Bette Davis
Birthday: 1908-04-05
Place of Birth: Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
Biography: Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized. Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theater roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, after Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time.
Movies
Pocketful of Miracles
A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady...
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All About Eve
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the re...
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Hollywood's Funniest All-Star Bloopers
William Shatner, Liz Taylor and many more stars blow lines, lose their pants and more in this hilari...
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What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood ...
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The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert
Short documentary about the making of "The Petrified Forest."...
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Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after...
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Jezebel
In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who car...
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Death on the Nile
As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on b...
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The Watcher in the Woods
After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tor...
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Murder with Mirrors
When Miss Jane Marple arrives at palatial Stonygates, one thing is certain. Before there's time to l...
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Dead Ringer
The working class twin sister of a callous wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and ...
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Deception
After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer...
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Marked Woman
In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangste...
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Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no acc...
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The Man Who Came to Dinner
An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwester...
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Bordertown
An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with the neurotic wife of his casino boss....
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Now, Voyager
A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man...
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Dark Victory
Socialite Judith Traherne lives a lavish but emotionally empty life. Riding horses is one of her few...
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Burnt Offerings
A couple and their twelve-year-old son move into a giant house for the summer where things aren’t qu...
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Satan Met a Lady
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress...
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Wicked Stepmother
A pair of witches descend upon a family and wreak havoc. Now it's up to the family's matriarch, a pr...
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Beyond the Forest
Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man ...
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The Bride Came C.O.D.
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter an...
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20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, b...
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Return from Witch Mountain
Tony and Tia are other-worldly twins endowed with telekinesis. When their Uncle Bene drops them off ...
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Three on a Match
Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throw...
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Mr. Skeffington
A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth...
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The Cabin in the Cotton
Sharecropper's son Marvin tries to help his community overcome poverty and ignorance....
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The Virgin Queen
Sir Walter Raleigh overcomes court intrigue to win favor with the Queen in order to get financing fo...
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Winter Meeting
A repressed poetess and an embittered war hero help each other cope with their problems....
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A Stolen Life
A twin takes her deceased sister's place as wife of the man they both love....
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The Corn Is Green
When a teacher reads an essay written by Morgan Evans, one of the boys, moved by his rough poetry sh...
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Thank Your Lucky Stars
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort....
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In This Our Life
An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the l...
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The Little Foxes
In 1900, a clan attempts to strike a deal with a Chicago industrialist to get him to build cotton mi...
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All This, and Heaven Too
When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Du...
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The Great Lie
After a newlywed's husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his af...
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Of Human Bondage
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them...
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The Old Maid
The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child....
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Storm Center
Politicians go after a small-town librarian when she refuses to ban a book. She's quickly labeled a ...
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Hollywood Canteen
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entert...
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Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, war...
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Breakdowns of 1938
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938....
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Shining Victory
In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praeco...
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A Day at Santa Anita
Orphaned horse-trainer's little daughter has reciprocated bond with horse, which needs her presence ...
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A Dream Comes True
A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)....
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The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
This period drama frames the tumultuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the man who would be Ki...
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The Petrified Forest
Gabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day pennil...
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The Nanny
Nanny, a London family's live-in maid, brings morbid 10-year-old Joey back from the psychiatric ward...
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The Letter
After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions....
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Watch on the Rhine
On the eve of World War II, the German Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three chi...
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The Whales of August
Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine....
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Fog Over Frisco
Val takes the assistance of a society reporter and a journalist to investigate the disappearance of ...
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Breakdowns of 1941
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1941....
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Showbiz Goes to War
While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War ...
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Jimmy the Gent
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and te...
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Dangerous
Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut h...
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Special Agent
A reporter turned tax agent infiltrates a crime ring to catch a racketeer, working with the mobster'...
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Bureau of Missing Persons
Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police wor...
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Ex-Lady
Although free spirit Helen Bauer does not believe in marriage, she consents to marry Don, but his in...
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Kid Galahad
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid...
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Where Love Has Gone
A divorced couple's teen-age daughter stands trial for stabbing her mother's latest lover....
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Another Man's Poison
Mystery novelist Janet Frobisher, lives in an isolated house, having been separated for years from h...
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Fashions of 1934
When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Sna...
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Old Acquaintance
Two writers, friends since childhood, fight over their books and lives....
