Bette Davis Vs. Joan Crawford on DVD

In Stores Now

Warner Brothers is marketing their new DVD collections of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis films on the rivalry between the two stars in old time Hollywood. That rivalry is fairly irrelevant now as modern audiences look back at classic films on their own merits to see how they stand the test of time.

Each collection of five films features three with commentary by either historians, or in the cases of Mr. Skefington and The Damned Don’t Cry, director Vincent Sherman himself. At 99 years old, Sherman is completely alert and coherent. His anecdotes about his career and work on the film will be a delight to fans. Even though there are some gaps, his films are long, so that he’s able to fill most of them with stories is a treat.

The modern featurettes give you a historical perspective on the films they accompany. Even the surviving stars and filmmakers who chime in can only look back, because it was so long ago. But their memories mixed with historian research give complete portraits of the subjects of these spots.

There are two historical featurettes on The Women DVD and they are indeed hype pieces in the tone of the time.

A TCM biographical documentary on Mildred Pierce gives you all the perspective you’d need to appreciate all the films in the Joan Crawford collection. It’s a shame they did do a comparable one on Bette Davis.

Scoring Stage Sessions are not as in-depth as they sound. It’s just music from the film played. And if you’re excited to see an alternate ending to The Letter, don’t get worked up. It’s just the same scenes in a different order.

But altogether fabulous packages by Warner Brothers of their classics films.