always be grateful to him for his toughness and his genius.”**
In this story, we delve into the deep south of New Orleans during the antebellum southern period near the birth of the Civil War. The year is 1852. From the very beginning of the film, we see a very high production value. Enormous expenses were spent on creating an authentic ambiance, from every little detail on sets, to high volume of casting replete in Orry-Kelly’s painstaking creations of period pieces of costuming.
Wyler’s strategy to filming was to start the largest, most complex, and most expensive scenes first. This allowed for the more nuanced character scenes, the ones that involve more complexity of actor performances to be shot last. As we watch the famed scene of the Olympus Ball, note the enormity of scale. All shot on a Warner Brothers’ sound stage, there is not one inch of space not used, and certainly filmed, by the camera. From many angles, we can see a grand depth of space as the camera follows along. Art Director Robert Haas spared no expense in researching New Orleans during this period. Every actor in full costume, every space of that sound stage meticulously adorned to create this impressive event. Most of the filming was completed right on the WB lot and a sound stage, including a swamp scene. There were some scenes taken on a ranch, about 10 miles away.
As we discuss the themes of this storyline, at its very core, the concept of social norms is a vital and fascinating world all its own. In an early scene, the ideology of ‘good breeding’ and manners must be strictly observed in this community. By even mentioning a lady’s name in a bar, a duel is scheduled. Pistols in the morning are politely agreed with a tip of a hat, with total vacate of any emotional attachment to the possibility of death. We will see many examples of expectations of manners and following social rules.
Our leading characters, Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) and Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda) challenge social rules for the entirety of this story. While the initial focus is on Julie as a rule-breaker, we see that Preston (aka “Pres”) breaks rules in his own way. When we first meet Julie, as she makes an explosive entrance to her own party, it is vividly brimming with examples. She rides up on a wild horse that even her young slave cannot control, not serenely in a carriage. The horse is mirroring her own lack of behavioral conformity. She casually flips her skirt train on her riding crop and doesn’t stop to change clothes, preferring to make a dramatic, and shocking, entrance. She drinks bourbon that is intended for the gentlemen, when the women are supposed to drink sherry. As rule-breaking as Julie is in her tardy and dramatic entrance, her fiancée Preston doesn’t show up at all. He is a busy banker who places business before social events, which is also a southern faux pas. She even toasts to his business- and all of his branches (none are in the South). We already glean the hint that Preston’s interests are elsewhere.
As we become familiar with our cast of characters, another theme emerges. Old South vs. New South. Despite all of her rule-breaking and stubborn defiance, there is a foundation to Julie that clings to the Old South ways. Buck Cantrell (George Brent) represents the Old South in every detail. Preston, however, is a symbol of a New South. He wants change- in every aspect, including cleaning up the health of his town of New Orleans, as he predicts a health epidemic may surge again, in agreement with Dr. Livingstone. But he also wants a new future in business for a New South. Expanding railroads across the East and North, he envisions change is rapidly spreading, which the Old South is resisting. Preston’s vision of new changes on the horizon includes what is to come for Slavery. We see a nod to this later in the film when Preston has returned from a trip up North and he asked a slave, “Uncle Cato,” to join him for a drink. It’s an awkward offer for the slave who is not supposed to refuse any request from a white man, but is deeply aware of the severe, and possibly fatal, punishment when an enslaved African American breaks a social rule.
One of the many challenges studios and filmmakers faced when making films that depict the South, or our history with slavery, is dealing with the self-imposed censorship from theater owners in the Southern cities. They knew if they created a more realistic or in any way critical view of the South, they may face those theaters cutting those scenes, or banning the film altogether. Clipping scenes, of course, poses the risk of audiences being confused by the lack of key plot points or lack of continuity. As a result, an entire film could often come across as more sympathetic, or turning a blind eye, to the Confederacy, which may or may not have been in personal preference for the filmmaker.
For example, there is a scene where Julie gathers the slaves to sing a song. She sings an old slave song, wearing white, and claims to feel like being ‘baptized.’ She wants to feel innocent and pure. She feels shame and doesn’t know how else to correct her serious errors. The slaves appear happy, as they joyfully sing and dance. The contrast to reality here is alarming, of course. The scene is intentionally forced- her cleansing is too little, too late. And the happy slave moment is performative dance for the Southern audiences, and a far cry from the reality of what slaves endured. Interestingly, the song in this scene, “Raise a Ruckus” is an African American slave spiritual. In Julie Stern’s book, “Bette Davis Black and White,” she quotes the verses (they sing only the main chorus in the film) and notes that the song is a story of slaves who are rising to kill their masters. Interesting song choice, especially considering many audience members would not be familiar with its double meaning.
