The Incomparable Bette Davis
Boy, do I love Bette Davis! I've seen Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? a bunch of times over the years, and there's quite a few of her movies that I've seen three to five times, like Jezebel, All About Eve and Petrified Forest. And then there's the 1930s newspaper thriller Front-Page Woman! Nobody seems to know about it, but I love it and I've seen it a bunch of times after I taped it off cable back in the 1990s!
I find her filmography to be very reliable. I always feel pretty confident when I see something listed on TCM and it has her name in the cast. They aren't all great classics, of course, and sometimes she doesn't have a very big part. But all but a handful of her movies are entertaining and worth watching, and it's amazing how many of them are classics of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
I decided to make a list of all the Bette Davis movies I've ever seen.
I find her filmography to be very reliable. I always feel pretty confident when I see something listed on TCM and it has her name in the cast. They aren't all great classics, of course, and sometimes she doesn't have a very big part. But all but a handful of her movies are entertaining and worth watching, and it's amazing how many of them are classics of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
I decided to make a list of all the Bette Davis movies I've ever seen.
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- DirectorHobart HenleyStarsConrad NagelSidney FoxBette DavisMarianne falls in love with a con artist who has a hidden agenda.Bette's first movie. It's a fun little romp if you like early 1930s movies. Bette is not the bad sister. She's the good sister. And she's adorable. The cast includes Humphrey Bogart, ZaSu Pitts and Bert Roach.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsMae ClarkeDouglass MontgomeryDoris LloydA prostitute's self-loathing makes her reluctant to marry an idealistic soldier during World War I.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsJoan BlondellAnn DvorakBette DavisAlthough Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsWarren WilliamBette DavisGuy KibbeeJailbird is hired to lead a dimwitted candidate's campaign for governor.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsBarbara StanwyckGeorge BrentDickie MooreAfter Selina's father dies, she's offered a job as a teacher in a small town and a new chapter of her life begins.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsSpencer TracyBette DavisArthur ByronBrash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsRichard BarthelmessBette DavisDorothy JordanA tenant farmer's son is caught in the middle of owner-tenant disputes when he falls for the plantation owner's seductive daughter.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsRuth ChattertonGeorge BrentBette DavisA socialite gets a divorce but can't keep out of her ex-husband's life.Bette Davis makes the most of her small part in this comedy of ill manners.
- DirectorHoward HigginStarsBette DavisPat O'BrienJunior DurkinJimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school. He befriends Shorty, a boy with a heart condition, and escapes to let the world know about the brutal conditions.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Bette DavisFrank McHughTo share expenses, unemployed Alabama moves in with also unemployed Bill and Toodles. Bill is hired by a gangster's mistress and ultimately becomes the gangster's bodyguard. Alabama unknowingly applies for a stenographer's job at Mr. Weber's (the gangster's) business. Bill is forced to fly a plane carrying narcotics into the U.S. but fights back.
- DirectorJohn G. AdolfiStarsGeorge ArlissBette DavisViolet HemingAfter losing his hearing, a musician uses lip-reading to help others.
- DirectorRoy Del RuthStarsBette DavisLewis StonePat O'BrienA sweet blonde goes to the police looking for her missing husband. When it turns out her husband is both a murder victim and a bachelor - and that the blonde is suspect #1, tough cop Butch Saunders comes up with a scheme to crack the case.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsBette DavisGene RaymondFrank McHughAlthough free spirit Helen Bauer does not believe in marriage, she consents to marry Don, but his infidelities cause her to also take on a lover.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsBette DavisDonald WoodsMargaret LindsayThe lifestyles of Arlene and Valkyr Bradford, half-sisters from a respected San Francisco family, diverge markedly as Arlene takes up with criminals.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsGeorge BrentBette DavisAnn DvorakNan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own agency. Nearly out of business, he finally gets a client. Former girlfriend Patricia Berkeley writes a very successful commercial for the client and heats up their old romance. Wife and girlfriend battle over Bill.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJames CagneyBette DavisAllen JenkinsAn unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam PowellBette DavisFrank McHughWhen the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsBette DavisLeslie HowardFrances DeeA young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.Bette Davis's Cockney accent is supposedly so bad that it makes many people hate this movie. I didn't even notice it. Maybe it's not authentic (it sounds fine to me) but she is simultaneously great and awful in this movie. And Frances Dee is adorable.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentRoscoe KarnsA woman reporter tries to prove she's just as good as any man, but runs into trouble along the way.This is so great! My third favorite Bette Davis movie after Whatever Happened to Baby Jane! and Jezebel. (All About Eve is pretty good too.)
