- Messages
- 17,190
- Location
- New York City
"Payment on Demand" 1951 with Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan
Maybe it's because, last year, I watched the TV series "Feud" about the combative relationship Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had while making "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" (and off and on throughout their long careers) that I immediately noticed the very similar stories in this movie and Crawford's 1950 "Harriet Craig."
At a high level, both movies are about social-climbing, materialistic women who drive their husbands to succeed so that they can have an impressive home, luxury goods and social position. Both also show wives - Davis and Crawford - who cared much more about those things and their position than their husbands or anyone else in their lives.
The moral of both is that this myopic drive for "stuff" and "status" eventually pushes everyone away from you - your family, your friends and, even, your household staff - and leaves you alone and sad in your big and well-appointed, but now cold and gloomy, house.
Both movies are pretty well done and both actresses are scary (no new news there), but I'd give the nod to Davis for bringing more nuance and humanity to the role; whereas, Crawford is more full-on b*tch who can crumble a person with a look. It's amazing how the careers of these two actresses paralleled.
Maybe it's because, last year, I watched the TV series "Feud" about the combative relationship Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had while making "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" (and off and on throughout their long careers) that I immediately noticed the very similar stories in this movie and Crawford's 1950 "Harriet Craig."
At a high level, both movies are about social-climbing, materialistic women who drive their husbands to succeed so that they can have an impressive home, luxury goods and social position. Both also show wives - Davis and Crawford - who cared much more about those things and their position than their husbands or anyone else in their lives.
The moral of both is that this myopic drive for "stuff" and "status" eventually pushes everyone away from you - your family, your friends and, even, your household staff - and leaves you alone and sad in your big and well-appointed, but now cold and gloomy, house.
Both movies are pretty well done and both actresses are scary (no new news there), but I'd give the nod to Davis for bringing more nuance and humanity to the role; whereas, Crawford is more full-on b*tch who can crumble a person with a look. It's amazing how the careers of these two actresses paralleled.