Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #329860 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Download Description
"Even a short list of Bette Davis's most famous films -- Of Human Bondage; Jezebel; Dark Victory; The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; Now, Voyager; All About Eve; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? -- reveals instantly what a major force she was in Hollywood. Her distinctive voice, her remarkable eyes, her astonishing range and depth of characterization -- all these qualities combined to make Bette Davis one of the finest performers in film history. Drawing on extensive conversations with Bette Davis during the last decade of her life, Charlotte Chandler gives us a biography in which the great actress speaks for herself. (It was she who suggested that Chandler write this book.) Chandler also spoke with directors, actors, and others who knew and worked with Davis. As a result Davis comes to life in these pages -- a dynamic, forceful presence once again, just as she was on the screen. The Girl Who Walked Home Alone is a brilliant portrait of an enduring icon from Hollywood's golden age and an unforgettable biography of the real woman behind the star.

From Publishers Weekly
The eyes have it—that cool, knowing gaze that doesn't quite conceal the wounded heart of a romantic—but the words of golden age Hollywood's grande dame also have their charms in this beguiling biography. Chandler, biographer of Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder, interviewed Davis (1908–1989) shortly before her death and simply presents her reminiscences with a minimum of scene setting, along with (inadequate) synopses of her movies. Davis meanderingly recounts a life worthy of the great melodramas she specialized in, revisiting her financially precarious childhood, her rise to fame and wealth, her four failed marriages, countless affairs, two abortions and a heartbreaking rift with her daughter after the latter wrote a spiteful tell-all. Eternally boy-crazy, she waxes dreamy—and bawdy—about various leading men including Errol Flynn ("a beautiful thing"), Laurence Olivier ("an Adonis") and Howard Hughes ("Howard Huge he was not"). Davis is alternately imperious, catty, generous and self-dramatizing; the reader never forgets that she is an actress, and Chandler complicates her version of events with commentary by colleagues, lovers and enemies. Still, artifice is the soul of Tinseltown, and in Davis's memoirs one hears the authentic, engrossing, gloriously manipulative voice of Old Hollywood. Photos. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
Chandler, author of such celebrity biographies as Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends (1978); I, Fellini (1995); and Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder--a Personal Biography (2002), returns to tackle screen legend Bette Davis. This book, which is based on a series of extensive interviews conducted shortly before Davis' death in 1989, reads more like a conversation, with the story told mostly in Davis' own words. Readers will enjoy the familiar tone and casual anecdotes as the actress openly discusses everything from her father's early abandonment of the family to her desire to become an actress and her mother's sacrifices to make that dream happen to her infatuation with several of her leading men, her four marriages and two abortions, her pain and outrage over her daughter's portrayal of her in a tell-all book, her blatant opinions of other actors and actresses, her troublesome reputation, and much more. Brief synopses of her movies are included. Readers will enjoy finding that her famously bombastic personality is allowed to shine through. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Finally, the truth about Bette.
This is a beautifully written biography by someone who knew the legend her self. Unlike Sikov's biography, Chandler is able to give us more insight than we can gather by watching her films. The details are extraordinary, but there is something else which strikes the reader. It is Bette's voice which comes through the pages clear as a bell.

Davis requested that Chandler write her biography, and the result is powerful. No one delivers the story of Bette's life better than she can her self, and Chandler allows her to do that. All of Bette's wit, spunk and vitality are intact in this engrossing biography. Bravo!

Her life in quotes...
I ran across this book in the library when I was doing some research on old Hollywood and the title "The Girl Who Walked Home Alone" really struck me. Being as this was the first I've ever read about Bette Davis, I can't really say how true to form or redundant it may be in relation to previous biographies or accounts of her life. What I liked most about this book was the perspective it gave, the fact that it encompassed not just Miss Davis's take on things but those around her as well. She really had a larger-than-life life, which you really can't help but admire her for living through. I found myself with great sympathy and respect for her after reading this book. Many may be turned off by the fact that the entire biography is a mere compiling of quotes with little narrative by the author herself, but I rather liked it that way. No false second-hand impressions here. I've never been a fan of biographers who try to get into the heads of their subjects and recount from their own imagination as if they themselves were the authority in the matter, all knowing and telling. Here, all concerned spoke for themselves (assuming they were accurately quoted) and the interpretation is left to the reader basically. I thought Miss Davis herself came across rather intelligent and forthright in looking into her own life, though of course not entirely unbiased in her own way. But it gave her a very human quality that I found quite endearing. And with age comes insight it seems, as she detailed the events in her life. However, the amount of typos and grammatical errors in the book was distracting. I mean, it wasn't riddled with them but definitely made me think were there no editors around or did they all just snooze on the job? But overall, a pretty engrossing read about a thoroughly interesting person of substance.

A centerfold of black and white photos completes a wonderful coverage
The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography is a recommended pick for any collection strong in movie star biographies, especially those which aren't overstocked on Bette Davis coverage's already. Film biographer Charlotte Chandler interviewed Davis extensively in the last decade of her life, so this biography includes many of Davis' own words and insights, rather than the usual third-party analysis from those who just have had her films and reference materials to work from. A centerfold of black and white photos completes a wonderful coverage, highly recommended for any library strong in film biography.