Exactly. Everybody has to start somewhere. This is Bette in her chrysalis stage, when the studio didn't fully grasp what roles she was best suited for and what she could bring to them. They tried her out in different roles as they would any potential commodity.
Granted, some of what she ended up in indicated ignorance or indifference on their part, and this might be one of those. Pretty much any young cute woman on the lot could have played this part, then disappeared afterward, and no one would have noticed.
But in films that same year - Dark Horse, and particularly Cabin in the Cotton - we can see the Bette Davis taking shape. Her strengths were becoming clearer, and Warner's was beginning to take advantage of those.
And this was a full seven years before BD became a top box-office draw. The top woman stars of 1932 were (in descending order) Marie Dressler, Janet Gaynor, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Norma Shearer. You can see what was resonating with audiences at that point in terms of acting style and character. Bette's "type" was barely known, let alone popular.
Of course she fixed that! ;)
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Nothing to see here, move along.
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LarrupinLou
7 years ago
And this was a full seven years before BD became a top box-office draw. The top woman stars of 1932 were (in descending order) Marie Dressler, Janet Gaynor, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Norma Shearer. You can see what was resonating with audiences at that point in terms of acting style and character. Bette's "type" was barely known, let alone popular.
Of course she fixed that! ;)
Very true. She definitely was a trailblazer.
No blah, blah, blah!
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