Here, my quick brush and sienna ink wash drawing made in honor of the great Bette Davis on her birthday. I remember being home on a college break and a movie I’d never heard of was on television, “All About Eve.” I only knew Bette Davis from “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” (the beginning of her golden age horror phase). Mesmerized from the get-go, I watched past midnight when my parents came home. Excited about my discovery I said, “I’ve just watched the most amazing movie!” They both knew it well and my mother became a bit nostalgic as Bette she said, had been always one of her favorite actresses. (Doing the math, I now realize my mother was no more than 42 or 43 at that time.) Since then, I’ve seen “All About Eve” many times. I rewatch favorite movies over and over. For me, film has always been a huge influence, first on my painting then on my writing (there’s a future Substack there). Anyway, if you have never seen this movie you are in for a treat. It is truly one of the all-time great films, a behind-the-scenes look at the theater, or should I say, the-a-ter. With an amazing cast. First and foremost, Bette as the aging theater queen, Margo Channing (who replaced Claudette Colbert who suffered a back injury two weeks before filming, a fortuitous accident). Bette is never better chewing the scenery along with everything and everyone around her, but she can also touch your heart and has many amazing lines (among them, the famous “Fasten your seatbelts it’s going to be a bumpy night!” and several touching, tearful monologues, and no one, no one, has ever smoked more or better in any movie (I’m sure the tobacco industry misses her). Ann Baxter plays the innocent-to-evil Eve Harrington, and just when you think she’s too short for the role, the great George Sanders, playing the poisonously erudite theater critic, Addison DeWitt, actually says, “You’re too short for that gesture!” Celeste Holm plays Margo’s best friend and long-suffering playwright’s wife, and in a small but memorable role as a theater hopeful, is Marilyn Monroe, about whom Bette Davis has said, “Not one of the men were attracted to her but I knew she was going to be someone.” Gary Merrill plays Bette/Margo’s theater-director-becoming-Hollywood-director boyfriend with a cool manly charm, so it’s no surprise that Bette and Gary fell head-over-heels in lust and married (it lasted 10 years, but Bette said Gary was her favorite husband; she had four.) Director/screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz is at the top of his form (among his other 40 or so films, “Letter to Three Wives,” “Guys and Dolls” the wonderful “Barefoot Contessa” with the Humphrey Bogart and rapturously beautiful Ava Gardner, and the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton “Cleopatra,” which started the affair that shocked the world and was actually condemned by the Vatican, Le Scandal as it was called in Italy. God, I miss those two.

“All About Eve” received 14 Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture of Year, 1951 (Bette lost to Judy Holiday, a travesty). If you haven’t seen this movie it’s time to stream it, or have your own Bette Davis festival, Jezebel (Bette’s consolation for not getting to play Scarlett O’Hara—she was on suspension—in which she is great and won the Academy Award for Best Actress), The Little Foxes, Now Voyager, Mrs. Skeffington, Of Human Bondage, The Letter, and plenty more. A seasoned pro, Bette was often called a diva, but as she said about herself, “It’s better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you’re not.”

Happy Birthday, Bette.