Product Description

Bette Davis plays a self-involved southern belle whose neurotic attempts to mold her fiance (Henry Fonda) to her own designs eventually bring about her tragic downfall. Co-stars George Brent and Fay Bainter. Year: 1938 Director: William Wyler Starring: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63707 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-03-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Bette Davis didn't get to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but she did get to play a troublesome Southern belle in William Wyler's 1938 Jezebel. Davis's character, a coquette fond of stirring up rivalries among the men, goes too far and loses her fiancé (Henry Fonda), but she finds atonement when she cares for him during illness. This handsome melodrama by Wyler (who later directed Davis in The Little Foxes) is fully absorbing (John Huston contributed to the script), and Davis's carefully constructed performance does make one draw instant comparisons with Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind. The DVD release has the theatrical trailer, closed captioning, optional Spanish soundtrack, and optional subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Davis shines as a strong-willed Southern belle
"Jezebel," directed by William Wyler, opens in New Orleans in 1852. The film tells the story of Miss Julie, a strong-willed Southern belle played with passion and flair by the great Bette Davis. Miss Julie's tempestuous relationship with a handsome gentleman (played by Henry Fonda) is played out in the shadow of both social controversies and a yellow fever epidemic.

"Jezebel" is a superbly produced period piece. The opulent sets and costumes, along with the romantic musical score, contribute well to the overall feel of the film. The black-and-white cinematography is breathtaking; Davis looks positively luminous in many scenes.

The excellent Davis gets solid support from the rest of the excellent cast. But make no mistake: this is Davis' picture, and she commands the screen from her first scene. Her Miss Julie is a flawed but fascinating woman.

This is a thought-provoking film on many levels. The portrayal of Southern culture as strange and alien to Northerners, the fetishization of Southern womanhood (a "frail, delicate chalice," as one male character puts it), the references to the abolitionist controversy, and the depiction of the relationships between black servants and white masters are all fascinating elements in the film, and richly ironic. "Jezebel" is one Hollywood classic that remains compelling and, I believe, open to new critical interpretations.

A Restored Masterpiece - Jezebel, A Joy to Behold.
Probably (excluding All About Eve) the finest pictures Bette Davis made were under the direction of the great William Wyler. And Davis never looked better than in this film.
Despite sterling performances from Henry Fonda and George Brent, Fay Bainter and Spring Byington, Henry O'Neil and Donald Crisp, Jezebel is really Davis' movie as the camera caresses her in close ups time and again, and she rewards it's attention with an A - class performance.
Davis also made The Letter and The Little Foxes under Wyler's direction, she loved working with him, his attention to detail, her preparedness to redo scenes over and again until the Master was satisfied (Wyler was known to demand take after take - in some cases, 50 or 60 times - until he got what he was looking for) and of course, the finished product.
Jezebel was made in 1938 as Warner Bros wanted to cash in on the success of the book form of Gone With The Wind, a best seller - and another story of the fall of the South and a headstrong woman whose stubborness costs her the man she loves - and get Jezebel out in the theatres before GTW which was in pre-production, when Jezebel was being shot.
Jezebel is actually set before the Civil War (unlike GTW) in the early 1850's when the South was a thriving place, and men held great store in their honour,and women well versed in meeting the strictly defined code of dress and behaviour that was so fundamental to life in the Olde South.
For reasons known only to herself, Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) decides to ignore such boundaries and when fiance Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda)arrives to take her to the ball, he finds, to his horror that she has chosen to wear a red gown instead of the white one society expects her as a single woman to wear.
She is humiliated by the reaction of her contemporaries at the ball - especially when Pres refuses to allow her to slink away. And when the dance has been completed he takes her home and politely wishes her "Goodbye" not "Good Night", thus breaking their engagement.
This may sound crass in the 2000's, but in 1852's New Orleans Julie's scant regard for the manners of the day and her insensitivity to the feelings of others forced Preston to realise a life to her would be one long never ending battleground.
This is the first copy of Jezebel I have owned - because of the poor quality of the film in the past, I decided against buying one.
But the restoration has been superb and has allowed those of us not old enough to appreciate it's original mint condition on it's cinematic release back in '38 to see this masterpiece the way it was intended.
Bette Davis won an Academy Award for best actress and Fay Bainter won for Best Supporting Actress. Both awards were well earned.
The direction and photography, are wonderful, and despite Warners making Jezebel in black and white, it looks fantastic and gives the viewer a real
sense of the magesty and beauty that was the pre-Civil War south.

Nobody ever made me cry but you...
Since Warner Bros. rushed "Jezebel" to beat "Gone with the Wind," it's probably going to be forever known as the Southern costume drama that ISN'T "Gone With the Wind."

That's a shame, because "Jezebel" is a wonderful movie in its own right -- it's a smaller, more intimate story about a love triangle, and a girl who loves more than is good for anyone. Bette Davis sweeps away all the other actors in a brilliant performance, right up to the cliffhanger ending.

Julie Marsden (Davis) is a fiery, rebellious Southern Belle, who flouts the propriety that her stuffed-shirt fiancee Preston (Henry Fonda) clings to. But then she shocks everyone by showing up at a white-gown ball in bright red, and Preston breaks it off for good. A year later, he brings his Northern wife Amy (Margaret Lindsay) to New Orleans.

Julie is shocked and angry, and immediately begins planning to somehow win Preston back to her, because "I'm part of you!" But her plots slowly unravel when a friend of Preston's is killed in a duel because of her, and Preston himself is caught in a yellow fever plague.

It's hard to see why anyone compares "Jezebel" to "Gone with the Wind" -- it doesn't pretend to be epic, and it's a simple love triangle with a very different conclusion. What it does have is a lot of passion and fire, and an anti-heroine that isn't seen very often even in modern movies.

This movie is just soaked in the South, to the point of oversaturation. Mint juleps, hoop skirts, and magnolias in the moonlight. Fortunately it has some solid directing as well as atmosphere, such as the scene where Preston whirls the red-clad Julie onto the dance floor. As they sweep into the center of the room, all the other dancers quietly sweep to the edges.

Bette Davis deserved every gleam of her Oscar for this role. Her Julie is spoiled, reckless and a tad amoral, but she's always likable for her passion, wildness and love of freedom. She doesn't mean any harm to anyone, but she's truly desperate for the man she loves. Her last few scenes in this movie -- especially the desperate plea to Amy -- are simply magnificent.

Fonda doesn't fare quite as well as the stuffy Pres, and it's hard to see why Julie adores him. But the supporting cast is quietly excellent, such as Fay Bainter, George Brent, and Lew Payton in an uncredited but quietly graceful performance as the butler Cato.

Rather than a Southern epic, "Jezebel" is only about one woman, who learns about the nature of real love in the worst circumstances. Bette Davis as her most compelling.