22 Movies Starring Bette Davis

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When a bellhop knocks out fighter Chuck McGraw, promoter Nick Donati realizes he's a potential champ. "Kid Galahad" justifies Nick's confidence, but Nick's mistress Fluff falls for him; in turn, the Kid falls for Nick's young sister. Now overprotective brother Nick turns against his new fighter, leading to a near- disastrous title fight and a murderous confrontation.

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In this roman-a-clef for the infamous Lucky Luciano Trial, Mary Dwight and four roommates work as hostesses at the Club Intime, a "clip joint" that offers gambling, liquor, and female companionship to the "big spender" clientèle. When ruthless thug and pimp Johnny Vanning takes over all the clubs in town, the girls are forced to follow Vanning's rules and kick back on their "tips" in exchange for protection. Although she is not a hardened old hand like Gabby and Estella, Mary knows enough to sidestep Vanning's amorous advances. Unfortunately the more naive Mary Lou is impressed by Vanning's oily veneer of materialism and accepts invitations to "entertain" at the gangster's private parties. Mary's naive younger sister Betty arrives from college just when Mary and her roommates are arrested as material witnesses in the murder of one of the casino's non-paying customers. Vanning's corrupt lawyer frees the others but pressures Mary to commit perjury in order to discredit crusading District Attorney David Graham. Disillusioned by her sister's lifestyle. Betty consents to accompany Emmy Lou to one of Vanning's private parties where the gangster ends up killing her for not submitting to the advances of one of the party's guests. Mary decides to tell the truth to the D.A., and is beaten to disfigurement by one of Vanning's hoods. Even so, Mary agrees to testify - and at her bedside, all the other hostesses decide to follow her example in the coming hearing. (original by duke1029)

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Set in antebellum New Orleans during the early 1850's, this film follows Julie Marsden through her quest for social redemption on her own terms. Julie is a beautiful and free spirited, rapacious Southern belle who is sure of herself and controlling of her fiancè Preston Dillard, a successful young banker. Julie's sensitive but domineering personality--she does not want so much to hurt as to assert her independence--forces a wedge between Preston and herself. To win him back, she plays North against South amid a deadly epidemic of yellow fever which claims a surprising victim.

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Judith Traherne is at the height of young society when Dr. Frederick Steele diagnoses a brain tumor. After surgery she falls in love with Steele. The doctor tells her secretary that the tumor will come back and eventually kill her. Learning this, Judith becomes manic and depressive. Her horse trainer Michael, who loves her, tells her to get as much out of life as she can. She marries Steele who intends to find a cure for her illness. As he goes off to a conference in New York failing eyesight indicates to Judith that she is dying.

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The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense. Her poise, graciousness and stoicism impress nearly everyone who meets her. Her husband is certainly without doubt; so is the district officer; while her lawyer's doubts may be a natural skepticism. But this is Singapore and the resentful natives will have no compunction about undermining this accused murderess. A letter in her hand turns up and may prove her undoing.

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The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the 20th century. Regina Giddons nèe Hubbard has her daughter under her thumb. Mrs. Giddons is estranged from her husband, who is convalescing in Baltimore and suffers from a terminal illness. But she needs him home, and will manipulate her daughter to help bring him back. She has a sneaky business deal that she's cooking up with her two elder brothers, Oscar and Ben. Oscar has a flighty, unhappy wife and a dishonest worm of a son. Will the daughter have to marry this contemptible cousin? Who will she grow up to be - her mother or her aunt? Or can she escape the fate of both?

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Lecturer Sheridan Whiteside slips on the ice on his way into the home of a prominent Ohio family. The local doctor says Whiteside must remain confined having broken his leg. He begins to meddle with the lives of everyone in the household and, once his plots are underway, learns there is nothing wrong with his leg. He bribes the doctor and resumes control of the household.

