Ironically I received two copies of Dark Victory for Christmas this past December but didn’t manage to read either copy until now. The (only) problem with receiving 18 books between December and my birthday in March is it takes forever to get through them all, particularly if you continue to borrow books from relatives. Dark Victory combined two of my favorite things: Old Hollywood and true stories of bad ass women.
This is a pretty straightforward biography; it is well researched and goes from birth to death. Bette lived most of her pretty remarkable life in the Hollywood limelight, beginning as a contract player for Warners. Her professional success far outweighed her personal missteps; she won two Academy Awards, had four husbands and three children.
I was most interested in hearing about the roles Bette Davis didn’t take (or didn’t get offered)- most notable Scarlet in Gone with the Wind and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf!
I also realized that despite Bette Davis being an easily identifiable icon for anyone who loves movies and her prolific career from the Golden Age of Hollywood I have only seen Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and All About Eve. Between her film debut in 1931 and the end of her contract with Warner Brothers 11 years later she amassed 52 film credits! Thirty two of those were in the first five years of her career. Remember when we all collectively got over Jude Law for having 6 films released in 2004?
Bette had an amazing work ethic and jumped at the opportunity to get ugly for a role, she knew her fans wanted her to go above & beyond in her work and often gave them what they wanted- even if it meant butting heads with studio executives. She was notoriously difficult to work with but she was often worth the drama.
Biographies aren’t for everyone and this particular one has some dry spots, mostly in the twilight of Bette’s career when her roles were farther apart and less interesting. However, she worked until the day she died- receiving a lifetime achievement award days before breast cancer took her life in 1989. Despite the occasion dull moment, Sikov had rich material to pull from in the retelling of Bette Davis’ life and his writing never drags for long or that frequently.
