Bette Davis Collection [Now Voyager / The Letter / Dark Victory / Mr Skeffington] [DVD] [2005]

The Bette Davis Collection (Now Voyager / The Letter / Dark Victory / Mr Skeffington) [DVD ]I'm a huge fan of Miss Davis, one of the best actresses (if not the best) Hollywood ever produced. Of tearjerkers not so much.I was all the more surprised by how much I loved DARK VICTORY. The premise, Miss Davis's character is suffering from a brain tumor that will ultimately lead to blindness and death, made me fear for the worst. But the movie isn't depressing at all. It's a celebration of life, and Miss Davis sparkles with it. She's so full of energy, like a flame surrounded by the proverbial moths. Her leading man, George Brent, doesn't stand a chance against her fire. Many critics argue that Humphrey Bogart was miscast in his role as stablehand Michael O'Leary, but I found him (Irish accent aside) the only one being able to match Miss Davis in her pursuit of life.NOW, VOYAGER is everything I feared. Ugly duckling turns into beautiful swan, just to have to sacrifice her love on the altar of "morality". Sadly, this one didn't stand the test of time, even though I still enjoyed Miss Davis's versatility.My favorite of the four is THE LETTER. Director William Wyler did an amazing job in creating a chilling film noir atmosphere that at times reminded me of that of a monster movie. Bette Davis is brilliant in her performance as a woman as cold as ice whose passion is buried deep inside. When she puts on her glasses and gets busy with her crocheting she's just as creepy as her antagonist, fascinating Gale Sondergaard with her mask like features and the evil stare.MR SKEFFINGTON was another wonderful surprise. Miss Davis excels in her role as society butterfly, as shallow as she is beautiful and bringing to the screen the elegance and charm of the art nouveau era. Claude Rains is equally perfect as the title character, and for once the chemistry between the leads is utterly enjoyable.EXTRAS: Dark Victory and Mr Skeffington come with an audio commentary and a featurette each, The Letter with a recently discovered alternate ending and Now Voyager with nothing but the trailer. I especially missed an audio commentary and/or featurette for my favorite, The Letter, which I'd have liked to learn more about.

This collection was bought as a Christmas present for my wife, who is a big fan of Bette Davis, and she is fond of a good love story. So far, she has managed to watch 2 of the set of 4, namely " Now Voyager", & " Dark Corner". My wife consider them brilliant, but then these films are legendary, as we're a lot of films emerging from Hollywood at the time. Bette Davis was, and remains a Hollywood legend, and her acting ability is flawless. For similar fans of this era of film, when actors were so much more than a lot of today's " celebritys", I would recommend this collection, which is well presented, and good value for money. P Doherty.

As an actress, Bette Davis was one of the very best. Her on-screen performances were captivating and compelling. She put her all into every part and was utterly convincing, resulting in a succession of award nominations and box-office successes.In those faraway pre-DVD years when Bette Davis was at the pinnacle of her success, the Hollywood studio machinery was all-powerful. Movies were made according to a strictly established formula, which would not have enabled today's independent and art-house creativity to flourish. So, watching these films, it helps to have some sense of their being "of their age" in terms of storylines and sub-plots, and how the characters behave and respond to each other. To give two examples: in Now Voyager the household butler and nurse, with the former being polite and understated while the latter is honest and outspoken; and in Dark Victory the horse trainer (Humphrey Bogart, moving up through the studio system and heading towards leading roles) who is aware that he needs to remember his place and how he offers advice to his wealthy employer. The sets and production values were superb. The sound recording, lighting and editing was always impeccable but entirely unadventurous. The system worked well and huge numbers of people looked forward to a night at the cinema.These films are four strong candidates for a 'best of' selection, but then so too would be another dozen Bette Davis films. And that's really why I have only awarded four stars and not five - surely to goodness sake somebody could have compiled a box-set with a few more films and some extras. These are essentially standard issue DVDs with a wrap-round sleeve. Enjoyable very well made films always worth watching, and you may well need a box of tissues ready for those classic heart-wrenching scenes that they contain.

This is a brief review of the 2005 Region 2 Box Set of 4 Bette Davis DVDs: 'Now Voyager'; 'The Letter'; 'Dark Victory'; 'Mr Skeffington', from Warner Home Video. Despite being a fairly old collection now, the quality of every one of the DVDs in this collection is exemplary. They all have pristinely clear, solid, richly black and white images, free of faults and grain, and very good sound.A lot of box sets with collections of DVDs starring a 'Hollywood Great', contain a couple of good films, a mediocre one and a real turkey. However, this set of 4 Bette Davis films is a great purchase. 'Now Voyager' is justifiably famous, and you may not have heard of 'The Letter', but rest assured, all 4 of these films are top-of-the-range. In the Radio Times Film Guide, 'Now Voyager' is given a 5 Star rating, the other 3, though not amongst her best-known films, are all given 4 Stars. 'The Letter' is from a story by Somerset Maughan, and the other 2 star Humphrey Bogart ('Dark Victory') and Claude Rains ('Mr Skeffington'). I have reviewed them all separately, here on Amazon.As a measure of the quality, Bette Davis was nominated for the Best Actress OSCAR for all four of these films.Purchase with confidence.

My gran recommend watching the classic of Bette davis and I’m glad she did.Really good value for money aswell