Four Oscar nominated performances from Hollywood's favourite headstrong heroine, Bette Davis. Features Dark Victory, The Letter, Now Voyager and Mr. Skeffington.
In Dark Victory (1939) Davis fights terminal cancer with the performance of a lifetime, playing a Long Island socialite who fights the news with joie de vivre. George Brent, Humphrey Bogart and Ronan Regan help the tears flow.
Davis turns lethal in The Letter (1940) as the wife of a plantation owner (Herbert Marshall) who shoots an interloper for trying to rape her. Yet as the investigation grows more questionable motives are revealed in this version of the W. Somerset Maugham play directed by William Wyler.
Then it’s back to melodrama in Now, Voyager (1942) as Davis’ mousy spinster Charlotte Vale undergoes a makeover and then heads to Rio to find the love and affectation which is absent at home. Claude Rains may co-star but the film’s justly famous for its line, "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars".
Finally Davis attempts to have her cake and eat it in Mr. Skeffington (1944) as the society beauty who learns lessons in life and love. Claude Rains plays her put upon husband across the decades in this epic soap-opera.
