User Reviews

I have seen this film many times and it never fails to get me in. I am also aware of all the negative reviews it has received with plenty of trash talk using terms such as 'banal', 'overblown' and 'incredibly artificial'. But one description is definitely a backhanded compliment "One of the most enjoyable bad movies ever made".

Anyway, who cares about all that, beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.

Recently - instead of getting a life - I watched three Bette Davis movies in one weekend: "All About Eve", "The Letter" and "Beyond the Forest". She was different in each one. Bette Davis had such a distinctive personality that it would be easy to think she just played herself in film after film, but not so. Her Rosa Moline in "Beyond the Forest" is a one-off; I don't think she ever played any other role that way again. Some say she was sending herself up. Apparently she didn't want to play the part and maybe her bad mood helped shape her character.

I couldn't help thinking of "Madam Bovary" as I watched this film about a woman who leaves her husband to chase her dream. In Madam Bovary's case the dream was a romantic one; in Rosa's, the dream is more superficial; in both cases the dream turns into a nightmare.

Rosa is married to the nice Doctor Lewis Moline (Joseph Cotton), but to her he is just poor and boring. Lewis is the respected doctor in the Wisconsin mill town where they live. Rosa latches onto Neil Latimer (David Brian), a rich businessman from Chicago, and plans to dump Lewis. He is about the only person in town who can't see through her, even their young Indian maid, Jenny (Dona Drake), has her measure. The scenes between Rosa and Jenny are very funny - the film needed a light touch to relieve the angst. It all ends in tears of course, played out in the flickering light of the massive incinerator that dominates the town.

Bette Davis thought she was too old for the part, but doesn't that make her character just that much more pathetic? She feels life has passed her by, and she is making a last desperate grab for what she thinks she deserves.

Much of the film was shot on location and has a rich look. Max Steiner contributed a powerful score, incorporating the melody "Chicago"; the theme for Rosa's yearning. His music actually has sympathy for Rosa; it understands her, even as it accompanies her to the inevitable tragedy.

"Beyond the Forest" is a movie where everything is larger than life, including the emotions. I still think it is fantastic cinema.

Is BEYOND THE FOREST an overripe and over-the-top potboiler or a potent, underrated film noir? Both, actually, with an emphasis on the latter. This is film noir's MADAME BOVARY wherein a provincial housewife's romantic fantasies and big city dreams bring tragedy to everyone in her orbit and it's the "twisted sister" of Vincente Minnelli's ode to Flaubert's driven, deluded anti-heroine, released the same year. Nineteen forty-nine was the year of the desperate housewife in Hollywood- in addition to Bette Davis & Jennifer Jones, there's also Audrey Totter in TENSION and Lizabeth Scott in TOO LATE FOR TEARS, postwar noir women who "expect and demand a better life and plan to achieve it by any means necessary".

Forty year-old Bette Davis "with her low-cut peasant blouses, long black wig, and carmine lips" is unquestionably miscast but, like the film itself, that actually works in a perverted sort of way. If Virginia Mayo had been cast (Davis actually lobbied for her), it would have begged the question, "why doesn't this beautiful girl just hop a bus to New York or Hollywood or something?" but with a not-so-young-anymore Rosa -out of options and rapidly running out of time- there's a palpable sense of entrapment as the irrational resentments that have simmered for far too long are ready to erupt. Still, the movie also has its amusing aspects and you can't help but smile as Rosa sashays down the street and all the men stop and stare. How could a past-her-prime, dimestore siren like that keep Joseph Cotten and David Brian in such thrall? Why, sex of course. Rosa no doubt did things in bed they couldn't get enough of, much like the hold Wallis Simpson had over the Duke of Windsor. The crime of Rosa Moline was similar to that of Phyllis Hochen in THE UNHOLY WIFE (desperate for a way out, she ends up shooting her husband's best friend) and from the overblown opening prologue scroll to the mounting hysteria and rampant symbols of Hell that culminate in a "shocking conclusion", Vidor's "Bovary" casts a spell as well. Written off as a "camp classic" for years, BEYOND THE FOREST has been reassessed of late:

