Margaret Tyzack was one of the lucky ones (with Martin Jarvis, Michael York, and Susan Hampshire) out of the original B.B.C. series THE FORSYTE SAGA. These four really managed to build careers not only on television but in the theater and even movies from their roles as Winifred Dartie, Jon Forsyte, Young Jolyon Forsyte, and Fleur Forsyte Mont in that early series. With Tyzack it led to a Tony Award for a comedy she appeared in with Maggie Smith over twelve years back. But long before then she had the central part in this series. It demonstrated her range a bit.
When she was Winifred, the understanding sister of the stiff Soames (Eric Porter), she was one of the few who realized that there were human feelings that were crushed in the man. You ended up liking Winnie, and sympathizing with her for her marriage to Montague Dartie, who was a colorful bounder. But Winifred had no bad side to her. Not so with Cousin Bette. Honore de Balzac enjoyed showing people as they really are, and showing how worms can turn or one can raise vipers who are less pleasant than we expect. In his PERE GORIOT (or OLD GORIOT) he updates the KING LEAR story by showing a loving father impoverishing himself for two unloving (and unlikeable) daughters. In COUSIN BETTE he has the central figure as a poor relation to a minor aristocratic family, who thinks she has a chance for happiness with a Polish aristocrat in exile, only to find the family pulling out the stops to snare the exile for the young daughter (who is of marrying age). As a result a furious Bette decides to destroy the family.
Bette is in a great position to do this - she knows the family weaknesses of the head of the family (Thorley Waters) for young ladies. She is also aware that the Polish son-in-law (Colin Baker) also has a wandering eye. There are also side relatives who can be pushed into positions that are either uncomfortable or even fatal (like one elderly uncle who Bette manipulates into being sent to handle a family business in some pest hole in North Africa). Soon things just go wrong, especially after Bette makes an alliance with an ambitious young woman who is perfect for snaring both Waters and Baker.
Does she succeed? Beyond her wildest dreams of course...but like all schemers there are problems that Bette does not count upon. The collapse of her plans turns on the behavior of people beyond her knowledge and control, who find their plans being interfered with by her schemes and act accordingly. In the end the threads of her plots unravel one by one. But she is able to give a final thrust back before the end.
Tyzack's "Bette" was malevolent and fascinating - a far cry from her Winifred. To see her in both performances, one after the other, is to understand why her career has been as successful as it has been.
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