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In Boston, the over-weight spinster Charlotte Vale is a repressed woman without self-esteem and completely dominated by her wealthy mother Mrs. Henry Vale. When her sister-in-law Lisa Vale brings the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith, who is her friend, to visit Charlotte, he invites her to spend some time in his sanatorium. Soon Charlotte transforms in a sophisticated and confident woman and travels in a cruise to South America. She meets architect Jerry Durrance, who is married, and they have a love affair in Rio de Janeiro. Six months later, she returns home and confronts her mother with her independence and own free will. One day, Charlotte has an argument with her mother and she dies of a heart attack. Charlotte becomes the heir of the Vale's fortune but she feels guilty for the death of her mother. She decides to return to Dr. Jaquith's sanatorium whether she befriends Tina, who is the twelve-year-old daughter of Jerry rejected by her mother. She brings the girl to her house in Boston and one day, Jerry visits Tina and Charlotte with Dr. Jaquith.

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Sara and Kurt Muller and their three children are returning to her mother's home in Washington DC after 18 years in Europe. A Romanian Count living there discovers Kurt's attache case full of money. He also finds out from friends at the German Embassy that Kurt is working with an anti-Nazi underground group in Germany. He tries to blackmail Kurt. Kurt shoots him and must flee. When Sara hears no more of Kurt, she knows that her oldest son Joshua will soon leave to work in the underground.

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Foreign correspondent Carey Jackson is offered a job on Home Life, a "women's" magazine; he accepts when he finds the editor is his old flame Linda Gilman. Verbal pyrotechnics fly between Carey and Linda as they go to Indiana to cover the Brinker family's "typical American wedding." But triangles lurk beneath the surface of the impending nuptials. Can Carey rescue a story (and his job) out of the wreckage? Can all the sundered hearts be re-united?

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Aspiring actress Eve Harrington maneuvers her way into the lives of Broadway star Margo Channing, playwright Lloyd Richards and director Bill Sampson. This classic story of ambition and betrayal has become part of American folklore. Bette Davis claims to have based her character on the persona of film actress Talullah Bankhead. Davis' line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night" is legendary, but, in fact, all of the film's dialog sparkles with equal brilliance.

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At breakfast, Jane announces that she and Ralph are getting married the next week. All Jane and Ralph want is a small wedding with the immediate family and no reception. This is because Janes parents are poor and Jane and Ralph can borrow a car for their honeymoon. However, at dinner that night all Ralph's parents talk about are the big weddings they gave their daughters and everything escalates. All of a sudden, it is a big wedding breakfast with hundreds of guests. The problem is that for 12 years, Tom has been saving money to buy his own cab and license, but now that he can, all of his money is going towards a wedding neither he, or Jane or Ralph really want.

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Boozy, brassy Apple Annie, a beggar with a basket of apples, is as much as part of downtown New York as old Broadway itself. Bootlegger Dave the Dude is a sucker for her apples --- he thinks they bring him luck. But Dave and girlfriend Queenie Martin need a lot more than luck when it turns out that Annie is in a jam and only they can help: Annie's daughter Louise, who has lived all her life in a Spanish convent, is coming to America with a Count and his son. The count's son wants to marry Louise, who thinks her mother is part of New York society. It's up to Dave and Queenie and their Runyonesque cronies to turn Annie into a lady and convince the Count and his son that they are hobnobbing with New York's elite.

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In a tale that almost redefines sibling rivalry, faded actresses Blanche and 'Baby' Jane Hudson live together. Jane was by far the most famous when she performed with their father in vaudeville but as they got older, it was Blanche who became the finer actress, which Jane still resents. Blanche is now confined to a wheelchair - Jane ran her over with the car while drunk, even though she has no memory of it - and Jane is firmly in control. As time goes by, Jane exercises greater and greater control over her sister, intercepting her letters and ensuring that few if anyone from the outside has any contact with her. As Jane slowly loses her mind, she torments her sister going to ever greater extremes.

