Interestingly, as Bette Davis' final film for Warner Bros., her unhappiness with the studio after a prolonged and tomultuous run really shows through in this role. Her disgust with the domineering studio adds to the bleakness of this hilariously bad stinker of a film.
Davis plays Rosa Moline ("I'm not just a small town girl - I'm Rosa Moline!", "I came here - dragged myself on my hands and knees with no pride. Me, Rosa Moline!"). Rosa is a self-absorbed, driven woman stuck in smalltown America. Obsessed with the thought of moving to nearby Chicago and living the glamorous life full of furs and status, she embarks on an affair with big city businessman David Brian. Sick and tired of her mundane life and her self-sacrificing doctor husband (Joseph Cotten), Rosa plots, lies, schemes, and murders her way to what she thinks will be a better life.
In the tradition of later films such as "Valley of the Dolls" (1967), or even "Showgirls" (1995), "Beyond the Forest" is a laugh riot....it's so bad that it's good. Davis prances around the backwoods in her insanely faux-looking black hair, a Mae West-esque tone in her voice, planning to destroy the lives of those around her. We watch her brandish a rifle and shoot porcupines, as well as humans, carry around a mirror for those all important vanity checks, and topping it all off, take a death-defying leap off a cliff. Perhaps, just perhaps this would be a better film if we actually had a character to root for. But Davis' character is too evil and dark to be a smart or funny villain, Cotten's dopey doc is too self-involved and oblivious for us to support, and Brian's traveling man is too underdeveloped to even get to know. On the upside, music- extraordinaire Max Steiner once again weaves his soundtrack magic providing a great score. But good music does not compensate for such a corn-ball of a flick. It's really novel when even the wonderful Davis can't save a sinking film.
Davis plays Rosa Moline ("I'm not just a small town girl - I'm Rosa Moline!", "I came here - dragged myself on my hands and knees with no pride. Me, Rosa Moline!"). Rosa is a self-absorbed, driven woman stuck in smalltown America. Obsessed with the thought of moving to nearby Chicago and living the glamorous life full of furs and status, she embarks on an affair with big city businessman David Brian. Sick and tired of her mundane life and her self-sacrificing doctor husband (Joseph Cotten), Rosa plots, lies, schemes, and murders her way to what she thinks will be a better life.
In the tradition of later films such as "Valley of the Dolls" (1967), or even "Showgirls" (1995), "Beyond the Forest" is a laugh riot....it's so bad that it's good. Davis prances around the backwoods in her insanely faux-looking black hair, a Mae West-esque tone in her voice, planning to destroy the lives of those around her. We watch her brandish a rifle and shoot porcupines, as well as humans, carry around a mirror for those all important vanity checks, and topping it all off, take a death-defying leap off a cliff. Perhaps, just perhaps this would be a better film if we actually had a character to root for. But Davis' character is too evil and dark to be a smart or funny villain, Cotten's dopey doc is too self-involved and oblivious for us to support, and Brian's traveling man is too underdeveloped to even get to know. On the upside, music- extraordinaire Max Steiner once again weaves his soundtrack magic providing a great score. But good music does not compensate for such a corn-ball of a flick. It's really novel when even the wonderful Davis can't save a sinking film.