Jezebel (1938)

Featured Audience Ratings

• First L

  
  Jezebel is the 1938 precursor to "Gone With The Wind". Bette Davis stars as a southern belle doomed to lose her fiance and her social standing when she dares to wear a red dress to a ball (GASP!@!) It's enough to make any southern belle a life-long pariah. When her… More
  Jezebel is the 1938 precursor to "Gone With The Wind". Bette Davis stars as a southern belle doomed to lose her fiance and her social standing when she dares to wear a red dress to a ball (GASP!@!) It's enough to make any southern belle a life-long pariah. When her former beau (the miscast Henry Fonda) comes back into her life, she tries everything she can to scheme her way back into his heart. The old pre-civil war south has long fascinated Hollywood as it's the closest thing America ever had to a royal "noble class" (the elite upper crust of society). Everything was a question of manners and the wrong word could result in a duel between two gentlemen. Of course the slavery issue is given short shrift, this was made in the pre-civil rights era 30s, and besides, slavery doesn't hold quite the same romance as the Jezebels and Scarletts of that time period. Regardless of political correctness, there's just something uninteresting about this film, whether it's the storyline or the script, I can't be sure. Bette Davis gives a fine performance, but this story of a woman who wears the wrong dress to the ball can hardly compare with the scope and granduer of the magnificent "Gone With The Wind".

• moon r

  
  With many similarities to GWTW, this melodrama depicts New Orleanian genteel society directly before the War Between The States. Davis is a spoiled, manipulative ingenue with her intentions set on rising banker Fonda, only he refuses her golden puppet strings much to her… More
  With many similarities to GWTW, this melodrama depicts New Orleanian genteel society directly before the War Between The States. Davis is a spoiled, manipulative ingenue with her intentions set on rising banker Fonda, only he refuses her golden puppet strings much to her consternation. An entertaining piece until its rushed and contrived ending.

• Carlos M

  
  A small melodrama that came as a consolation prize for Davis, who did not get the main role in Gone with the Wind. Just like in that film, the protagonist is a spoiled, impudent woman who likes to manipulate the men around her. The highlights include the elegant dialogue and… More
  A small melodrama that came as a consolation prize for Davis, who did not get the main role in Gone with the Wind. Just like in that film, the protagonist is a spoiled, impudent woman who likes to manipulate the men around her. The highlights include the elegant dialogue and Davis' fierce performance.

• Spencer S

  
  An interesting portrait of a time of racism, the flourishing of the naughty yet nice Southern belle, and duels still raging past the point of law breaking. The Deep South, in all it's overdone glory, is the pivotal spot for yet another tale of love gone awry, and the death and… More
  An interesting portrait of a time of racism, the flourishing of the naughty yet nice Southern belle, and duels still raging past the point of law breaking. The Deep South, in all it's overdone glory, is the pivotal spot for yet another tale of love gone awry, and the death and destruction that come with it. Though Fonda seems oddly placed among the ruckus, Bette Davis is exceptional, the greatest of reformed Jezebels. Sink your teeth in, but try to avoid the racism, historical ineptitude, and stiff dialouge. Worth it.

• Randy T

  
  "Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it may be compared with the misery of others" -Samuel Johnson Wealthy socialite Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) gets her feelings hurt when her beau… More
  "Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it may be compared with the misery of others" -Samuel Johnson Wealthy socialite Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) gets her feelings hurt when her beau (Henry Fonda) is unable to accompany her to pick up a dress for the ball. Her selfish and spiteful nature takes over and essentially wreaks havoc throughout the rest of the film, causing at least one man's death and nearly wrecking the marriage of another. All of which makes for fantastic drama, until the very end of the film when poor Julie sees the error of her ways and performs a single act of attrition that's supposed to make up for all the misery and hurt she's caused. If it weren't for the cop-out ending, this would be a five star film. Self-centered, conceited little miss Marsden would have to do a whole lot more than ride outta' town in the back of a wagon before I'd agree that she redeemed herself. One can only hope that she later contracted bubonic plague and, while in a coma, had her eyes pecked out by hungry crows.