The sub story of Yellow Fever aka “yellow jack” is a tragic connection in this film. While modern audiences may have little knowledge of its history, the truth is devastating. 15% to 25% of yellow fever victims will develop serious symptoms, and about half of those will die. Yellow fever goes back over 3,000 years and has a fatal tie to New Orleans, rooted in the slave trade. Thought to originate in Africa, the disease didn’t reach epidemic levels until populations grew and global commerce and shipping began. It spread to the Caribbean in the 1600s and Europe in the 1700s. Following the transatlantic, triangular slave trade, the disease moved to the Americas and thrived. Not unlike the film’s depiction, New Orleans endured thousands of deaths every year in the 1800s due to yellow fever. At the time, the deadly disease’s cause was unknown, but the common assumption was person-to person contact. Later it would be discovered that the reason it thrived in tropical climates and especially in major seaports along the slave trade, was the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
In 1852, New Orleans was the perfect breeding ground. Approximately 26,000 people contracted Yellow Fever in New Orleans between 1839 and 1860. In 1881, a Cuban doctor, Carlos Finlay theorized that the disease was spread via mosquitos. By 1900, a military commission lead by Major Walter Reed confirmed Finlay’s findings. Building the Panama Canal project was nearly at a standstill, with more than 85% of workers hospitalized due to yellow fever and malaria. By 1905, the major initiative to eradicate mosquitos and interrupt their breeding began. By 1906 the epidemic in Panama Canal ended. WWII brought the use of DDT to stifle disease spread. Then, a 99% effective, lifetime immunity vaccine for yellow fever was created and made available in the 1940s. Today, there is a limited global supply of this vaccine with the greatest number of cases in South America and Africa.
As we screen this film, let’s review the many examples of themes and other points of discussion:
-In what ways to do we see manners/social rules? How are these followed, or broken?
-How do we see examples of hypocrisy of these social norms/manners?
-What foreshadowing do we see that “yellow jack” is coming?
-How does Julie command power? In what ways does she exhibit compromise- or a sacrifice of wills?
-What examples do we see the contrast of Old South vs. New South?
-What does the red dress symbolize, besides defiance? How does Wyler effectively film society’s reaction to the red dress? How does Julie’s red dress reflect on Preston himself- and how does he handle that?
-Does the ‘stain’ of Julie’s red dress represent a poison or contagion (parallel to “yellow jack” -or, of a rebellion)?
-After Pres marries Amy, are there signs that there’s still love between Pres and Julie?
-In what ways do we see Pres evolve more into a Northerner?
-“… customs from your country” marks the stark differences between North and South, and between Julie and Amy. How do we see the differences between Pres and Cantrell as war grows closer?
-How does Max Steiner use music to help tell this story?
-From the beginning to the end of this film, how do you feel about Julie?
-Who made the greatest sacrifice- Amy or Julie? Would Preston, if not in a fever haze, have agreed with their final decision?
CAST and CREW:
Bette Davis – Julie Marsden
Henry Fonda – Preston Dillard
George Brent – Buck – Cantrell
Margaret Lindsay – Amy Bradford Dillard
Donald Crisp – Dr. Livingstone
Fay Bainter – Aunt Belle Massey
Richard Cromwell – Ted Dillard
Henry O’Neill – General Theopholus Bogardus
Spring Byington – Mrs. Kendrick
John Litel – Jean La Cour
Gordon Oliver – Dick Allen
Janet Shaw – Molly Allen
Theresa Harris – Zette
Margaret Early – Stephanie Zendrick
Irving Pichel – Huger
Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson – Gros Bat
Matthew ‘Stymie’ Beard – Ti Bat
Directed by: William Wyler
Produced by: William Wyler (uncredited, producer), Hal B Wallis (uncredited, executive producer), Henry Blake (uncredited, associate producer)
Writing by: Owen Davis (from the play by as Owen Davis, Sr.), Clements Ripley (screenplay), Abem Finkel (screenplay), John Huston (screenplay), Robert Buckner (uncredited, contributor to screenplay construction), Louis F Edelman (uncredited, contributor to treatment)
Music by: Max Steiner
Cinematography by: Ernest Haller
Editing by: Warren Low
Art Direction by: Robert M Haas
Costume Design by: Orry-Kelly
Release date: March 26, 1938
Sources:
1 “Jezebel” by: Gabriel Miller. Essay, Library of Congress (.gov).
2 “William Wyler: the Authorized Biography.” By: Axel Madsen. New York. Thomas Y. Cromwell, 1973.
3 “Bette Davis Black and White.” By: Julie Stern. 2021. University of Chicago Press.
4 “Dark Victory, The Life of Bette Davis.” By: Ed Sikov. 2007. Henry Holt and Co.
5 IMDB
6 Yellow Fever ~ WHO.int, PAHO.org, nih.gov, cdc.gov