Bette Davis tires of life married to a small-town doctor, so she takes off to Chicago for an affair, hopping the most monstrously phallic train in film history. Her frenzied performance is met on the other side of the camera by director King Vidor, who matches her excesses shot for shot. The "What a dump!" line quoted in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? originates here, though it's actually one of the film's more naturalistic moments. Much of Vidor's late work flirts dangerously with camp; this 1949 effort, I'm afraid, frequently succumbs, though it has a weird kind of power and integrity. With Joseph Cotten and David Brian. -Dave Kehr

BEYOND THE FOREST, with its main character's dissatisfaction with small- town middle-class morality, its big-city expressionistic mise-en-scène, and Davis, with the most extreme portrayal of a malignant bitch of the forties, we have a work that is firmly rooted in the tradition of film noir...this paean to amour fou is one of the most operatic of all films noirs -at once both moralistic and obdurate, grandly emotive, overbearing, and magnificent. -The American Film Noir

A TV perennial back in the day, legal hassles prevent King VIdor's unsung noir from being shown today. As of this writing, it's not in the Warner Archives and TCM hasn't aired it in well over a decade. That's a shame.

Many have blasted this film as pure camp, some without having even seen it, I'm sure. While this is no masterpiece, it really isn't that bad--it plays for the most part like a standard noirish "woman's film" from the forties. Since this sort of thing was Davis' specialty, she isn't particularly out of place here. Some of the dialog is dated and over the top, but not nearly so much as this film's detractors would have one believe. What truly stays in the mind is Bette's awful appearance--she's obviously too old to play the part of the small town sexpot, Rosa Moline. Beyond that, she's made to wear some awful black fright wig that makes her prematurely saggy face look positively witch like! As a romantic interest, she stretches our sense of credibility (however, I will allow for the fact that black Maria Montez type hair was probably thought sexy in those days-and she does grasp a sense of how a faded small town belle might try to put herself across, as she swaggers around with false bravado in her tight dresses and sexy ---- me shoes. All in all, not as bad as they say--the whole project probably shocked Davis herself (as well as quite a few critics who generally not kind to it) into realizing that her leading lady days were numbered. A strange career move in the lengthly career of a great, if misunderstood star.

"Beyond the Forest" is finally getting the respect it's always deserved. A number of film historians are finally appraising this masterpiece as the work of art it is. Thanks to its phenomenal star, Bette Davis, this King Vidor production has had to struggle with a bad reputation since it was first seen back in l949. Davis was going through a breakdown: she hated her studio, her marriage was dead, and Jack Warner finally kicked her ass off the Warner lot. Forever after, Davis always slammed everything about "Beyond the Forest" and people who never even saw it, joked about it and tore it to pieces. Especially, the gay crowds. When I saw "Beyond the Forest" at the old Regency Theater here in Manhattan back in the 80s, no one could enjoy it, since the gaggle of screeching queens ruined it for everyone by camping it up. Davis' inner turmoil and fury is what makes Rosa Moline literally seethe with fury, bristling with electricity in her greatest role. No other major star would have taken the risks that Davis does. As to the many comments about her black wig, make-up, clevage. This is how small-town women tried to look during that era. The Maria Montez look. I remember this from my small Southern town. All women dyed their hair black, grew long tresses, etc. Max Steiner's musical score is among his greatest (next to another masterpiece that Bette always put down, the l942 "In This Our life.")Davis' role is among the greatest ever put on screen. She displays her genius here like never before. To those who like to be clever and cute and view this gem as "camp", get a life. Davis is at her most brilliant. She nearly matches her brilliant portrayal of a psychopathic Southern Belle, Stanley Timberlake, in the great "In This Our Life." Bravo to Bette! To new viewers, watch it alone without the wisecracks, giggles and smart inside jokes. Warner Brothers did itself and its great star proud.

...in fact, a deeply disturbing film! What's most disturbing is that back in those days, people were supposed to be shocked and disgusted with the character Rosa Moline, (needless to say, so brilliantly acted by Davis) but today, I'm sure a lot of viewers would sympathise with her desperation to get out of the confines of a dead-end life. From the beginning, we learn of her hatred for life- her husband being a doctor is a sick irony!

If morbid humour is your thing, then you'll love this film. Especially when she says things along the lines of "the only people who are doing a worthwhile job in this town are the undertakers who carry the dead out of here". The only flaw in this film, is the ending. Not enough explanation is given. Give it a try.

