Beyond the Forest (1949)
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66% of users liked it
(414 ratings)
"What a dump!" That's the classic line delivered by Bette Davis at the halfway point of Beyond the Forest, her final Warner Bros. effort of the 1940s. Some Davis devotees feel as though this vituperative utterance is the high point of an otherwise turgid melodrama; others consider the… More "What a dump!" That's the classic line delivered by Bette Davis at the halfway point of Beyond the Forest, her final Warner Bros. effort of the 1940s. Some Davis devotees feel as though this vituperative utterance is the high point of an otherwise turgid melodrama; others consider the line a succinct assessment of the entire film. Based on a best-selling novel by Stuart Engstrand, the film stars Davis as Rosa Moline, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. Trapped in a dull marriage to just-getting-by lawyer Lewis Moline (Joseph Cotten), Rosa plots and plans to sexually entrap millionaire industrialist Neil Latimer (David Brian). That Rosa's scheme is doomed from the start is telegraphed at every juncture by Max Steiner's sledgehammer musical score (few will ever want to hear the song "Chicago" again after this). Hampered by the censorship standards of the era, the film is prevented from being as frank as the novel; in one scene, for example, Rosa is obviously visiting an abortionist, but the sign on the door reads "Psychiatrist." A standard entry in most film historians' "Worst Movies" lists (even Davis herself hated it), Beyond the Forest is rather entertaining in its own schlocky fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- King Vidor
- Written By
- Lenore J. Coffee, Stuart Engstrand
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1949 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Davis excels as the passionate but stranded housewife who describes her suffocating community as "a two train a day town." The expression What a Dump, which Liz Taylor repeats in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf comes from this Vidor-directed melodrama.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Bombastic melodrama.
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Cast
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Bette Davis
as Rosa Moline
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Joseph Cotten
as Dr. Louis Moline
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David Brian
as Neil Latimer
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Ruth Roman
as Carol
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Regis Toomey
as Sorren
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Minor Watson
as Moose
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Dona Drake
as Jenny
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Sarah Selby
as Mildred
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Mary Servoss
as Mrs. Welch
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Frances Charles
as Miss Elliott
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Joel Allen
as Minister
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James Craven
as Man
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Ann Doran
as Edith Williams
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Creighton Hale
as Old Man
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Hallene Hill
as Woman
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Charles Jordan
as Jury Foreman
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Eve Miller
as Switchboard Operator
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Buddy Roosevelt
as Man
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Harry Tyler
as Stationmaster
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Judith Wood
as Waitress
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Frank Pharr
as Coroner
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Ralph Littlefield
as Driver
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Gail Bonney
as Woman
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Hal Gerard
as Waiter
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Eileen Stevens
as Operator