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John Paul Jones
The career of Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, from his youth in Scotland through his s...
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Payment on Demand
David gives his wife, Joyce, an unexpected—and unpleasant—surprise when he suddenly demands a divorc...
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Madame Sin
A CIA agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plan to steal a Polaris submarine....
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The Scopone Game
An aging American millionairess journeys to Rome each year with her chauffeur George to play the car...
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Phone Call from a Stranger
Four strangers board a plane and become fast friends, but a catastrophic crash leaves only one survi...
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Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood
A retrospective of the films of Britain's Hammer Studios, renowned for making stylish horror films i...
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Bette and Joan
Sylvia Syms looks through the BBC archives to tell the story of one of Hollywood's greatest ever feu...
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The Empty Canvas
An aspiring young artist breaks from his wealthy, possessive mother to live a bohemian existence in ...
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The Star
Actress Margaret Elliot is well past her prime but refuses to retire from the acting business. Despi...
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The Anniversary
Mrs Taggart always celebrates her anniversary with her grown sons. It’s a tradition practised since ...
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Waterloo Bridge
In World War I London, Myra is an American out-of-work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up me...
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Juarez
The newly-named emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrive in Mexico to face popular sentiment f...
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The Dark Horse
The Progressive Party convention is deadlocked for governor, so both sides nominate the dark horse Z...
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The Working Man
A successful shoe manufacturer named John Reeves goes on vacation and meets the grown children of hi...
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The Big Shakedown
Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate kn...
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Bunny O'Hare
Bette Davis handles the title role in this highly offbeat crime comedy about two aging hippies who e...
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It's Love I'm After
An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady....
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The Rich Are Always with Us
A wealthy couple's marriage is falling apart due to the man's infidelity. The wife's male friend has...
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The Catered Affair
An Irish cabby in the Bronx watches his wife go overboard planning their daughter's wedding....
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June Bride
A magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which g...
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The Sisters
Three daughters of a small down pharmacist undergo trials and tribulations in their problematic marr...
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The Adventures of Errol Flynn
A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family....
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Hairway to the Stars
The arms race goes to the beauty parlor with Bette Davis in The Letter....
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The Scapegoat
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of...
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The Man Who Played God
While giving a private performance for a visiting monarch, concert pianist Montgomery Royle is deafe...
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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir...
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The Bad Sister
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsemen...
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Front Page Woman
Ace reporter Curt Devlin and fellow reporter Ellen Garfield love one another, but Curt believes wome...
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Hell's House
A teenager lands in a brutal reform school for refusing to squeal on his bootlegger boss....
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Parachute Jumper
An Air Force washout and his buddy room with a pretty young lady. Desperate for jobs during the Depr...
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Backstory: 'All About Eve'
A documentary about the making of the 1950 film "All About Eve."...
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Way Back Home
A rural Maine farmer fights for custody of the boy who he's raised as his own....
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Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
A collection of bloopers and outtakes from an enormous selection of Hollywood classic productions sp...
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Scream, Pretty Peggy
A sculptor hires young college girls to take care of his elderly mother and his supposedly insane si...
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Right of Way
Miniature Dwyer is named after her mother, who was making miniature doll houses when Minnie was born...
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Housewife
Nan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own agency. Nearly out of business, ...
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Madonna: Madame X
Filmed in Lisbon, Portugal, the film captures the pop icon’s rare and rapturous tour performance, ha...
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The Girl from 10th Avenue
When his fiancée Valentine dumps him, prominent lawyer Geoffrey Sherwood goes on a bender and winds ...
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The Golden Arrow
A fake heiress marries a common reporter to thwart the advances of gold-digging playboys....
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The Menace
A man framed for murder escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence....
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The Disappearance of Aimee
In 1926, celebrated evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson mysteriously disappeared. She turned up severa...
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Just Around the Corner
Promotional short produced by General Electric for release through Warner Bros. to advertise GE's ho...
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Seed
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five ch...
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Connecting Rooms
Explores the relationships shared by the residents of a seedy boarding house in London. Based on the...
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White Mama
A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood b...
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Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter
A woman, who had left home 20 years previously under acrimonious circumstances, finds out that she i...
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Skyward
Billie Dupree is a flight instructor at an old Texas airport. When a young girl in a wheelchair find...
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Going Hollywood: The '30s
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were...