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBette DavisFranchot ToneMargaret LindsayAn alcoholic actress who is considered a dangerous jinx is rehabilitated, but she then shows that she's as dangerous as ever.I can see why she won the Oscar for Best Actress! And you get to see Bette Davis recite "Romeo and Juliet" before collapsing in a dive bar.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentRicardo CortezNewspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Alexander Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify.Bette Davis plays a mob accountant!
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBette DavisIan HunterColin CliveA lawyer impulsively marries a stranger after his fiancée dumps him.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentEugene PalletteIt's the Florida party season for heiresses, with both Oklahoma oil heiress Hortense Burke-Meyers and New York face cream heiress Daisy Appleby in the state. And where the single American heiresses are, the European bachelor set wanting their hand in marriage are close at hand. While nouveau riche, uncouth Hortense courts the attention, the excitement and the European bachelors clamoring after her, Daisy is more reclusive, wanting to stay out of the party scene and limelight by hiding aboard her yacht. Daisy desperately wants to marry for love, and not marry because it makes good print (and thus sell more face cream for her father), especially as she knows those European men are only after her money. So Daisy offers a proposition to Johnny Jones, a Florida Star newspaper reporter she befriends: marry her out of convenience. What she wants is that marriage license to dissuade all those European suitors while she quietly searches for that true love, a man with simple, American values. In turn, she knows that Johnny doesn't want her money or a society life, all he wanting is a quiet place to write his novel and a small stipend equal to his meager newspaper wage just to live on his own terms. In entering into this agreement, Daisy doesn't count on her father's PR man Jorgenson trying to make Johnny into a society man he doesn't want to be. Daisy is also hiding two secrets from Johnny, one of those secrets being that she has found the man she truly loves: him. She is afraid that if she reveals the other bigger secret, she may never get the opportunity to make him fall in love with her.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsLeslie HowardHumphrey BogartBette DavisA waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsBette DavisWarren WilliamAlison SkipworthA double-crossing woman, the two-timing P.I. she hired, the corpulent "empress of crime", and a gentleman thief are all after a legendary priceless eighth-century ram's horn.
- DirectorArchie MayoStarsLeslie HowardBette DavisOlivia de HavillandAn actor of the stage finds himself pursued by a lovestruck fan while trying to patch up a tempestuous relationship with his actress lover.
- DirectorLloyd BaconMichael CurtizStarsBette DavisHumphrey BogartLola LaneA crusading district attorney persuades a clip joint hostess to testify against her mobster boss after her innocent sister is accidentally murdered during one of his unsavory parties.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsEdward G. RobinsonBette DavisHumphrey BogartFight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHenry FondaGeorge BrentIn 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle loses her fiancé due to her stubborn vanity and pride, and vows to win him back.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsErrol FlynnBette DavisAnita LouiseThree daughters of a small town pharmacist undergo trials and tribulations in their problematic marriages between 1904 and 1908.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsPaul MuniBette DavisBrian AherneLouis Napoleon III (Claude Rains) takes advantage of the American Civil War to circumvent the Monroe Doctrine and expand his power by helping Emperor Maximilian von Habsburg (Brian Aherne) to add Mexico to his empire.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentHumphrey BogartA young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and must decide whether or not she'll meet her final days with dignity.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsBette DavisErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandA depiction of the love/hate relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsBette DavisMiriam HopkinsGeorge BrentThe arrival of an ex-lover on a young woman's wedding day sets in motion a chain of events which will alter her and her cousin's lives forever.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallJames StephensonThe wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsBette DavisCharles BoyerJeffrey LynnA duchess' irrational behavior toward her children's governess triggers tragic events that will change her family's lives forever.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJames CagneyBette DavisStuart ErwinA financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallTeresa WrightThe ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsBette DavisGeorge BrentMary AstorAfter a newlywed's husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his affections is pregnant with his child.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisPaul HenreidClaude RainsA frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.
- DirectorJohn HustonRaoul WalshStarsBette DavisOlivia de HavillandGeorge BrentThe day before her wedding, a pampered young woman absconds with her sister's husband. Her sister begins seeing the woman's former fiancé.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsBette DavisAnn SheridanMonty WoolleyAn acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in with a Midwestern family.