Beyond the Forest is directed by King Vidor and written by Lenore J. Coffee and Stuart Engstrand. It stars Bette Davis, Joseph Cotton, David Brian, Ruth Roman, Minor Watson and Regis Toomey. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Robert Burks.

Resentful of her small-town life, Rosa Moline (Davis), a married woman, schemes to run off with a rich businessman - and she will do anything to achieve her goals...

Whilst not being on the same divisive page as something like Johnny Guitar, King Vidor's picture treads the same pathway to claims of camp and feverish staging. Davis is clearly miscast and too old for the role, whilst she overacts accordingly to either delight her fans - or irritate film fans after a noirish pot boiler of some substance. It's a tough call, and you really have to point the finger at Vidor for not reining Davis in, but if in the zone for a bit of Bovary histrionics tinged with noir flavours this has much to offer.

The pros and cons of small town Americana are vividly brought to life here, as is the central focus of a woman out of her dreams. Metaphors are rife to run in conjunction with the psychological imbalance of Rosa's mind, be it the mill furnace that lights up the sky at frequent intervals, or the steam locomotive that thunders through the centre of town to take folk off to the big city of Chicago, the aural smarts are superbly inserted by Vidor.

Using flashback as a starting point, Vidor firmly enters a noir realm, which continues throughout as he is aided considerably by Burks' photography. One of Hitchcock's main cinematographers of choice, it's a real pity that Burks didn't get hired for more noir ventures in the 50s. His work here is superb, low lights and side lights come to the fore in the final third as the femme fatale axis of story reaches a potent finale. Thus as Steiner rumbles away with his shock and awe, the pic is a tech credit force.

Sadly there's some fault lines to be irked by. Roman is utterly wasted in a pointless role, there's a Native American house maid character (Donna Drake) that's the focus of some unsensitive era treatments that's sole purpose seems to be just to make Rosa out as more of a git than already established. While Toomey and Watson (the latter a key character) are badly under used.

However, whilst not jumping on the "it's a masterpiece" bandwagon, this is a film of many filmic pleasures - perversely so me thinks... 7/10

Bette Davis gave many great performances, but she did not make many great films or work with many truly great directors (with the exception of William Wyler & Joseph L. Mankiewicz). King Vidor ranks as one of Bette Davis' greatest directors and Beyond the Forest is her most underrated film (another underrated film is The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex, directed by the superb technician Michael Curtiz). The eminent film critic Pauline Kael wrote that "there's not a sane dull scene in this peerless piece of camp." And I agree that this film is never boring. It has elements of film noir, melodrama, comedy and stands the test of time, as it is not sentimental like so many of Bette's soap operas (The Great Lie is a great bore). I challenge anyone to watch this film and be bored by it. Impossible. It starts off slowly, but after the first 20 minutes, it is compulsively watchable: a hoot! And although Bette in her later years said she "loathed" this film, it is clear that she relished the part of Rosa Moline and was living the part as she played it. She poured into the part all of the frustration & fury with Jack Warner and the studio for giving her bad roles & bad scripts, her own fears of aging after she had her baby and she was no longer box office, and all the emotional turmoil (both the sexual electricity & the physical & verbal abuse) of her marriage to William Grant Sherry. Ruth Roman (who played a small role in this film) said that she watched Bette on set and it was all too REAL for her that she was terrified of Bette. And indeed, this is one of Bette's most real performances, however over the top it may be. Rosa Moline is a precursor to Margo Channing in All About Eve, yet I find Beyond the Forest more interesting because King Vidor is more of a stylist than Joseph L. Mankiewicz. All About Eve is theatrical, not cinematic; Beyond the Forest is pure cinema. Savor every frame of this fading femme fatale in this film noir farce. You will laugh at Rosa, be moved by her, feel sorry for her, but ultimately admire her for her courage, pride & determination. She was just a dame who was trying to get out of her own personal prison & hell.

