Bette Davis by Barbara Leaming

Author:Barbara Leaming
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Acting & Auditioning, General, Biography & Autobiography / General, Biography / Autobiography, 1908-, Actors, American, Biography, Davis, Bette, , Motion picture actors and actresses, United States, Biography/Autobiography
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 1993-11-01T05:00:00+00:00

Her personal physician, Dr. Paul Moore, had declared her in need of "additional rest" at the rented house in Laguna Beach, where she was being cared for by Farney and Ruthie. Soothed by a series of wheedling telephone calls from Wyler and Goldwyn, Bette appeared to have reneged on her vow to walk out of the picture. According to Furse, both men had promised Bette "different treatment" when she came back to the lot. As a further gesture of conciliation, Goldwyn and Reeves Espy instructed Wyler to shoot around Bette from May 21 to June 5, on the assumption that by then Dr. Moore would have pronounced her well enough to resume work.

There remained Goldwyn's insurance carriers to be dealt with. Following a conversation with Bette's attorney, Lloyd's of London dispatched their own examiner, Dr. Dorrel Dickinson, who promptly seconded Dr. Moore's opinion that she needed to stay in bed for ten days. As Furse was to note, even if Bette was compelled to return to work before June 5, her "present condition" would make her of little use to Goldwyn.

"Silence would scare them more," said Bette, suggesting that Wyler cut the line in which Regina answers her brother Ben's nervous inquiry about the dying Horace.

As Ben Hubbard knows only too well, with her husband dead, Regina may be able to gain a controlling interest in the business deal. So instead of saying "He's not conscious"—as indicated in Hellman's script and included by Wyler in the film—-Bette thought it crueler and more effective to respond wordlessly.

Which, in large part, seems to have been her strategy with Wyler upon returning to the set of The Little Foxes. Although lurid rumors in the press went so far as to report Bette's having "jabbed Wyler unconscious" shortly after coming back to work, their ongoing battle was mostly subtextual. More often than not, she reacted to him with steely politeness, as if they barely knew each other. Rather than argue with him, when Willy said or did something she didn't like, she forced herself to walk silently off the set. But when Goldwyn—less patient now—threatened to take her to court, she returned and went through the motions of doing as Wyler told her.

Strangely enough, as actress and director they did some splendid work together in the tense and unpleasant days between June 5 and July 3.

Of particular interest is the sequence where Regina allows Horace to die by refusing to fetch his heart medicine. Cameraman Gregg Toland shows Regina seated impassively in the living room,

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