I watched this last night on DVD with the introduction by Robert Osborne and he mentioned this was a play that Tallulah Bankhead had starred in on Broadway. Bette Davis seemed to morph in to Bankhead herself. She looked better than she ever did in any other film. You can't take your eyes off of Davis in this. What a great performance. Just my two cents.
shareBankhead wanted the role and was embittered over Davis receiving it. She simply wasn't a big enough name in Hollywood. It seems often difficult for stage actresses to make that transition to screen. The skillsets aren't quite the same, and they tend to get pigeonholed.
shareBankhead was very well known in Hollywood...she must have made sometime mad.
shareI agree, simba; Bette never looked lovelier, nor was she ever so wicked as she was as Regina. Such ruthlessness! I love this movie and never tire of watching it!
shareOnce you know Tallulah played the role - and Bette watched her in it - you can hear the influences. The line "well, I don't know - I don't know about these things", and any number of others have an inflection I never heard in a Davis character up to the time of Foxes, and sound very, very much like Bankhead.
I don't think this was intentional theft or mimicry. I think you'd have to be super-human to meet a character through another person's interpretation and completely erase it from your own.
Bankhead felt otherwise. ;)
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Nothing to see here, move along.