What Does It Mean to Have Bette Davis Eyes?

Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon wrote a song about it, Kim Carnes made it popular, and Gwyneth Paltrow covered it in the film Duets (2000), but what does it mean to have Bette Davis eyes?

Sure, her hair is Harlow gold and she might just have Greta Garbo stand-off sighs, but do the song lyrics of “Bette Davis Eyes” adequately elaborate beyond depicting a seductress who is not afraid to cause a bit of pain (physical or emotional)?  Writer Adib Khorram offers this perspective in his book Darius the Great Is Not Okay: Fariba Bahrami had the kindest eyes in the entire galaxy.  They were huge and brown, with little soft pillows under them.  Mom called them Bette Davis eyes (165).

I like Khorram’s mental image much more than the one from the song.  To be honest, despite the nearly three decades I’ve been watching classic movies and mentally ranking various Hollywood actresses’ personas, talents, and other elements that evoke an air of alluring curiosity, Bette Davis did not feature prominently in these exercises.  It wasn’t due to a lack of effort as much as it was a very delayed reaction. After all, I only developed an admiration for Ingrid Bergman and Barbara Stanwyck‘s onscreen magnetism years after college.  As the adage notes, timing is everything, and when it comes to opening yourself up as a viewer to performing artists to whom you had previously felt indifferent, you cannot hurry the manifestation of that kind of esteem and fondness.

Eleven American presidents in office, forty-nine Nobel Peace Prizes awarded, and fourteen sets of Leap Years have come and gone in the half century that Bette Davis lit up the cinema and television screens.  From 1931 to 1989, the two-time Academy Award-winning actress built an illustrious career playing an heiress [The Bride Came C.O.D. (William Keighley, 1941)], a non-conforming southern belle [Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938)], twins [A Stolen Life (Curtis Bernhardt, 1946) and Dead Ringer (Paul Henreid, 1964)], and a celebrated thespian [All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)], among many other roles.

Spending a large part of last year better acquainting myself with Bette’s filmography by watching her films and interviews with Dick Cavett and reading Kathryn Sermak’s memoir Miss D & Me and Sherrie Tucker’s book Dance Floor Democracy has led me to a juncture of cultural and cinematic (re)discovery.  As evidenced in the examples of mentorship, social etiquette, and reclamation of self-agency throughout Miss D & Me, Bette Davis was as much an actress as she was a teacher, eager to share her understanding of human psychology as well as her benchmarks for a fulfilled life.  It was her strength and weakness — knowing exactly what and how she wanted to experience life, supremely prescient in the now quotidien meme of “expectations vs. reality.”

Learn more about Bette Davis in this TCM piece about her role at the Hollywood Canteen.

Enjoy these Bette Davisisms:

“Having a career [in Hollywood] includes not only that you can act but that you–that the people go and see you, because people make careers.  No studio manager, no studio head can make you a star.  The audiences made me a star, that was the great miracle to me.”
—  Dick Cavett interview from 1969 included on the Criterion Edition of All About Eve.

“I feel I am an actress, I hope.  With my taste in what I like to do, I never thought I would ever be a box-office person, because you see, when I went [to Columbia Pictures] in [1930], imagine looking at me after they’d been looking at these really beautiful women that’d been in silent pictures for years.  Imagine seeing Jean Harlow and then I come through the gate, you know, ’cause I started in theatre and stage actors, you know, it wasn’t important how you looked out of the theatre.  I didn’t wear makeup and glamourous clothes, you know, I just dressed in an ordinary, little Yankee way.”
— Dick Cavett interview from 1971 included on the Criterion Edition of Now, Voyager.

Pic creds: 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, IMDB

Seeing Double in A Stolen Life The Pretty One

When there’s someone else who looks like you and sounds like you to the untrained eyes and ears, it might not take much for the world to believe there’s only one of you.  But, when everyone knows there are two of you, persuading anyone (including yourself) that you are who you say you are necessitates mastering the art and craft of playing twins.  Cinema has an expansive track record in this department.

Behold:

The Dark Mirror (Robert Siodmak, 1946)

Dead Ringer (Paul Henreid, 1964)

The Parent Trap (David Swift, 1961)

The Parent Trap (Nancy Meyers, 1998)

Along with all the films on this list.

It’s easy to play twins when each one has a different hairstyle, fashion sense, food preferences, and body language.  It’s easier for the viewer to distinguish between the two as well, such as the twins in the story of The Pretty One (Jenee LaMarque, 2013).

But when the twins have very similar hair and clothing choices, the demarcation lines lie
in much more subtle factors like facial expressions and demeanor.  If one twin were to pretend to be the other, while still displaying their own personality traits occasionally, she can’t forget own her identity.  Bette Davis nails it in A Stolen Life (Curtis Bernhardt), 1946).  Zoe Kazan does it pretty well in The Pretty One.

The audience sees so much more of both sisters in A Stolen Life, therefore it highlights more of Bette’s skill in portraying two different people in and between scenes.

The Pretty One focuses mostly on one sister and explores the journey that she embarks on to figure out who she is without her twin…while everyone else thinks she is her twin.

Zoe Kazan as Audrey and Laurel in The Pretty One

The corollaries between the films:
~ The good-natured sister is a painter.
~ There’s an accident and the rebellious sister dies.
~ Complications arise with the incidental/deliberate mistaken identity.
~ When to reveal the charade of being someone you’re not.

Beyond those plot points, the two films delve into different aspects of self-identity and second chances.  A Stolen Life follows Katie Bosworth (Davis), a woman with fine arts aspirations, who falls in love with a lighthouse keeper (Glenn Ford) but loses her chance at his romantic affections when her twin sister Pat charms him away.

Bette Davis as Pat Bosworth and Glenn Ford as Bill Emerson in A Stolen Life

 

When a sailing accident claims Pat’s life, Katie pretends to be her so she can have a chance at a life with Bill.  Little does she know, though, that Pat did not try hard enough to deserve his love in the year they were married.  Katie must decide how and if she can move on with her life.

Glenn Ford as Bill Emerson and Bette Davis as Kate Bosworth in A Stolen Life

 

The Pretty One centers on Laurel (Kazan), a painter who helps her dad make copies of famous paintings while her twin sister, Audrey, lives a more exciting life as a real estate agent.  When a traffic accident claims Audrey’s life, Laurel doesn’t correct people’s assumption that she was the one who died.  Laurel may not be going into the name-switch with a concrete goal like Katie, but what she experiences and accomplishes in the end is definitely worth the medium-sized con.

 

Watch Bette Davis in action:

Trailer for The Pretty One:

Pic creds: imdb