113: Jezebel

US  103m  Dir: William Wyler  Key Cast: Bette Davis

When you think of a film about a troublesome Southern belle made in the late 1930s you automatically think of Gone with the Wind but Jezebel is of a similar vein. 

Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) likes to stir up rivalries between the local men but goes too far and ends up losing her fiancée Preston (Henry Fonda). When he returns years later with a Northern wife she is devastated but eventually finds solace in caring for him when he becomes seriously ill with yellow fever. 

Whilst Gone with the Wind is more of a historical epic, Jezebelis more of a character study though the pair share some common themes. More than anything, the film is a chance for Bette Davis to shine and she very much does that, always being the focus when she is on screen and giving a powerful performance that is filled with emotion.

This also shares with Gone with the Wind an uncomfortable sense of romanticising the antebellum era. At least it doesn't shy away from slavery in the same way and characters even discuss some of the tension that led to the civil war. The film does depict an interesting moment in history when there was a yellow fever epidemic and strict quarantine rules were set out (even though yellow fever is spread through mosquitos, not person-to-person, though they didn't know that in 1852.) These scenes felt horribly familiar given the Covid pandemic and it's one of those moments that makes you remember how little has changed. 

The film's biggest flaw is that it never really sells the character development of Julie. For much of the film she is a manipulative she-devil but inexplicably by the end she becomes an angel. It almost feels like the ending is something of a lie and in reality it's just another scheme to separate Preston from his new wife.

Some things of interest, not least Bette Davis' performance, but there's a reason why Gone with the Wind is the familiar antebellum film rather than this one.