The Anniversary
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Movie Reviews of The Anniversary
Movie Review: Hoooray!!Five Stars Just for This Release
Summary: 5 Stars
The Mother From HELL,EyePatch included! Finally an obscure film of Bette Davis' is being released on DVD.Hopefully more of her lesser known and later-career work will be available on DVD for us who appreciate A True Actress!Movie Review: A must have for your Bette Davis Collection
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie isn't your typical Bette Davis movie, but it had me laughing so hard and is GREAT! I would definately recommend, especially if you collect them as I do!Movie Review: Bette Dearest
Summary: 4 Stars
You really have to hand it to the Movie Divas of yesterday, don't you?
I mean, when faced with financial and professional stagnation, what did they do? Go on Oprah and whine about bankruptcy? No. Turn to drugs and make enormous fools of themselves in the National Press? No chance. Did they suddenly discover a 'cause' to get themselves back in the spotlight, in vainglorious hopes of getting more movie roles sent their way? Nope. Or did they even retire graciously and quietly, living out the winters of their lives in seclusion and silence? Oh, my, but no.
They made movies like this one!!
Joan Crawford did 'Trog' and 'Berserk', Lana Turner appeared in 'Madame X' and 'The Big Cube', Shelley Winters had 'Cleopatra Jones' and a string of memorable TV appearances, and of course, La Bette Davis made, among others, 'The Anniversary'.
For which I, for one, will be eternally grateful.
'The Anniversary' isn't a great movie in terms of supporting cast, direction, or script. Even the production design is a little flat, a little stagey. But Bette shines - absolutely radiates star power - in this oftentimes-slow twilight years Star Vehicle, as Mrs. Taggart, the revoltingly machiavellian Matriarch of the highly dysfunctional Taggart clan. Gathering her sons and their other halves together on the occasion of her fortieth wedding anniversary, Mrs. Taggart, when faced with filial mutiny, does her level, manipulative best to put a stop to all forms of dissention, including disinheriting her grandchildren, turning her eldest cross-dressing son over to the police, and trying to frighten her would-be daughter-in-law into miscarrying her unborn child.
Sounds pretty grim, on paper - but Davis' perfectly pitched high camp performance saves this movie from being simply another late sixties melodrama. I mean, you'd hardly expect to find such a steel-willed woman playing with a Mannekin Pis-shaped watergun or french-kissing her youngest son in front of his siblings, but there you go: Davis clearly knew that she could have fun in this role, and have fun she does - and we're thrilled to be along for the ride.
Highly recommended as a candy-light, no-brainer campfest of huge proportions, 'The Anniversary' is an excellent addition to any comedy collection.
Movie Review: June Cleever with a cleaver
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Anniversary" is certainly engaging, but it's also somewhat depressing. The vitriol and narcissism fly from all directions, not just from Bette Davis' "Mother from Hell" character (though she does get the top award in the "reprehensible" category here). But if you can take all the hate, the movie delivers good banter, some funny moments, and a nice sheen of sophistication. You could certainly do worse things for ninety-five minutes or so than watch this movie.
A quick word about Ms. Davis' performance in "The Anniversary". Some here have called it hammy and over-the-top, but I didn't find it so. I think that Ms. Davis wisely saw that the material was often outrageous, over-the-top, etc., so she didn't need to be. She just calmly delivered her lines with just the right emphasis and underscoring and let the material basically speak for itself. I found it to be a nicely modulated performance.
The commentary track, featuring director Roy Ward Baker; an executive from Anchor Bay Entertainment (the DVD company); and one of the film's producers, is also a lot of fun, mainly due to the fact that it's so candid. The word "battleaxe" is actually used to describe Ms. Davis' personality on the set. But the producer and director also say nice things about her, which come off as credible because they didn't hold back on the bad stuff.
The film print employed here is sharp and clear, and the colors are vibrant. Kudos to Anchor Bay for producing such a nice DVD... even though it inexplicably included a number of low-rent horror trailers at the start of the program. Hey, I know that "The Anniversary" was a Hammer Film, but it wasn't THAT kind of Hammer film.
I think Bette Davis fans will enjoy this lesser known effort from the late 60's. But, like I said at the outset, don't look for a warm and fuzzy take on humanity here.
Movie Review: Bette chews the scenery
Summary: 3 Stars
One of the later, more obscure movies in the Bette Davis catalogue, The Anniversary is based on a play and is rather static visually as a result. Davis plays a bitch-on-wheels matriarch whose verbal viciousness keeps her adult children cowering. While the supporting characters are not particularly well drawn, this is a wonderful flick to watch if you're a Miss D fan or someone dreading the torment of dinner with a parent from hell. Believe me, your own parental units will look cherubic by comparison to the eyepatched Bette Davis!