The film tells the story of a headstrong, young woman during the antebellum period whose actions cost her the man she loves.
In 2009, Jezebel was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and recommended for preservation.[3][4][5][2]
Plot
Fonda and Davis in a trailer for the film.Julie waiting to see Pres on his return from the North.
In 1852 New Orleans, spoiled, strong-willed belle Julie Marsden is engaged to banker Preston "Pres" Dillard. In retaliation for Pres refusing to leave an important business meeting to accompany her to the last fitting of her ball gown, Julie buys a brazen red satin dress. The Olympus Ball is the most important social event of the year, and unmarried women are expected to wear virginal white. All of Julie's friends are shocked by her choice of red, but no one can dissuade her from wearing it.
At the ball, Julie's attire is met with shock and disgust by all. She begs Pres to take her away, but instead he forces her to dance with him while the other couples abandon the floor. Pres later leaves Julie, implicitly breaking their engagement. In a final act of spite, Julie slaps him in the face. He later goes north on business, and Julie secludes herself at home.
A year later, Pres returns, and Julie comes back to life. She plans a celebratory homecoming party in his honor and prepares to humble herself before him. What Julie does not know is that Pres is accompanied by his new wife Amy. Stung, Julie prods her longtime admirer, skilled duelist Buck Cantrell, to quarrel with Pres. The scheme goes awry as Pres's brother Ted is goaded into challenging Buck. Julie tries to get Buck to skip the duel, but to no avail. To everyone's surprise, it is Buck who is killed.
In the meantime, a deadly yellow fever epidemic breaks out in New Orleans. The people fight it with cannon and smoke. They believe the fever is highly contagious, and a rigid quarantine mandates that those trying to escape the city be shot. Pres is stricken and is ordered to be sent to the leper colony on Lazaret Island. Julie sneaks into the city to nurse Pres. Later, the family arrives, having been granted a pass to enter New Orleans.
When the leper wagon comes to pick up Pres, his wife Amy begs to accompany him, but Julie tells her that she is too unfamiliar with Southern culture to be able to deal with the desperate conditions and people there. Julie begs to go in her place to try to redeem herself. Before agreeing, Amy asks if Pres still loves Julie.
Julie declares that he loves only his wife. Amy blesses them, and Julie accompanies Pres on a wagon loaded with other victims and caregivers.
Turner Classic Movies states that the lead role was offered as compensation for Bette Davis after she failed to win the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939),[6] but David O. Selznick never seriously considered her for it. Jezebel was her second Best Actress Oscar win after winning for Dangerous three years earlier.[7][2]
Selznick reportedly hired Max Steiner to score Gone with the Wind on the strength of his work on Jezebel.[8]
Warner Bros. originally sought to cast Cary Grant for the role of Preston Dillard, but the studio balked at his salary demand of $75,000 and cast Henry Fonda.
Reception
Bette Davis in the titular role
Contemporary reviews were generally positive and praised Davis' performance, but some found her character's redemption at the end of the film to be unconvincing.
The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote that the film "would have been considerably more effective...if its heroine had remained unregenerate to the end. Miss Davis can be malignant when she chooses, and it is a shame to temper that gift for feminine spite...It is still an interesting film, though, in spite of our sniffs at its climax."[9]
Variety reported that the film was "not without its charm" and "even completely captivating" at times, but found it detracting that the main character "suddenly metamorphoses into a figure of noble sacrifice and complete contriteness" and described the ending as "rather suspended and confusing."[10]
Film Daily called it "a really outstanding screen triumph for Bette Davis. She plays an emotional role that calls for running the gamut of emotions, and she handles the part with consummate artistry."[11]
Harrison's Reports called it "Powerful dramatic entertainment...It is not what one would call cheerful entertainment, and may not appeal to the rank and file, but it should please those who like good acting."[12]
John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote "Something went wrong with 'Jezebel,' possibly nothing more than the plot, and all its rich dressing-up can't make it alive...no scene quite comes off, and at the end, when the she-devil suddenly turns into a saint and a martyr, one isn't even interested. This Jezebel just seems daffy."[13]
The film has scored positive reviews in later years, and it has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[14]
^ abcO’Dell, Cary (April 19, 2023). "Happy Birthday Bette Davis–You "Jezebel"!". Now See Hear! National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
Jezebel essay by Gabriel Miller on the National Film Registry
Jezebel essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide to the 50 Landmark Movies Added to the National Film Registry in 2009–2010, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011, ISBN1441120025 pages 56–59
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