Notorious Bette Davis...acting against her will in an unsuitable part, although it's a performance many of her fans relish. Davis is about 5-to-10 years too old for role of Rosa Moline, wife of a well-meaning-but-penniless doctor, residing in a small Wisconsin town with starry-eyed dreams of living in Chicago; Rosa's secret lover, a corporate businessman from the Windy City, keeps reeling her in and throwing her back, while the good doctor takes her antics in stride. Screenwriter Lenore Coffee, working from a book by Stuart Engstrand, can't seem to iron out the character eccentricities or dramatic indignities inherent to the plot (she can't even use the novel's title to her advantage), leaving director King Vidor and his cast pretty much on their own. When Rosa gets sick at the finale, we have no idea why; when the lazy, foul-tempered maid sasses her, we have no clue why Rosa even puts up with her (or how the doctor affords her). Vidor directs Davis gently, casually--and of course she brings everything else from home: poison-coated coyness, lewd lips, flip talk, ridiculously playing with her long brunette wig as if she owned it. So, is this respectable work from Bette Davis, in her last film under contract for Warner Bros.? It is a stunning performance for both right and wrong reasons. True, Bette's Rosa is too heavy and shapeless to actually believe she's a grande dame in her horse-and-buggy town (maybe a blonde wig would've helped?); however, Davis is very good in her scenes with Joseph Cotten, and she doesn't go maniacal with the material. The film has been called camp, unintentionally hilarious--and at times it does strike a wild chord--but I think King Vidor was in on the dirty humor. His outlandishness doesn't qualify the film as a success necessarily, but it is certainly enjoyable. **1/2 from ****

While there ARE overdone and exaggerated moments in this film, it is also a near masterpiece! Bette Davis plays Rosa Moline, a small town strumpet who wants more than her hick doctor hubby can provide.

Bette's explosive performance is among the best of her career(and that's saying something!). Her character has to be among the most evil in motion picture history. What is remarkable is that Bette compels us to care about and, even root for this greedy and self centered woman. That is part of what makes Bette Davis the most versatile and most accomplished actress in motion picture history.

A particularly wonderful scene takes place later in the film. Rosa gives her husband a surprising bit of news at a picnic. Watch the sadness and mixed emotions that emanate from her eyes. What an amazing and bittersweet scene.

The problem with the film is that there are scenes that don't fully detail what happens to Rosa near the end of the film. Also, there were changes imposed on the film by the production code that weakened its narrative logic.

Despite a few flaws, this is a fabulous film. The highs and lows of Rosa Moline are compelling and complex. Like the sinister character Bette Davis portrays, the film is far deeper than it seems. Those who think of it only as camp should take a closer look.

The tagline read 'Nobody's as good as Bette when she's bad' and the movie, reviled at the time of its release, became a camp classic when it was immortalised in the opening scene of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woof". It's actually a lot better than Mr Albee gave it credit for and Bette is magnificently over-the-top as small-town tramp Rosa Moline who wants to ditch her hubbie, (modest little Joseph Cotten), so she can marry bigshot David Brian and run off to Chicago, (the song 'Chicago' plays continuously, in one form or another, on the soundtrack).

Okay, it's not one of Bette's greatest performances and, to be honest, she spends the movie chewing the scenery while Lenore J Coffee's screenplay reeks of purple prose. King Vidor was the director so you knew exactly what you were letting yourself in for; remember he was the man who gave us "The Fountainhead" and "Duel in the Sun" and who seemed to take a perverse delight in making his leading ladies suffer. Hysteria was always the name of the game with Mr Vidor. Of course, he was also one of the great visual stylists and even a corn-fed chicken, (it's certainly no turkey), like this looks the part. Without Albee it may well have been forgotten so perhaps we owe him a debt of gratitude. Camp, yes; a classic of its kind, most certainly.

If the comments here are any guide, there are moves afoot to re-classify Beyond The Forest as an overlooked masterpiece. Unfortunately, the film itself doesn't offer much in the way of supporting evidence. The story is slight (no doubt curtailed by screen mores of the time), the script is leaden and neither has aged well. In fact, there's a nasty misogynist worldview that suffuses the entire movie, with poor Rosa Moline depicted as evil incarnate largely for being a woman with a sex drive and aspirations to escape a dull, dirty and depressing industrial town. Rose actually deserves to be much more of a heroine than Bette Davis strives to make her within the given constraints. You can certainly see why she was done with Warner Brothers after this one. On the other hand, there's not much to support the "so bad it's good" argument either. Contrary to Mr Albee's best myth-making efforts, Davis is not camp or over-the-top, and the script fails to deliver any quotable howlers. At best/worst, King Vidor's direction tends toward the histrionic, but you'd expect nothing less in this kind of melodrama. The truth is that Beyond The Forest is neither a neglected masterwork, nor a camp classic. It's a fairly routine B-movie that would be entirely forgotten were it not for Bette Davis making the best of a bad job.