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A Piano for Mrs. Cimino
An elderly widow must find meaning and activity in her life when her son suggests she is no longer c...
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The Decorator
A respected but struggling interior decorator from a wealthy background moves in with some of her cl...
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Bette Davis at the Cinémathèque Française
On February 22, 1986, Bette Davis received an honorary César award – and presented one to the Cinéma...
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Biography: Bette Davis — If Looks Could Kill
Share the magical memories - and see clips from her Oscar winning performances - in this profile of ...
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Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition
An overview of the iconic actresses' legendary careers, as well as the rivalry that colored "What Ev...
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Jezebel: Legend of the South
Short documentary about the making of the 1938 film "Jezebel."...
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A Present with a Future
In a short scene a mother explains to her children, Jenny and Billy, why they received war bonds as ...
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Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Uncensored. Laugh along with Hollywood's brightest stars in this hilarious compilation of bloopers f...
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As Summers Die
Set in a sleepy Southern Louisiana town in 1959, a lawyer, searches for justice as he volunteers to ...
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The Andy Williams Christmas Show
For Andy's Christmas show, Bette Davis comes aboard to tout her new movie, and even sing a "Baby Jan...
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Joan Crawford: Always the Star
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winni...
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Mike Wallace Is Here
For over half a century, 60 Minutes' fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world'...
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Family Reunion
Elizabeth Winfield is a retired teacher, who desperately tries to keep her family together. While s...
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The Judge and Jake Wyler
A retired lady judge runs a private detective agency with a charming ex-con as her leg man and vario...
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Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
The life and work of Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish-born glove salesman who became one of Hollywood's grea...
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Breakdowns of 1936
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1936....
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The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor
Overview of director King Vidor's filmography....
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Listen to Me Marlon
With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of...
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Breakdowns of 1937
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1937....
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Breakdowns of 1939
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1939....
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Breakdowns of 1944
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1944....
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Breakdowns of 1949
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1949....
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Show-Business at War
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort....
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Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirl...
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Complicated Women
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, u...
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Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
The history of the irreverent "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and the content battles it fought ...
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The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insig...
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Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Fr...
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Bette Davis: Larger Than Life
Bette Davis is the most disturbing film diva Hollywood has ever seen. Her life and her roles reflect...
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Hello Mother, Goodbye!
A successful engineer tires of his high-tension job and quits to start his own mail-order company, m...
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1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and in...
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Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano
A documentary about and an interview with Hollywood actress Bette Davis about her life and career fr...
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Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well...
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The Voice That Thrilled the World
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's e...
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Stars on Horseback
A profile of blacksmith George Garfield, among whose Hollywood clients were the horses of Joel McCre...
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Frank Capra's American Dream
A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard....
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The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift thos...
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Directed by William Wyler
A documentary on the film director William Wyler (1902-1981), this feature was conceived by his daug...
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Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitio...
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The Travels of Kinuyo Tanaka
Compilation of film footage documenting Japanese film star Kinuyo Tanaka's goodwill tour of the U.S....
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Breakdowns of 1942
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942....
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Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis
Margo Channing's famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," characterizes...
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Queer Icon: The Cult of Bette Davis
This documentary examines the many aspects of the gay fascination with Bette Davis, featuring film c...
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Footsteps on the Ceiling
A meditation on ambition and careerism utilizing altered footage from All About Eve, with a soupçon ...
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The 42nd Street Special
As part of a publicity campaign for the film 42nd Street (1933), Warner Bros. Pictures, with the ass...
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Night of 100 Stars
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place ...
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Bette Davis
Bette Davis talks with Joan Bakewell and members of the audience at the National Film Theatre, Londo...
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Miss Moffat
A filmed production of the musical Miss Moffat based on The Corn is Green starring Bette Davis....
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Mickey's 50
"Mickey's 50" is a 90-minute special that aired on The Wonderful World of Disney on November 19, 197...
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Bride of Trailer Camp
A compilation of "coming attractions" from bad '50s melodrama through the greatest disaster movies o...
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Showbiz Ballyhoo
Rare footage reveals how stars were created and motion pictures sold, and how the the advent of soun...
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Dick Powell and Joan Blondell home movies: "No. 1, From beginning"
Silent home movies, in both black and white and color, featuring footage of Dick Powell and Joan Blo...
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