• William D

  
  Continuing my study of the films of 1938, I move now to "Jezebel," another Best Picture nominee beaten by "You Can't Take It With You." Like "Robin Hood," "Jezebel" is good but not great. The Best Picture nominees from 1938 continue to… More
  Continuing my study of the films of 1938, I move now to "Jezebel," another Best Picture nominee beaten by "You Can't Take It With You." Like "Robin Hood," "Jezebel" is good but not great. The Best Picture nominees from 1938 continue to disappoint. Bette Davis, who won her second and final Best Actress Oscar for "Jezebel" (she won her first just a few years before for "Dangerous," a film that no one remembers), plays an upper-class southern woman in the 1850s who is so feisty and obstreperous that her fiance (played by Henry Fonda) is encouraged to give her a whipping. He does not. Whenever she doesn't get her way, she throws a tantrum like a spoiled child. Her biggest stunt comes when she appears at a ball in a red dress, a color only worn by harlots. She so embarrasses her fiance that he breaks off their engagement and abandons her. The film then cuts to one year later, when he returns to visit accompanied by his new wife, and all hell breaks loose again. I was moderately entertained throughout "Jezebel." The script is dignified and intelligent, as is the direction of William Wyler. The black-and-white cinematography is competent but nothing special. I cannot give the film more than a 7. I was not enraptured by a single scene and didn't care that much one way or the other whether Davis's character got what she wanted or not. I'm quite amazed that I'm finding the Best Picture slate from '38 to be so mediocre.

• Veronique K

  
  bette davis often flatters herself in her elder years by claiming she could have played "gone with the wind" if she wants to, but she refuses it becuz it has too many similiarities with william wyler's "jezebel" and she's reluctant to play insolent… More
  bette davis often flatters herself in her elder years by claiming she could have played "gone with the wind" if she wants to, but she refuses it becuz it has too many similiarities with william wyler's "jezebel" and she's reluctant to play insolent southern belle all over again. and another reason would be she dislikes errol flynn so much that she doesn't wish him to be her "rhett butler"...could you imagine davis as scarlett instead of feline-eyed vivien leigh or flynn as rhett, not likable cad clark gable? i guess not. davis plays julie who is engaged to henry fonda's pres. julie is an egoist who wanna have her way at any cost, and she waywardly revenges her fiance for not attending her sailor shop by wearing a notorious reddish dress in the olympus ball where unmarried women are supposed to settle in white. she even challenges his manhood by implying he's afraid to defend her. then naturally their relationship seems terminated after this serious friction. one year later, pres shows up at her door with a yankee wife while she kneels on the floor in a chastely white dress to beg for his forgiveness. driven by bitter jealousy, julie makes provocative insinuation of her guests to insult pres but it ends up two men having a pistol duel, and one death. julie becomes the wretched witch who brings others misfortune. then her beloved pres gets infected with yellow fever, so she beseeches his wife to offer her the previledge to take care of him in the plague camp to purge her sins. wyler's perspective to tackle into the old south is thru the insistance of black slavery which its protagonists have furious disputes over so intensely that they would resort to fatal pistol-dueling. exclusive from black slavery, there's nothing else wyler tries to depict about old south, and the conversations are all centered upon their irreconciled gap of differences. then the flick ends abruptly with the plague strike, so the old south crambles....then what? perhaps "gone with the wind" is more concrete with the war sequence and the revival of its characters in their postwar state. the character of pres would be the intellectual youth who struggles between his attachment to the old south where he gets nourished and the innovative land of yankees who've been more civilized and polished by industrialization. pres escapes the snobbish south and julie who stands for the south he used to cling to by marrying a simple-minded yankee woman with every obedient sense of puritanical virtues, who is much less difficult to deal with. at the scene julie attempts to seduce him back in the garden, she suggests the enchantment of south while the moon shnes brighteningly, crickets sings cozily and the smell of swamp, she utters "how could you desert all these things in your blood to go for your yankee woman? don't you love me?" dignified pres certainly resists julie's temptation but undeniably he's still conflicted with fascinations which he dislikes to confront. after all, life is simpler with a yankee woman to pres. he rebuffs her with a deadpan face "i love my wife" as if it's a fixed line a gentleman should have said in his manly honor whehter he means it or not. it seems to be grandeur deed for julie to volunteer to be with pres in the plague camp, but does she do it for her own redemption of honor or she truly cares for pres? at the last scene, she sits on the wagon beside him, and her sight heads forward her surroundins emotionlessly. what is she thinking then? is she trying to summon up all the courage to face the perilous future? or she just feels lofty to restore her pride anf her reputation in the town by taking care of pres? it could be both. whether she chooses to do altruistic deed for her ego or not, it is still an admirable sacrifice just like man could go to the battlefield to get killed simply for his honor and his ego, why couldn't woman be egoistically contributive? after all, she's the jezebel who intends to pay the price for her misdemeanors. whether julie is a bitch or not, the judgement leaves to each single audience. should she be responsible for the dueling simply becuz she's malicious bitch? or she's just the catalyst which stimulates the long-existed feud between old south and yankee? even she seems ruthlessly calm by fiddling her flowers while the men are gonna have a pistol fight, but she only expects one of them to be injured instead of getting killed, she might just try to disguise her clamored inner self by acting with composure. there's no pure bitch but a flawed human being with moral ambiguities(or bankrupcy?). is "jezebell" about malice or repetence?

