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Jezebel Overview:

Jezebel (1938) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by William Wyler and produced by William Wyler, Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke.

SYNOPSIS

The role perhaps most closely associated with Davis is an utter triumph. As a coquettish belle in the Civil War South, Davis taunts and teases the men who desire her (Fonda and Brent) until her options vanish and she's faced with life alone. She realizes her shallowness and the depth of her potential loss when Fonda becomes ill. Wyler and Davis were famous combatants, but the director was able to elicit her best work (here and in The Little Foxes, 1941). He was noted for endless takes and for allowing scenes to develop in one shot rather than by intercutting close-ups and reaction shots. This required discipline and concentration from actors. The results, as in this, were worth the effort.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Jezebel was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2009.

Academy Awards 1938 --- Ceremony Number 11 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActressBette DavisWon
Best Supporting ActressFay BainterWon
Best CinematographyErnest HallerNominated
Best Music - ScoringMax SteinerNominated
Best PictureWarner Bros.Nominated
See More Oscar Winners

Jezebel BlogHub Articles:

The Colors of Contagion in JEZEBEL (1938)

By Jennifer Garlen on Jan 30, 2024 From Virtual Virago

Bette Davis won her second Academy Award for Best Actress for the Civil War melodrama, Jezebel (1938), which took advantage of the cultural mania over Gone with the Wind by using many of the same plot elements and beating the 1939 blockbuster to theaters. Like Gone with the Wind, Jezebel tells the s... Read full article

Jezebel (1938): A Bette Davis Southern Belle

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 22, 2019 From 4 Star Films

The oldest movie theater near where I grew up was built in 1938 and by some peculiar coincidence, Bette Davis is said to have driven by the establishment time and time again. Being the iron-willed personality that she was, the rising star demanded they open with her latest movie. (I assume very f... Read full article

TCM Classic Film Festival Day 1: 7 Seconds of Bette Davis in JEZEBEL (1938)

By Lara on Apr 6, 2017 From Backlots

This afternoon, classic film fans from around the country and the world descended upon the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard that runs from the Roosevelt Hotel to the Egyptian Theater for the opening of the TCM Classic Film Festival. For much of the day, the street was completely blocked off for the r... Read full article

Jezebel (1938) (3)

By Beatrice on Nov 23, 2013 From Flickers in Time

Jezebel Directed by William Wyler Written by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel and John Huston from the play by Owen Davis 1938/USA Warner Bros Repeat viewing #120 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Julie Marsden: Can’t I? I’m goin’ to. This is 1852, dumplin’. 1852, not ... Read full article

Jezebel (1938) (2)

By Brandy Dean on Nov 21, 2013 From Pretty Clever Films

When the novel Gone with the Wind became a runaway best-seller, the office of independent producer and films rights holder David O. Selznick was flooded with fan suggestions for casting. They wanted Clark Gable as Butler (natch) but they also really, really wanted Bette Davis as Scarlett O’Har... Read full article

See More Jezebel Articles

Jezebel Quotes:

