Bette Davis hated this movie
She was saying on Carson that this is the worst movie she did and she loathed it.
shareAfter seeing this movie, it doesn't surprise me that she would say that. There's no strength to this movie at all, not even from Bette's performance. While she delivers some very funny and memorable lines in the film, they weren't enough to make the film good. Despite killing a man and inducing a miscarriage, Rosa Moline doesn't hold a candle to any of Davis's other highly crafty and bitchy characters like Julie Marsden (Jezebel), Regina Giddens (The Little Foxes), or even Janet Frobisher (Another Man's Poison) for unlike those other women, Rosa depends too heavily on men especially when it comes to money thereby making her all the more weaker and needier. Also contributing to Davis's hatred for this film was the fact that it was the last of four consecutive flops she made while under contract with Warners Bros.,. According to biographer Charlotte Chandler, Bette's contract with the studio was still good for another decade and while she agreed to do this film, she requested her contract be dissolved upon the it's completion because she was disappointed the pictures studio chiefs were assigning her to. It may be ammusing to hear Davis say "What a dump", "It I don't get out of here I'll die. If I don't get out of here I hope I die...and burn", and "When I think of this things I want it's like your stomach feels when it hasn't any food in it", but Beyond the Forest remains hiccup to Davis's credibility and needn't be remembered anymore than it is now.
shareYadda Yadda Yadda - this movie is fantastic. When the rest of you get bored glumly gazing at Jezebel and Dark Victory, come on over and watch Beyond The Forest with me. Davis probably hated it only because she looks so funny in it !
One of her most underrated performances. I know a lot of people hoot at it, but they never fail to cheer Roisa/Bette on in her travails.
I too love this film, not only because I am a loyal fan, but the pure camp value as well. Miss Davis INDEED hated this film, and "Satan Met A Lady" (an earlier telling of the "Maltese Falcon")...furthermore she didn't think much of "The Bride Came C.O.D." either...also two other Davis films I love. To me....she really couldn't do any wrong...well, there was "Return to Witch Mountain" <groan>. Bette Davis in a bad film is better than no Bette at all.
"I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie.....
--Roger Ebert,review of "North"
I really, really enjoy her in this. I can't imagine why she didn't at least enjoy playing the part. It was juicy.
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But she wasn't supposed to look funny, JackCarson.
If she looks funny, then she misrepresented the character, the one fatal failure of any actor, and did a disservice to herself.
She was miscast here.
Thank you. I've read the book, in which there's no indication that Rosa looks like a fat, fortyish Morticia Addams. This is a slovenly performance by an actress who peaked a decade earlier, and by this time was making the fatal error of believing her own publicity. Vidor delivers some very fine directorial touches, like turning the train into Rosa's symbolic lover at the end, but it's all for naught. It's a potentially good film that was ruined by miscasting; Davis was right when she said that Virginia Mayo would have been sensational in it. Know who else would have made a great Rosa Moline? Ruth Roman, who plays the second female lead, Carol Lawson. She was the proper age, and a gorgeous and very hot babe.
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