Jezebel (1938)
Directed by William Wyler
Warner Brothers, 104 minutes.
★
In 2009, Jezebel was added to the National Film Registry as a culturally significant film. A lot of cultural changes have happened since then and one wonders if the culture in question is that of the post-Confederacy Lost Cause. In its day, Bette Davis won a best actress Oscar for her role as Julie Marsden and Faye Bainter as best supporting actress as her aunt Belle Massey.
Aunt Belle has raised Julie, but not well; she's a spoiled, pig-headed belle of a different sort. Julie is also the film's Jezebel. In the Bible, an Old Testament Jezebel is the wife of King Ahab and convinces him to become a Baal worshipper. In Revelations, Jezebel is a sexual temptress. In the film, Julie is more like a cross between a tease and the little girl who cried wolf. She's engaged to the banker Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda) all the while keeping Buck Cantrell (George Brent ) dancing on the puppet string as a possible fallback. The year and setting is 1852 New Orleans. Locals worry about a possible new outbreak of “Yellow Jack;” that is, yellow fever.
Julie is so spoiled that she goes into a snit when Pres attends a bank meeting instead of joining her for her final gown fitting for the Olympus Ball. He tantrum leads to an ill-advised decision. Although high society protocol required that ladies dress in white, Julie impetuously decides to wear a red gown. Yes, socialites actually worried about such trivialities. She won't be talked out of out of wearing red by her aunt or anyone else around her. (The film is in black and white, so the red dress was actually bronze.)
When Julie enters the ballroom Pres is embarrassed and everyone else is so shocked that they shun her. Pres gallantly dances with her, but he is losing patience with Julie. What ensues is a good girl/bad girl dance that ultimately results in a slap that leads Pres to leave New Orleans. Julia is ultimately crushed and resolves to reform and marry Preston, although Buck's still sniffing around the old plantation. Belle warns Julie that she may have finally overdone things, but Julie insists that Preston will return to her. One year later she hears he's back in New Orleans (as is Yellow Jack). She can't wait for Pres to show up and see her in her proper white gown and fall madly in love with her. When he finally arrives, though, it's with Amy Dillard (Margaret Lindsay), his new wife.
Assuming you still care–and why would you–here' are some more things that will make you reach for the air sickness bag: a good old Southern duel, a happily enslaved house staff, some mighty cute ragged black kids serenading ‘Miz Julie, New Orleans citizens trying to chase away yellow fever by firing cannons and smudging the streets with smoke, and patients being quarantined at a leper colony. Can Julia atone for her stupidity and commit a selfless act?
None of the principal actors came from any closer to the Deep South then Nebraska. I suppose you could say that Bette Davis was really cute back in 1938 and did her best with the accent but overall, Jezebel has as little cultural capital as a ward of Confederate bills has economic value. Henry Fonda had only been in Hollywood for three years in 1938 and had trouble bending his flat Midwestern accent into something vaguely Louisianan. Poor George Brent was actually Irish and sounded like he practiced by reading William Faulkner passages in front of a mirror.
I'd gladly don a red ball gown and rush into a leper colony before consuming this piece of Southern deep-fried racist nonsense a second time.
Rob Weir
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