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Aged and wealthy Charlotte Hollis has lived alone and as a recluse in the crumbling family plantation mansion in Hollisport, Louisiana since her father Sam Hollis' death thirty-six years ago. The only people who regularly see her are her hard-as-nails but seemingly loyal housekeeper Velma Crowther, and her longtime friend and physician, Dr. Drew Bayliss. She has lived there the better part of her life except for a short stint in London thirty-seven years ago following the vicious murder of her married lover, John Mayhew, at the plantation's summer house while Sam was hosting one of his legendary grand balls in the mansion. That evening, she and John were going to run off together, that is before he was bludgeoned to death, his right hand and head which were never found. No one was ever convicted for his murder, but most people believe Charlotte did it after John changed his mind about running off with her. Not having seen her in years, they also now believe Charlotte is a crazy old woman, her mental state which turned at or before the murder. Conversely, Charlotte has hidden away as she fears people would always be glaring at her. She also believes any bad thing that has happened to her following John's murder has been initiated by John's widow, Jewel Mayhew, who Charlotte blames for orchestrating the expropriation of her property to build a bridge across the lake. Charlotte is surprised that her younger cousin, Miriam Deering, who left the area years ago never to have returned and who was once Drew's romantic interest, has accepted her invitation to stay at the mansion. While Charlotte wanted Miriam to help her overturn the expropriation with the state government in Baton Rouge, Miriam has instead come to help Charlotte pack her belongings. Miriam's visit coincides with the arrival to Hollisport of insurance investigator Harry Willis, who has always had an interest in this case in why the insurance was never claimed. Not expecting to find anything earth shattering while not wanting to upset the apple cart, he doesn't let anyone know except Sheriff Luke Standish the true nature of his visit. These visits also coincide with Charlotte's mental state seemingly going into decline, perhaps concerning having to leave her family home, but the issues which are always around John's murder. Or is someone or some people trying to drive her crazy if she is not so already? If the latter, the truth behind who killed John and why may finally come to light to those who matter.

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The son of a wealthy American woman and a deceased Italian nobleman, Dino, dabbles away at painting. Thinking he has found the image for his "empty canvas", he takes up with man-crazy nymphet Cecilia, who refuses to marry him--even after he covers her nude body with 10,000-lire banknotes. She does agree to become his mistress--until a more interesting man comes along. Dino has a breakdown and is guided back to health by his mother. He tells her at fadeout that now he has suffered, and he thinks he might be able to fill that empty canvas.

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After his teenage daughter Danny is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife's current lover, Luke Miller recalls his marriage to Valerie Hayden and the subsequent events which led to the tragedy. The lurid story seems to have been suggested by the real-life Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanato/Cheryl Crane murder scandal of six years earlier when Lana's daughter Cheryl stabbed her mother's boyfriend (Stompanato) to death in the bedroom of Lana's Beverly Hills home.

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Every year, a Countess invites a poor Italian family to play in a card game.

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Almost everyone on the S.S.Karnak, cruising the Nile, has a reason to want heiress Linnet Ridgeway dead. Her jewels are coveted by elderly Mrs. van Schuyler, her maid is upset because Linnet won't give her a promised dowry, writer Salome Otterbourne is facing a libel suit brought by Linnet, Salome's daughter Rosalie wants to protect her mother, American Andrew Pennington has been embezzling from the Ridgeway family, and former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort is upset that Linnet stole her fiance, Simon, away from her. Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot must unravel the mystery when Linnet (and some of the others) turn up dead.

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When a normal American family moves into a beautiful old English house in a wooded area, strange, paranormal appearances befall them in this interesting twist to the well-known haunted-house tale. Their daughter Jan sees, and daughter Ellie hears, the voice of a young teenage girl who mysteriously disappeared during a total solar eclipse decades before...

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Summer people in Maine: things are changing. Whales no longer pass close to the shore as they did during the youth of two elderly widowed sisters who have a seaside home where they've summered for 50 years. Libby is blind, contrary, and seemingly getting ready to die. Sarah is attentive to her sister, worried about continuing to care for her, and half interested in an old Russian aristocrat who fishes from their shore. It's the eve of Sarah's 46th wedding anniversary. The Russian offers some fish he's caught, Sarah invites him to dinner, and Libby gets her back up. Sarah wonders if it isn't time to sell the place and find a home for Libby. What alternatives do old people have?

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A mother/daughter pair of witches descend on a yuppie family's home and cause havoc, one at a time since they share one body & the other must live in a cat the rest of the time. Now it's up to the family's mother, a private detective and a suspended police officer to try and stop the witches.