- DirectorHerman ShumlinHal MohrStarsBette DavisPaul LukasGeraldine FitzgeraldA German-born engineer, his American wife and their children travel from Mexico to the United States to visit her family, but a Romanian count complicates their plans.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsBette DavisMiriam HopkinsGig YoungOld friends Kit Marlowe and Millie Drake adopt contrasting lifestyles: Kit is a single, critically acclaimed author while married Millie writes popular pulp novels.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsBette DavisClaude RainsWalter AbelPopular and beautiful Fanny Trellis is forced into a loveless marriage with an older man, Jewish banker Job Skeffington, in order to save her beloved brother Trippy from an embezzlement charge.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisJohn DallNigel BruceA schoolteacher becomes the mentor of a talented young miner and seeks to get him into a university.Bette Davis opens a school in the coal mining fields of rural Wales. if you just can't get enough of movies about Wales, then this might be the film for you, especially if you get excited by the idea of John Dall conjugating Latin verbs.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisPaul HenreidClaude RainsAfter marrying her long-lost love, a musician finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsBette DavisGlenn FordDane ClarkWhen a woman's twin sister is drowned, she assumes her identity in order to be close to the man she feels her sister took from her years before.
- DirectorBretaigne WindustStarsBette DavisRobert MontgomeryFay BainterA magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which goes slightly wrong...
- DirectorBretaigne WindustStarsBette DavisJanis PaigeJim DavisBette Davis is a successful poetess who falls in love with a war hero in this romantic melodrama that is a moving film experience any time of year.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsBette DavisJoseph CottenDavid BrianResentful of her small-town life, a married woman schemes to run off with a rich businessman.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersA seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisGary MerrillEmlyn WilliamsA mystery writer becomes involved in a tangled web of murderous deception not unlike the plots of her novels.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsBette DavisBarry SullivanJane CowlThe film is about divorce but with flashbacks as to why divorce occurs.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsBette DavisSterling HaydenNatalie WoodA washed-up movie queen finds romance, but still desires a comeback.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsBette DavisShelley WintersGary MerrillWhile awaiting a delayed flight, a lawyer who has left his unfaithful wife, befriends three fellow passengers. After the plane crashes and he is among the few to survive, he feels compelled to contact the families of his dead friends.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsBette DavisRichard ToddJoan CollinsSir Walter Raleigh (Richard Todd) overcomes court intrigue to win favor with Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) in order to get financing for a proposed voyage to the New World.
- DirectorDaniel TaradashStarsBette DavisBrian KeithKim HunterDuring the 1950s, a small-town librarian is shunned by the locals after she refuses the City Council's request to remove a book on Communism from the library's shelves.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsBette DavisErnest BorgnineDebbie ReynoldsWhen Jane tells her parents that she is getting married to Ralph Halloran, her mother Agnes starts planning an elaborate wedding, even though Jane does not wish it.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsRobert StackMarisa PavanCharles CoburnThe career of Revolutionary War naval hero from his youth in Scotland through his service to Catherine the Great of Russia.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsGlenn FordBette DavisHope LangeA New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsBette DavisJoan CrawfordVictor BuonoA former child star torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
- DirectorPaul HenreidStarsBette DavisKarl MaldenPeter LawfordThe working-class twin sister of a callous, wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes her identity. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsBette DavisOlivia de HavillandJoseph CottenAn aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
- DirectorSeth HoltStarsBette DavisWendy CraigJill BennettThere's just something not quite right when Bette Davis stars as an English nanny. And is her 10-year-old charge an emotionally disturbed murderer or just an insolent brat?
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerAlvin RakoffStarsBette DavisSheila HancockJack HedleyThree sons who work in the family construction business help their overbearing mother celebrate her anniversary to her late husband.
- DirectorGerd OswaldStarsBette DavisErnest BorgnineJack CassidyBunny is a penniless widow who blackmails a robber into teaching her the trade. Soon the pair starts a successful crime spree, and the cops aren't turning a blind eye.
- DirectorDavid GreeneStarsBette DavisRobert WagnerDenholm ElliottA C.I.A. Agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plan to steal a Polaris submarine.
- DirectorDan CurtisStarsKaren BlackOliver ReedBurgess MeredithA family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.
- DirectorJohn GuillerminStarsPeter UstinovMia FarrowSimon MacCorkindaleAs Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey?
- DirectorJohn HoughStarsBette DavisChristopher LeeKim RichardsTia and Tony visit Los Angeles, but he's quickly kidnapped by an evil scientist, leaving her to desperately search for him.
- DirectorLindsay AndersonStarsBette DavisLillian GishVincent PriceTwo aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.
- DirectorLarry CohenStarsBette DavisBarbara CarreraColleen CampA mother-and-daughter pair of witches wreaks havoc on a suburban family.