• Jennifer X

  
  This is quite a good film, but I'm so pissed off by the ending and stupid Amy that I'm taking a half star off.

• jay n

  
  Bette and Fay Bainter are dynamite in this

• Matthew R

  
  New Orleans, 1852; Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) and her fiancé, Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda), have a stormy relationship. He won't go with her as promised; to collect her decorous white dress for the Olympus ball. In an act of angry defiance, she instead chooses a flamboyant red… More
  New Orleans, 1852; Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) and her fiancé, Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda), have a stormy relationship. He won't go with her as promised; to collect her decorous white dress for the Olympus ball. In an act of angry defiance, she instead chooses a flamboyant red dress. Pres is dismayed and, at the ball, New Orleans's high society is outraged. Julie and Pres argue, and he leaves. A year passes; New Orleans is stricken by yellow fever. Julie hears Pres has returned. Delighted, she throws a party but, when Pres arrives, Amy (Margaret Lindsay) is with him, and they are married... Made a year before the epic Gone with the Wind, this southern romance actually stands up a lot easier. Bette Davis is superb as Julie Marsden a teasing, tempting woman who pushes her man (Henry Fonda) away only for him to come back when she really wants him. Davis is more likeable than Scarlett O'Hara and her performance is one of her earliest best. The flawless sets are outstanding and the overall mood of the film atmospheric, just like the New Orleans of imagination. Davis won her second Oscar playing her role in Jezebel, she certainly deserved it. Jezebel is a timeless classic that will be remembered everlastingly. Story: A Acting: A Direction: A- Visuals: A- Overall: A- ***1/2 out of 4 stars

• MJS M

  
  A movie about a Southern Belle which could be described as Gone With the Wind but half as long and much less expensive, which isn't entirely a bad thing. I'm never comfortable with movies that glorify the Antebellum-era south, it always seems to me akin to a nostalgic view… More
  A movie about a Southern Belle which could be described as Gone With the Wind but half as long and much less expensive, which isn't entirely a bad thing. I'm never comfortable with movies that glorify the Antebellum-era south, it always seems to me akin to a nostalgic view of Nazi Germany. This movie did not wildly excite me, but it was a decent enough story and Bette Davis is quite good in it. It's the William Wyler direction that really sets this apart, Wyler was an expert at setting a good tone and this is no exception. I think it's the fact that this was out in 1938 that really makes this impressive, in 1948 this would be nothing to write home about, but in '38 it was pretty impressive.

• Audrey L

  
  A good film with Henry Fonda and Bette Davis

Read all 12 featured audience ratings