And although I know this was written based on a novel of the same name, beyond what forest? The film starts with a voiceover describing the town of Loyalton, Wisconsin, and the fact that an inquest is going on concerning the death of a man killed by Rosa Moline (Bette Davis). She claims it is an accident. You do get from the introductory narration that this is a town where everybody derives their income from the sawmill and that Rosa is an insufferable snob. What you don't know is who it is that Rosa has killed - accidentally or on purpose. Then comes the rest of the movie in flashback.

Rosa is very unhappily married to Lewis Moline, MD (Joseph Cotten). Before I watched this I thought, who would be unhappy being married to handsome Joseph Cotten? But he plays this as such a doormat, a guy who is OK with patients who never pay him, who gives in to every expensive thing that Rosa wants, that it is no wonder Rosa has no respect for him. Fine acting from Mr. Cotten to play this as such a weak milquetoast of a guy.

So Rosa lusts after the wealthy Neil Latimer (David Brian) from Chicago, who has a hunting lodge near Loyalton. He's a strong self made man, and that and the money draw Rosa to him and into an affair. If she knew that David Brian would play a character who beats the living daylights out of Joan Crawford the following year I'm sure that wouldn't have hurt either, but that's another story.

So Rosa's dilemma is how to get out of this marriage and get Neil to care enough about her to marry her. What she does to accomplish this and the problems and twists and turns of the plot that crop up along the way constitute the rest of the film and eventually bring us full circle back to the inquest.

Why do I say it seems that Jack Warner was trying to get rid of Bette Davis with this film? It's not so much her acting - she is as good as she ever was - but she is playing a woman about ten years younger than she looks, especially with the tight fitting clothes that show every inch of extra avoirdupois that she is sporting, plus a ridiculous long black wig. And then there is the dialogue. Every time somebody suggests that Rosa do something that she feels is beneath her, Rosa retorts "I would never do THAT, I'm Rosa Moline". How odd. The whole film is about how much she does not want to be a Moline, yet she seems to proudly hail it as part of her identitiy. There is a ridiculous scene with Lewis talking to an unconscious woman about her blood, and why did Rosa build her house as far from the center of town as possible, but position the master bedroom such that the flames shooting from the sawmill incinerator in the middle of the night glow through the window and even the shades and keep her awake? Rosa is a poor architect of her house and her life.

I could go on forever with what is weird about this film, but the acting is quite good, and the story is so weird that the camp actually becomes one of its strengths. I'd suggest it if you can ever find a copy.

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.

It was interesting seeing this soon after seeing The Man Who Wasn't There, the Coen brothers would-be 40s film-noir. Both movies are set in small towns, have way-out plots involving violent crime and illicit love, and feature main protagonists trying to get out of a rut. But whereas the Coens' nouveau-noir plays it deadpan, philosophical and slow, and thereby risks boring the audience stiff; the genuine article with King Vidor at the helm, races along, goes way over the top, and glues the viewer to the screen.

Melodramatic and flawed though it may be, I don't go along with those who regard the movie merely as a camp vehicle for some arch Bette Davis overacting as the "evil" Rosa Moline. This film has genuine substance and potency, and Hedda Gabler-like Rosa's near-hysterical exasperation with the suffocating small town atmosphere - symbolised by the ever-present smoke and dust from the local sawmill - and with her dull, worthy, medico husband (Joseph Cotton), must have rung a bell with many American and other women in the stifling post-war years. Her "What a dump!" quite probably echoed their inner thoughts, as may her reluctance to have a baby (contrasted in the film with another woman's eighth, delivered by the good doctor). Moreover, despite Davis playing a woman at least 10 years younger than her actual age, her scenes with David Brian as her wealthy lover are truly erotic, and some of the lines may raise eyebrows even today.