Julie: Amy, of course it's your right to go. You're his wife. But are you fit to go? Lovin' him isn't enough. If you gave him all your strength, would it be enough?
Amy Bradford Dillard: I'll make him live or die with him.
Julie: Amy, Amy, do you know the Creole word for fever powder, for food and water? How to talk to a sullen, overworked black boy and make him fear you and help you? Pres's life and yours will hang on things just like that, and you'll both surely die.
Amy Bradford Dillard: Then it will have to be that way.
Julie: It's not a question of provin' your love by layin' down your life for Pres. Nothin' so easy. Have you the knowledge and the human strength to fight for his life and for your own as one will have to fight? Amy, it's no longer you or me.
Amy Bradford Dillard: What do you mean?
Julie: I'll make him live, I will. Whatever you might do, I can do more, 'cause I know how to fight better than you. Amy, if you knew the horror of that place. It isn't a hospital. It's a desolate island haunted by death. They'll put Pres in an open shed with a hundred others. You must be there with him day and night, watchin' every breath he draws. You must bathe him, keep him clean, give him drugs, fight for his food and water. You must keep the livin' from him and the dead. Be there by him with your body between him and Death.
Julie: Why, Pres. Bangin' on a lady's door. I'm scandalized at you. Well, did you come up here just to stand there?
Preston Dillard: Julie, how long must we go on like this?
Julie: Like what, Pres?
Preston Dillard: Fightin', fussin' all the time, like a couple of children.
Julie: Why do you treat me like a child?
Preston Dillard: Because you act like one. A spoiled one.
Julie: You used to say you liked me like that once. You never wanted me to change. Remember?
Preston Dillard: Julie.
Julie: [after he kisses her] Why, Pres. In a lady's bedroom. Now you'll have to marry me.
Preston Dillard: What do you figure I aim to do?
Julie: Then kiss me again.
Julie Marsden: Would you like to see my new dress?
Preston Dillard: That's what I wanted to do all day!
Julie Marsden: Well, let me go. There it is.
Preston Dillard: For the Olympus Ball?
Julie Marsden: Isn't it lovely!
Preston Dillard: Julie! It's red!
Julie Marsden: It's gorgeously red!
Preston Dillard: You can't wear red to the Olympus Ball!
Julie Marsden: Why not!
Preston Dillard: You never saw an unmarried girl in anything but white!
Julie Marsden: Well you're going to see one tomorrow night!
Preston Dillard: Julie, you can't be serious!
Julie Marsden: Are you afraid someone will take me for one of those girls from Gallatan street?
Preston Dillard: Julie!
Julie Marsden: Oh I'm sorry! I forgot, I'm a child. I'm not supposed to know about things like Gallatan street! I'm just supposed to flutter around in white!
Preston Dillard: You're supposed to know better than to scandalize the whole town!
Julie Marsden: [Looks unhappily at him] It might be bad for the bank of course! Will you please hold another directors meeting and ask 'em to decide what I can wear?
Preston Dillard: Julie for heavens sake! Will you be reasonable?
Julie Marsden: [Snaps back sadly] Where you reasonable this afternoon?
Preston Dillard: So that's It... Your just nursing a spite, well I'm not gonna let you! You made your point for what your going to do as I say! I'm calling for you tomorrow night at 10 and you are going to be dressed properly for the ball in white!
Julie Marsden: Am I? But of course Preston. If you say so.
Preston Dillard: Don't be absurd! Your own good sense will say so!
Julie Marsden: And it doesn't?
Preston Dillard: Then my sweet we will stay at
Julie: I'm askin' for the chance to prove I can be brave and strong and unselfish. Help me, Amy. Help me make myself clean again as you are clean. Let me prove myself worthy of the love I bear him.
Buck Cantrell: Look here, Miss Julie. You were out here a mighty long time with Pres Dillard.
Julie: Oh please, Buck. Pres had just been polishin' the brandy and...
Buck Cantrell: My back teeth. Did he lose his capacity to drink like a gentleman in the North too? What does he think a lady's house is - a riverboat bar? What did he do?
Julie: Oh Buck. I wouldn't have some silly thing I said be the cause of anything.
Buck Cantrell: Miss Julie, you won't be the cause of anything. Depend on me.
Julie: Thank you, Buck.
See More Quotes from Jezebel
Jezebel Facts
Edmund Goulding was originally slated to direct and Anita Louise was originally cast in the Margaret Lindsay role.
In an interview with Dick Cavett in 1971, Bette Davis said her salary was $650 a week.
Owen Davis's play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 19 December 1933 and closed in January 1934 after 32 performances. The opening night cast included Miriam Hopkins as Julie, Joseph Cotten, Owen Davis Jr. (the writer's son), Cora Witherspoon and Lew Payton (who is also in the film).
According to Robert Osborne, Julie's red dress was actually bronze colored, because bronze showed up better on black and white film than red would.
An old rumor is that the role of Julie was offered as compensation to Bette Davis when she lost the opportunity to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. This rumor is completely false, since the role of Scarlett had not yet been cast until long after Jezebel had been filmed.
See More Facts about Jezebel >>