It seems as if William Wyler never directed a bad film.
If his name is on it, it's worth watching.
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I know I am a much-despised minority in this view, but I thought Jezebel was a terrible mess with its "The Lady or the Tiger" ending, Betty Davis' brittle New England accent frequently breaking through her bad Southern belle imitation, other poor casting, and a generally bad and unbelieveable script. But it may not have been Wyler's fault. I have liked most of his other pictures I have seen and loved The Westerner.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
Re: Jezebel.
I didn't see it until well into adulthood, and I have never understood why it enjoys the reputation is does. The back story is that it was Warner Bros. answer to Gone With The Wind, rushed into production after the sale of the movie rights to GWTW were sold but before production and release. It shows. The character development is awful (I still haven't figured out why she wanted to wear that stupid red dress when she knew full well what the reaction would be, or why she was so surprised at the reaction when she got it). Fonda is good, as always. I've seen much better Davis. As for Wyler's direction, I have no beef. And he did make one of my all time favorites, The Best Years of Our Lives. Gawd, I love that movie. Get's me every time.
That just goes to show you. You go someplace and there you are.
I second your opinion of The Best Years of Our Lives, and most others agree. I didn't like Fonda in Jezebel either, but I must have a bias against him. I liked him when I was a young man, but over the years have developed a dislike of his stylized acting style. What I disliked about him most in Jez was that he just came off as a Midwesterner, not a Southerner. He retained his flat mw accent except for having learned to say, "Suh!" at the end of addresses to males. The big failure of that movie was failing to believeably capture the old South or any South for that matter. It should have been set in New York in the early 1800's, when the state still had slavery, had a privledged, rich upper class that dominated all, had frequent yellow fever epidemics in N Y City, and still had frequent dueling. Then Betty Davis, Henry Fonda, and other Yankees in the cast would not have had to embarass themselves with their pathetic southern belle/gentlemen immitations. That and lot of what both of us have already mentioned has to have been at least partly the director's fault. Everyone is allowed a stinker now and then. Wyler and the rest of the cast were obviously out of their element, and it was an awful story. No wonder the play it was based on flopped in a few weeks. The only wonder is why Warner Brothers wanted to make a major movie of it.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
The big failure of that movie was failing to believeably capture the old South or any South for that matter. It should have been set in New York in the early 1800's, when the state still had slavery, had a privledged, rich upper class that dominated all, had frequent yellow fever epidemics in N Y City, and still had frequent dueling. Then Betty Davis, Henry Fonda, and other Yankees in the cast would not have had to embarass themselves with their pathetic southern belle/gentlemen immitations. That and lot of what both of us have already mentioned has to have been at least partly the director's fault.
Um, no. Wyler had no hand in writing the screenplay. Although he was a co-producer I am sure he would not have had enough weight to instigate such an overhaul as relocating it to 1800s NY, especially since the project was begun to cash in on the ongoing Gone with the Wind craze and the southern antebellum setting was its raison d'etre.
Besides, what you are arguing is just the details of historical accuracy. Change them and Jezebel would still be a trite melodrama. It is however superbly directed by Wyler and Davis's performance is among the best of her career. share
Nettlerash:
Um, uh ... nobody said anything about Wyler writing the screenplay. The relocating to New York was sort of what they call...um...a joke. I stand by my oppinion it was one of Bette's worst, perhaps better expressed in my review. Thank you for your oppinion. To paraphrase Voltaire, the choice others in movies, as in love, is always astonishing.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
Dunewalker:
I decided to turn my two posts on this thread into a review of Jezebel and incorporated your red dress complaint into. Thanks for reminding me of that.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45