Those who dismiss this film should perhaps give it another chance, try to place it in the context of its era, and possibly ponder on how some of the "cool" masterpieces of today will be viewed by their grandchildren in 50 years time.

An enjoyably bad film, that seems to be the consensus. I disagree. It's not a bad film. It's not a great one, but if you want to see a bad film there are many worthier candidates. In fact, "Beyond the Forrest" is a memorable film.

It's hard to say why it falls short of greatness, because it does just fall short. The flaws are due to the screenplay mainly, I think. It plops us down in the middle of the story. We have to learn, without explanation, that Rosa Moline is a backwoods Emma Bovary, a free spirit suffocating in a pointless world. If that character had been allowed a few scenes to develop, it would have been much more effective. Bette Davis herself complained that she was too old for the part. I don't see that as a problem. It's better that she's not a brazen nymph-ette. Would a hard-boiled type like David Brian's character have been attracted to that type? Maybe for a one-night stand, but not as a life-partner.

The main point is the incredible ability of Bette Davis, her ability to make any character believable. I found myself thinking of a novel. It's not an easy book to find or an easy book to read. My wife tried several times and couldn't get past chapter one. But if you persevere and let yourself become invested in the characters it is truly heartbreaking, especially at the end: "The Old Wives' Tale" by Arnold Bennett. (He was a contemporary of Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad and H.G. Wells.) It's very long but the story is very simple. It describes the lives of two sisters. We follow them from adolescence to old age and finally death. One, the younger sister, is beautiful, headstrong, passionate. She defies life and fate. The other is plain, placid; her only aim is to be a house-wife in the small town where they are born - exactly the sort of place Rosa Moline is desperate to flee. So I thought, just daydreaming. Who - in classic Hollywood - could have played these diametrically-opposed characters? Vivian Leigh or Ida Lupino could have done the younger sister, Olivia de Havilland or maybe Shelley Winters the other. But I kept coming back to Bette Davis. She could have played either one, or both, with equal brilliance. No one else could have done it. I can't think even of two male actors, if the novel's sisters had been brothers, who could have embodied both parts. Nobody but Bette Davis. That is her genius. That is why "Beyond the Forrest" is worth it. Tune out the screenplay and watch a brilliant performer work magic. (By the way, it's just my opinion, give "The Old Wives' Tale" a try, if you enjoy reading.)

I have just finished this film and i was really amazed by Bette Davis performance, she was a superb, her technique was just amazing, I don't Think anyone else could play This Role except her. the only thing was bad that she was too old for this character, everyone should see her performance here especially her Death scene.

but to be honest with u the film was in somehow weak, most of the scenes are unrealistic, which make u feel angry about it. Joseph Cotten character was so weak, it didn't convinced me i have seen a lot of his works maybe five or six but the only one i liked was the 1943 movie ( Shadow of a Doubt )

Don't care what other reviews say, I loved this film. It's entertaining and sometimes very funny. If you like Bette Davis, you'll love this.

One of the campiest films I've ever seen. Bette pulls out all the stops in this one. It's fascinating to watch her performance. The dialogue is outrageous! Everyone is familiar with the line "What a dump." But there is so much more. One of my favorite lines is "I hate porkies they irritate me." It's a must see for those who love camp!!

Bette Davis (Rosa) is a wildcat in a small town. She is married to nice guy doctor Joseph Cotton (Louis) but longs for a more adventurous life in Chicago. Wealthy David Brian (Neil) provides her with some hope for a new lifestyle …..but is he really that interested? When Cotton's friend Minor Watson (Moose) discovers Bette's plans, she kicks in with an even newer plan that results in her going on trial for murder.

This film, sadly, is rather boring. Bette Davis does deliver some classic lines of dialogue but there is nothing much more going on. She is given a Katy Jurado gypsy kind of look which I think works fine with Bette but not with her servant Dona Drake (Jenny). Not only does Dona Drake's look not seem right but she plays her role as a caricature of Bette Davis which is somewhat unconvincing. There is only one Bette and no-one should be answering her back and having the last word!

This is Bette's film all the way. It's a pity that the storyline is unconvincing (Bette's character would have left this sleepy town yonks ago) and pedestrian. A couple of good scenes can't really save this one.