Anton Burge: A Life Lived in Melodrama: Bette Davis in 134 Characters

Description “Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet”, wrote the critic E. Arnot Robertson in Picture Post in 1935, reviewing Bette Davis’s Oscar winning performance in Dangerous. Although Bette Davis made an inauspicious start in Hollywood, the sparks soon flew on and off the screen, and in time an indelible personality formed that combined great acting with star quality and consequently changed the face of female characters in cinema. Always at war, Davis was unrepentant in condemning what she saw as the injustices of the Hollywood Studio system and did all in her power to change how the industry viewed women. Elaine Stritch described the outcome of this battle, “Bette Davis taught Hollywood to follow an actress instead of the actress following the camera.” Often viewed as caustic, volatile and difficult, Davis is presented through the roles she played in this forensically detailed biography by Anton Burge, which creates an intimate, revealing and touching portrait of the actress behind the star, the woman behind the melodramatic façade. A fitting new biography of a Hollywood legend.