What Star Did Robert Aldrich Refuse to Work With Again
By at present, Feud audiences are well acquainted with ii of the about notorious capacity in Bette Davis and Joan Crawford'south shared Hollywood history—their rivalry during the making of What Ever Happened to Infant Jane?, and the ugly Oscars aftermath—in which Crawford establish a mode to hijack what Davis thought should have been her best-actress statuette. But a lesser-known Davis-Crawford battle followed—on the set of another Bob Aldrich–directed psycho-thriller, *Hush. . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte." And on Dominicus nighttime's episode of Feud, "Abandoned," Ryan Murphy revealed how Davis masterminded her own sadistic revenge on her in one case-once again co-star.
Understandably, the actresses were reluctant to re-team given their history. Earlier signing onto the moving picture, Crawford demanded her proper noun be billed first; to get Davis on board, Aldrich made a serial of sizable concessions including a $200,000 paycheck—the same fee Aldrich was receiving—and his word that Davis would be an associate producer on the picture. All the same, during pre-production, Davis felt Aldrich was ignoring her input and fired off a firmly worded viii-page letter threatening to quit.
"You practice not function well with someone of my type," Davis wrote Aldrich, according to Shaun Considine's Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud—an absolute must-read for fans of the FX series. "That was obvious throughout the filming of Infant Jane—and the suicidal want this put me into many times, was almost more I was able to bear. . . I do not wear well with tricks designed to make me do what someone else decides I will do."
She ended by suggesting Aldrich "re-bandage and pay me off. It will be cheaper in the long run."
This maneuver explains how Davis found herself sitting at Aldrich'south side throughout filming, why Aldrich obliged Davis's artistic input, and how Davis secured the leverage to properly torture Crawford.
Although certain moments in "Abandoned" feel exaggerated for dramatic effect—like Crawford beingness made to wait for her hotel room, and then being stuck in a room next to the garbage disposal—the episode's writers really skimped on the insane details of what actually happened.
For example, co-ordinate to Shaun Considine's Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud, Crawford arrived at the Baton Rouge drome with a full entourage—including her barber, makeup artist, and enough baggage to . . . well, let Davis explain:
When Crawford arrived to prepare the 4th day of filming, Davis had already tactically befriended the local press and coiffure—the latter of whom she would eat lunch with. George Cukor later reflected on Davis's rock-cold prepare strategy: "She wanted to brand a basket case out of Joan, and she almost succeeded."
To further chip away at Crawford's ego, Davis as well coordinated group outings, cast and crew dinners, and other later on-hours activities, inviting everyone except Joan. "Davis [too] made sure that everyone, including members of the press and distinguished visitors to the set, knew that Joan was really 60 years old," authors Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell write in Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography, before revealing another Davis tactic. "She would as well stand side by side to director Aldrich while he was filming Joan's scenes and brand loud, negative comments."
When Crawford woke upwards from a nap on ready 1 solar day to discover that the unabridged product had left the location without her, "Joan was convinced that Davis was behind information technology, and furthermore that Davis was manipulating Aldrich behind the scenes," wrote Quirk and Schoell. "'She's practically directing the picture for him right in front of me,'" she complained. "'And then God knows what else she's up to behind my dorsum. I might wind up on the cut-room floor.'"
Feeling ostracized, Crawford retreated further from the group—spending the majority of her fourth dimension either avoiding the rut (and crew) in her trailer, or enforcing her compulsive routine on her entourage members including makeup creative person Monte Westmore.
"I'd wake her upward at six," Westmore told Considine of his time with Crawford in Baton Rouge. "She'd exercise a fiddling flake while I set out her makeup. Then she'd brand breakfast, which I had to eat." Crawford practical her makeup herself, and tasked Westmore with the enormous task of finding the perfect false eyelashes. "They always had to be just correct," explained Westmore. "Trimmed perfectly in line, then curled in a circumvolve. I would layout vi pair for her on the table. She would then inspect them. . . We went through a gross and a half of eyelashes per motion-picture show."
Davis'south makeup artist, Bob Schiffer, concurred—adding that Crawford's diva behavior didn't endear her to the coiffure. "Crawford wouldn't listen to you," said Schiffer, according to Considine. "All you did was work on the eyelashes, then hold the mirror for her between setups. It was a servitude position, and Joan made the slaves look like Boy Scouts."
(In her defense, Davis likewise liked to do her own makeup: "On Charlotte I had my own makeup concept for Bette," adds Schiffer in The Divine Feud, "which lasted about 5 minutes. She would say to me, 'Don't fuck with my face up.'")
Despite her own demands, Davis was quick to make cracks almost Crawford's high-maintenance upkeep and took please in pointing out the "mounds of hairpieces" Crawford brought with her to cover her thinning hair.
"Maggie Donovan, who had been my hairdresser for years, said to me 1 day, 'Nosotros're up to our asses in Crawford'southward hairpieces,'" said Davis, per Considine.
Later in production, when Aldrich refused to expand her function and take her character suggestions, Crawford—left with no manner to legally quit the picture—took herself to Cedar Sinai infirmary. And afterward several infirmary stays, terse legal meetings, and unsuccessful talks with Crawford, Aldrich succeeded in getting the studio to agree to replace her.
"Fox had closed down my terminal movie [Something's Got to Requite]," George Cukor subsequently explained to Considine, "considering no extra wanted to take over for [Marilyn] Monroe. The picture was covered [by insurance], and I think Joan figured they would exercise the aforementioned thing for her."
Davis, knowing that Crawford being replaced would be a masterful, final accident to the ego, phoned her friend Olivia de Havilland. When her swain Oscar winner balked at the part, Davis sent Aldrich to encounter her in person in Switzerland and convince her to take the part. When the deal was inked, in one more than nasty maneuver, Davis chosen her printing agent to leak the story.
"I heard the news of my replacement over the radio, lying in my hospital bed," said Joan, having gotten a Davis-administered dose of her ain medicine. "I wept for nine hours." Having recovered plenty to roll phone calls to press, Crawford told The Hollywood Reporter, "Aldrich knew where to long distance me all over the world when he needed me, but he made no effort to reach me here that he had signed Olivia. He let me hear it for the first fourth dimension in a radio release . . . and, frankly, I retrieve it stinks."
"I still get chills when I think of the treachery that Miss Davis indulged in on that movie," Crawford told Considine, "only I refused to ever allow acrimony or hate enter my heart."
She may not have let detest in her heart. Only fifty-fifty while in the hospital, the moving-picture show star couldn't resist sniping at de Havilland during these interviews, according to Ed Sikov'southward Nighttime Victory: The Life of Bette Davis.
"I'1000 glad for Olivia," Crawford told press, from inside her oxygen tent. "She needed the part."
All the Stars of Ryan Murphy's Feud
Left, from Everett Collection; Right, by Nina Prommer/PatrickMcmullan.com.
Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford
The American Horror Story mainstay stars equally Feuder No. 1: Crawford, whose animosity with Bette Davis dates back to What Always Happened to Baby Jane?.
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Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/feud-bette-davis-joan-crawford-hush-hush-sweet-charlotte-oscars
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