Bette is back on the big screen

Now, film-goer, is your chance to see 11 Bette Davis classics on the big screen, in the centenary of her birth. Michael Dwyerrecalls meeting the unconventional screen diva.

WHEN Bette Davis arrived for what was to be her last public engagement, those of us in attendance were struck by her frail, gaunt appearance. It was on a Saturday afternoon at the end of September 1989, and she was the guest of honour at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain, where she was presented with the event's Life Achievement Award.

Her life ended six days later. On her way home from the festival, she arrived in Paris to catch a flight to Los Angeles. She took ill and was admitted to the American Hospital, where she died of cancer a few days later, on October 6th. She was 81. American cinema had lost one of its greatest stars.

This year marks the centenary of her birth. To commemorate the occasion, the Irish Film Institute in Dublin is presenting a selective season of her work, Bette Davis: More Deadly Than the Male. It features 11 of her movies, all of which will be shown in new prints.

The programme begins on Sunday with a screening of The Old Maid(1939), an Edith Wharton adaptation set in 19th-century America with Davis as a woman who gives birth to a daughter and allows her to be raised by her married cousin (Miriam Hopkins). It concludes on June 30th with the scintillating All About Eve(1950) featuring Davis in a bravura performance.

Those films bookend a programme that demonstrates her remarkable range. It offers audiences today a rare opportunity to see some of Davis's best work where it was meant to be seen, on the cinema screen. The line-up includes Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now, Voyagerand Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

During her visit to San Sebastian in 1989, Davis had politely declined all requests for individual interviews, but she agreed to give a press conference. Such film festival events are generally humdrum and predictable, but this one was special.

Despite her declining health, Davis responded enthusiastically to questions on a variety of topics for 80 minutes in a crowded, swelteringly hot hotel function room. Throughout the conference, she was gracious, charming and radiantly witty.

She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5th, 1908, and made her film debut when she was 23, in Bad Sister. When she came to Hollywood a year earlier, the publicity agent sent to meet her at the railway station returned home, saying he had not seen anyone who looked like a star.

"When I arrived in Hollywood, they didn't know what to do with my different kind of beauty, as you put it," Davis replied to one questioner in San Sebastian. "But I think in the long run, this difference was a real asset to my career. It's very difficult for a great beauty to get such a variety of such good parts, especially when she gets older and that beauty fades."

Although her looks did not at all conform to the traditional Hollywood actress image in that era, Davis soon made a strong impression and she won her first Oscar as best actress in 1935 for Dangerous, just four years after her film debut.

She took her second Oscar in 1938, for her memorable portrayal of a scheming Southern belle in Jezebel. Although she never won another Oscar, she received a further eight nominations over the next three decades. Only three actors have had more Oscar nominations: Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson.

AS HAS BEEN the case with many other actors, Davis did not win an Oscar for what is arguably the outstanding performance in her illustrious career, as the ageing actress Margo Channing threatened by an ambitious newcomer, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), in All About Eve(1950). Davis burns up the screen, delivering her acidic dialogue with relish, and never more memorably than when she warns: "Fasten your seat-belts. It's going to be a bumpy night." That was "a completely joyous film to make," Davis recalled in San Sebastian. "Everyone was so right for their characters and there was a great feeling we were doing something special. Of course, you know, I was a replacement for Miss Claudette Colbert. The poor dear hurt her back, so they gave it to me. It was a terrific experience." Like her Margo Channing character, Davis survived as much on her tenacity as her talent. At the beginning of her film career, she was dropped by Universal Pictures after a year on contract and a number of forgettable roles. She rebounded with several acclaimed theatre performances and then made a striking impression in the 1934 film of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

Taken on by Warner Bros, she was dissatisfied with the pictures they were offering her, and she dared to challenge the powerful studio chief Jack Warner, who described her as "an explosive little broad". She turned down the next film the studio gave her and was suspended. She went to England, made a film outside her contract and was sued by Warner. She lost the court case, but firmly established her independence at a time when actors were expected to take what they were given and do what they were told.

Much later in her career, in 1962, and after 10 years of mostly undemanding roles in many minor movies, Davis, resilient as ever, scored a comeback with the horror film, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?Her co-star was another apparently fading actress, Joan Crawford. The movie was an unexpected big hit.

"Joan Crawford and I were paid very little for Baby Jane because no one wanted to pay for two old broads," Davis remarked frankly in San Sebastian. "So we asked for and got a percentage of the profits. The film made a fortune and we came out alright. It was the first film starring women that had made money in a long time." As for her much-publicised feud with Crawford, Davis commented: "On Baby JaneMiss Crawford and I worked together, and to the disappointment of the American press, there were no problems and we got on very well. It was a completely pleasant experience. She was always very professional, on time and knew her lines. The press sneaked on to the set, hoping to see us tear each other's hair out. They were very disappointed."

Davis was married four times, finally to Gary Merrill, one of the cast of All About Eve, and she divorced him in 1960. "Gary Merrill broke my heart," she said in San Sebastian. "If I ever heard about wedding bells again, I would scream with laughter and wear black. Love, I must admit, was not the most successful area of my life. It is very difficult for a famous woman to find the right man in life. In my case, it was not successful."

Towards the end of her press conference, I asked her about the song, Bette Davis Eyes, which had been a chart-topping hit single for Kim Carnes in 1981. "Ah, rock'n'roll," she sighed. "That song was a great compliment, I thought. It impressed my grandchildren. For the first time, they felt I was important." The importance of this unique actress was realised a very long time ago by generations of film lovers, and it will be realised for decades to come by new generations who will discover the brilliance of Bette Davis on television and DVD, and in such valuable seasons as the Davis programme beginning in Dublin on Sunday.