Bette vs Joan: Before the Feud and After
Fasten your seatbelts.
Few things are as satisfying as some good old-fashioned, knockdown Hollywood drama. Feuds have been always been a part of the movie business, from the silent days on. There was Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. But no rivalyr has ever quite captured the public fascination, right through to today, as the feud between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Warner Archive is home to some of the dueling divas best solo work, available now for streaming. Sign up today and receive a free Roku ($50 value) with your annual subscription.
Before we get to why these two Hollywood icons were at such odds with each other throughout their entire careers, let’s get some vital statistics down first:
Birth:
Bette — 1908. Joan — 19…04?05?06? (Psst: No one actually knows.)
Real Names:
Bette — Ruth Elizabeth Davis. Joan — Lucille Fay LeSueur
Birthplace:
Bette — Lowell, MA. Joan — San Antonio, TX.
Film Debut:
Bette — 1931. Joan — 1925.
Oscar Nominations:
Bette — 10. Joan — 3
Oscars Wins:
Bette — 2. Joan — 1.
Marriages:
Bette — 4. Joan — 4.
Both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were Hollywood royalty. One a Yankee (Davis), the other a Southerner (Crawford), the two girls led similar middle class lives and carried with them a burning desire to perform throughout their adolescence: Crawford’s first love was dancing, Bette’s acting. Their cunning and determination brought them both, eventually, to Hollywood.
Crawford arrived in Tinseltown first, in 1925, during the height of the silent era and the Jazz Age. She had been spotted by a stage producer which led to a screen test, and then, a contract at MGM for $75 a week. (Two of her earliest films, The Circle and West Point are available for streaming now at Warner Archive!) But when the roles offered her at MGM proved less than promising, Crawford did what she would do for the rest of her life: she took charge of her own destiny. Crawford shrewdly capitalized off her dancing chops and became a fixture in the Hollywood nightclub scene, with her flair for the Charleston earned her plenty of dance contest trophies. Throughout the late 1920s, Crawford she worked hard at being a visible starlet and MGM began to pay closer attention to her.
“No one decided to make Joan Crawford a star. Joan Crawford became a star because Joan Crawford decided to become a star.” — Sagor Maas, screenwriter
Around the same time that Crawford started to finally make some headway within MGM, another fiercely determined actress arrived in Hollywood. Around Christmastime 1930, Bette Davis left the New York stage to take a chance on a screen test with Universal Studios. She’d worked her way to Broadway after a number of inauspicious rejections at Academy’s and stock companies through the mid 1920s. As was the case with Crawford, Davis also languished at Universal Studios and, after a few months, the studio ended her contract.
It was only a surprising intervention from a top actor at Warner Bros, George Arliss, that things changed for her. In 1932, he recommended her for a role opposite him, giving her her break. Warner Bros was convinced, signed her to a contract, and she made a number of movies opposite A-list like James Cagney. (Jimmy the Gent, now streaming on Warner Archive, is just one example of Davis’ exciting, early years at Warner Bros.) Just four short years later Davis would earn her first Academy Award.
While Davis was busy becoming one of the most respected dramatic actresses in the business, Crawford was busy becoming Hollywood’s definitive movie star. By the mid 1930s they were both hugely popular: experts at playing strong, working-class women, they were the perfect blend of beauty, brains and strength that Depression-era audiences needed and wanted.
And then…
Feud Round 1: The Great Love Triangle of 1935
Enter a man that both women loved: Franchot Tone and the beginning of the most notorious feud in Hollywood history. In 1935, Franchot Tone was Davis’ costar in the film Dangerous and Davis fell head over heels in love. But Tone, a lovable rascal, had eyes on glamour queen Joan Crawford. Davis and Crawford had built very different careers — Davis with the corner on the market of serious dramatics, and Crawford with the corner on Hollywood glamour. When Crawford invited Tone to her place, it’s been whispered that she appeared without a stitch of clothing. They married soon after.
They say the best revenge is success, and Davis would win the Best Actress Oscar for Dangerous. The fact that Crawford had not even been nominated yet did not sit well with the movies star’s ego. At the Awards ceremony, Franchot Tone gave his costar a congratulatory hug. Davis was not wearing a ballroom gown (the Oscars were much more modest then, just a glorified dinner) and Crawford’s curt reply was “Dear Bette. What a lovely frock!”
Game on, Joan. Game on, Bette.
Round 2: The 1940s and Mildred Pierce
When Crawford’s termination at MGM led her to a contract at Warner Bros, where Bette Davis was still employed, the rivalry intensified. Crawford’s career was at an all-time low throughout the early 1940s, while Bette Davis was enjoying a steady stream of critically acclaimed roles, bringing her Oscar nomination after Oscar nomination. In 1944, the two Warner Bros actresses appeared in Hollywood Canteen, (now available at Warner Archive) a wartime propaganda film featuring an array of Warner Bros stars. Bette plays the gal in charge of the Canteen, which provides good food and dancing to G.I.s… while Crawford makes a cameo appearance all of 90 seconds long.
But when Davis turned down the script for Mildred Pierce, Crawford fought hard for the role. She even agreed to make a screen test — something that the veteran movie star would never have had to do years earlier. Davis’ leftovers led to Oscar gold for Crawford: her first and only Oscar, and a career revival as a tough-talking femme fatale in film noir, such as 1950’s The Damned Don’t Cry.
Round 3: Basically, The Rest of Their Lives
By the 1950s, Crawford and Davis were openly hostile with each other and nowhere is this more apparent than in 1952's The Star (now streaming on Warner Archive) where Bette Davis doesn’t even pretend that she’s not lampooning her nemesis Joan Crawford. Crawford’s response?
“Of course I had heard she was supposed to be playing me, but I didn’t believe it. Did you see the picture? It couldn’t possibly be me. Bette looked so old, and so dreadfully overweight.” — Joan Crawford
In fact, for the rest of their lives there were plenty of quips reported in gossip mags between the two…every last one of which remains wickedly entertaining:
“She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.” — Bette Davis
“She has a cult, and what the hell is a cult except a gang of rebels without a cause. I have fans. There’s a big difference.” — Joan Crawford
“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why [Joan Crawford] always plays ladies.” — Bette Davis
Following Robert Aldrich’s iconic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, which became a box office hit and remains a popular cult classic to this day, both Davis and Crawford found themselves, in their aging years often typecast in the similar roles that had made Baby Jane so popular. Of course, few were ever as good with some notable exceptions such as Davis’ Dead Ringer, available for streaming now at Warner Archive. (It’s no wonder the film’s poster read “For the people who loved Baby Jane.”) But, in spite of their hostility, the one thing that bound them together was their perseverance and both refused to quit working. The fact that Crawford’s final film is the embarrassing, low-budget Trog is a sad end to the actress’ legacy, but it also proves just how seriously she took acting as a lifelong career.
By the way? The feud lasted until the end of their lives. When Joan Crawford died in 1977, this was Davis’ statement on the legend’s passing:
You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” — Bette Davis
Now streaming: the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford collection, available at the newly revamped Warner Archive! Available on desktop as well as Roku, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Android, Warner Archive is the perfect streaming service for anyone who loves classic movies and TV. Explore the archive and get a *free* Roku Streaming Stick with your annual subscription:
