Cabin in the Cotton

"Ah'd love to kiss ya, but ah just washed mah hair," the platinum-blonde belle coos suggestively in a honeyed Southern drawl. With those words, 24-year-old Bette Davis, playing her first bad girl, left behind the obscurity of being a Warner Brothers contract player and got on the fast track to stardom. The film was Cabin in the Cotton (1932), one of nine films Davis appeared in that year. Playing the lead was Richard Barthelmess, who'd made a career of playing aw-shucks country boys in silent films. Although he was 37, and Cabin in the Cotton was a talkie, Barthelmess was still playing the same character - in this case, Marvin, the sharecropper's son who becomes the protege of the plantation owner, and is expected to help him cheat the farmers. Marvin's loyalties are also tested when he has to choose between his childhood sweetheart and sexy Madge, the plantation owner's daughter, played by Davis. Bette Davis had begun her film career the previous year at Universal, but after a few pallid roles, the studio had dropped her. Warner Brothers offered her a contract, but at first she fared no better there, still playing colorless ingenues. Then Warner's production chief Darryl Zanuck cast her as Madge, over the objections of director Michael Curtiz. The volatile Hungarian-born Curtiz was known to have a sharp eye for new talent, but that instinct failed him when he encountered Davis. As she seduced Barthelmess on-camera, Davis could hear Curtiz muttering behind the camera, "God-damned-nothing-no-good-sexless-son-of-a-bitch!" On her close-ups, Curtiz made her play her love scenes to the camera, without Barthelmess to react to her lovemaking. Barthelmess recognized Bette's talent, but was intimidated by it. Years later, he would say, "There was a lot of passion in her, and it was impossible not to sense....one got the sense of a lot of feeling dammed up in her, a lot of electricity that had not yet found its outlet. In a way it was rather disconcerting - yes, I admit it, frightening." Barthelmess may have been impressed, but as an actor, he didn't give much back. His acting technique, according to Bette, consisted of doing very little in the long shots and medium shots, and only acting full-out in the close-ups. That way, it was necessary to use mostly his close-ups in the film. Nevertheless, it was clear that Davis was stealing the film, and the ad campaign reflected that: "Meet a new kind of temptress! Flaming as Southern Suns, Bewitching as Plantation Moons..." Cabin in the Cotton would be one of Barthelmess' final films as a star, although he would continue to appear in character roles for another decade. When Cabin in the Cotton was released, it was "that flashy, luminous newcomer Bette Davis" who took the acting honors, according to the critics. Regina Crewe, in the New York American, raved "the girl is superb." Richard Watts, Jr., of the New York Herald Tribune added, "Miss Davis shows a surprising vivacity as the seductive rich girl." And Variety said that Davis' "rising popularity is the film's best chance for business." Director John Cromwell also took notice. It was Davis' performance in Cabin in the Cotton that convinced him to cast her as the slutty Mildred in Of Human Bondage (1934). And that film would assure her reputation as one of the best actresses of her generation. Producer: Jack L. Warner Director: Michael Curtiz Screenplay: Paul Green, based on the novel by Harry Harrison Kroll Editor: George Amy Cinematography: Barney McGill Principal Cast: Richard Barthelmess (Marvin), Bette Davis (Madge), Dorothy Jordan (Betty), Henry B. Walthall (Old Eph), Berton Churchill (Lane Norwood), Hardie Albright (Roland Neal), David Landau (Tom Blake), Dorothy Peterson (Lily Blake). BW-78m. by Margarita Landazuri