Catch the last Monday Matinee of the summer as the OGT features the film Jezebel starring Henry Fonda and Bette Davis. The black and white romantic drama was released in 1938 by Warner Brothers and won five Oscars: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Score. The film has some similarities to Gone With the Wind, being set in the south, featuring a sassy rebellious southern woman and a sought after financially-endowed, dashing leading man but it falls short of the epic status of GWTW.
In the sixth months I’ve been writing for the blog, I’ve written about both of the stars covering previous matinees. Earlier this year, I wrote about Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934) where she went out on a limb to portray a very atypical role for a woman at the time. Due to Hollywood politics, she was snubbed for an Academy Award. Four years later, she plays Julie Marsden, a sassy, independent Southern belle who refuses to be anything but authentic and for better or worse it jeopardizes her engagement to a successful banker, Preston Dillard, played by ever debonair Henry Fonda.
Hollywood lore has it that Bette Davis won this role as a consolation for losing the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. If it were a consolation, although she missed being associated with the magnitude of GWTW, she still won the prize, being awarded the 1938 Best Actress award for her performance. It was the second and last Oscar that Ms. Davis won although she had eight more nominations in her lifetime.
Last month, I reviewed The Lady Eve which featured Henry Fonda as the leading man. Yet again in Jezebel Fonda plays the sought-after wealthy hunk. Fonda’s fifty-year acting career began on Broadway and he performed in over one hundred films. While Davis’s Oscar wins occurred early in her career, Fonda had two nominations, one in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath and the second nomination in 1981 for On Golden Pond which resulted in a win for him at the age of 77, the oldest actor to be awarded an Oscar.
Beat the heat and come out to the Greenbelt Community Center on Monday, August 5th at 1:00pm to watch these two Old Hollywood icons steam up the screen in Jezebel. More information here.
Also note, there will be NOT be a Monday Matinee in September, as the venue in the Greenbelt Community Center will be inaccessible due to the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival. Enjoy the festival, and we’ll see you in October for Arsenic and Old Lace.
ABOUT STACIA
Stacia’s love of old movies began as a child, when her mother would take her to the matinee to see classics like Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, and The African Queen. She fast became a Humphrey Bogart and Old Hollywood fan. Her favorite class as an undergraduate student was Film Appreciation. She loves the charm of the Old Greenbelt Theater and volunteers to spread the word. She loves to spend time with her husband, play with her dog, and travel (when she isn’t traveling, she is planning her next trip).
