The Anniversary

source: The Anniversary

This is probably one of the all-time BEST performances by Bette Davis you will ever see. As I understand it, this is not easy to find and if you are a true Bette Davis fan, you simply MUST have this! The simple plot revolves around Ms Taggert's (Bette Davis) yearly tradition of celebrating her wedding anniversary even though her husband has been dead quite some time. Not only does she insist on commemorating the occasion but DEMANDS that her sons, ALL of whom have their own issues with Mother Dear, attend along with their respective families. Then Bette proceeds to tear into them unmercifully because she knows they will put up with it all for the sake of good ol' moola! Knowing this, Bette pulls no punches and delivers one of the funniest, most brutal, scathing, lowdown, and over-the-top CLASSIC performances in film history. This is vintage Bette. Trust me. No Bull. You simply MUST see this! It is just a stitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a big Bette Davis fan but for the life of me I can't understand how anyone can see this as a triumph or one of her best. Saying this film is great is like saying the nazi's were just kidding around. How anyone can like a film where this character she plays is this nasty and miserable is beyond my comprehension. I mean I know this is simply for entertainment value but god almighty, where is this a good film? Ms. Davis plays a matriarchal character who has a son who has a transvestite * and proceeds to get caught stealing some womans undies. He tries to get away but he's leaves his brothers car behind cause he cant find the keys. The mother proceeds to tell the other son, who owns the car, that she will turn him into the police because she doesn't want him to go to Canada. What a Mother. The son with the car is so scared of his mother that it's just pathetic. She finally proceeds to tell him in the end that she never loved/liked him so he goes off with is wife, who hates the mother more than anyone, to Canada. The mother proceeds to call her lawyer to tell her she's filing a $5,000 suit against them and to also call immigration on them before they go to Canada. What a mother. The last son brings home a future bride who the mother doesn't take too kindly too much the girl stands her ground. Then the mother proceeds to see the future brides ears and endlessly harps on those viciously. To get back at his mother the last son convinces his future bride to have sex in his mothers bed. The mother leaves her glass eye(dear ole mom has one eye BTW) under her pillow and the future bride finds it, and almost has a miscarriage where the response by dear ole mom is...oh well, didn't want her to have it any way. How can anyone like this? I mean this film is decently made and casting isn't too bad but geez, how could anyone root for someone this cruel?

It's my favorite Davis performance post-BABY JANE among her horror films. THE ANNIVERSARY, with Bette as the evil but grand Mrs. Taggert. From the moment the film begins she is constantly in control, even in those scenes where she is not physically appearing. It is her wedding anniversary, and her three sons and the wife of one and the current girlfriend of another are in attendance. And in the course of the ninety minutes of the film, no matter what attempts to put Mrs. Taggart into her place or at least into a more reasonable frame of mind, she comes up trumps in making them feel like garbage. To be fair Mrs. Taggart has some grounds to be so vile - her missing eye is due to the antics of her sons. But even so, she takes bad behavior to a new level. I have a sneaking suspicion, giving the devilish charm she brought to the role, Davis enjoyed this film. She was (despite her denials) a very difficult woman to get along with, and probably enjoyed how her character totally dominates this film. But it's done with such panache. Look at how she notes her youngest son's girlfriend (a cute looking blonde) has a secret physical defect that she uses her hair to hide. And she does so accidentally reveal it to the entire family. Nobody escapes her witchery. In the course of the film she is getting some tiresome phone calls from one of her tenants about the work she did in constructing his house. She is as sweet as molasses in calming him down, but once she has hung up she tells her oldest son that they use a third rate repairman to fix the tenant's problem. Indeed, the last sequence in the film, when Bette passes a fountain that is of a male figure who shoots out water in a "unique" manner shows Mrs. Taggert's view of how the world should be treated.

This 1968 black comedy was the last film in which Davis dominated with her legendary persona. In a sense it is the last "Bette Davis" film. Whales of August, Burnt Offerings, and Death on the Nile followed, but the part of Mrs Taggart, a domineering widow complete with eye-patch, is pure Davis and she has a field day, making this film an absolute must for her fans. Though it's stage origins show, and the film doesn't really begin until Davis makes her entrance, it is an entertaining comedy with an excellent supporting cast, funny, bitchy, dialog, absurdest humor and a tone similar to Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? and The Lion in Winter both of which began as plays. The prolific Roy Ward Baker who directed everything from a Night to Remember(1958) to The Vampire Lovers (1970) is not a visionary; the direction, editing, camera placement and set design are all adequate, but just imagine what Almodovar would do with this material!

This 1967 film was made to exploit Bette Davis' name and status as an American scary movie hag. The play it's based on, although reportedly successful, cannot have been very original. It looks like a tired retread of British "theatre of cruelty" conventions that were considered daring in the fifties, downgraded and bowdlerized here to a mere comedy of bad manners. The idea of a diabolically and flamboyantly domineering matriarch was also contained in "The Lion in Winter" , which at least had the excuse of being a historical drama. The message, if there is one, is that middle class values are a sham, motherhood can be a prison (for the children) and we should all work for social change. Well, sort of... But it's mostly about making fun of mother, that old b*tch, and plotting revenge. As such, it is pure camp, without justification or background philosophy. Bette Davis does a good impersonation of herself and is surrounded by what appears, at first glance, to be alumni of the "Carry On" series. The R1 DVD shows a clear picture, brilliant colours, good sound and a middling bitrate.

plays Mrs. Taggart, the controlling and manipulative mother to three sons. She oversees every aspect of their lives, the family business - which she owns outright - employs them and she works hard at scaring away any woman they bring into the family. The Anniversary is the annual celebration of Mrs. Taggart's wedding anniversary to the boys' dead father. A macabre event in itself it is made more horrendous by her constant belittling of her sons, their women and her grandchildren. They are all targets of her caustic wit and cruelty. Bette Davis is her usual glorious self in the starring role. Wonderfully gowned and housed with a matching eye-patch, she steals every scene she is in with flair and drawl, withering all including her grandchildren - all mere fodder for her verbal cannonballs. And the ending is quite a surprise. Wait for it! 7 out of 10.

"Whatever happened to baby Jane" was a turning point in Bette Davis's career."Hush hush sweet Charlotte "was almost as good ,and she got first-class support from De Havilland,Cotten and Moorehead.With "the nanny" ,and without a Robert Aldrich to direct,the formula began to wear thin."The nanny" is an interesting work for fantasy and horror buffs though. I expected much of "the anniversary" probably too much.This movie comes one or two decades too late.All we see on the screen ,Tennessee Williams had invented it long before ,with his classy plays such as "the cat on the hot tin roof" and "suddenly last Summer" .Is there only a director here?It's so talky that it looks like a bad filmed stage production.One-eyed Davis overacts (why do you suppose she's like that?don't worry,you will find out) and as she has no Crawford or De Havilland to counterbalance ,she becomes a caricature of herself. There are so many films where Davis is brilliant! Why would you chose this one among all her awesome filmography?

When I think of the great Bette Davis films of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and then this piece of junk comes along, I shutter. I know that the late Bette always said that work keeps her going, but to subject herself to a dull, poorly written film is beyond the realm of human understanding. Davis is the matriarch of the family. She parades around with a patch in one eye, the result of her child shooting it out years before. Davis completely dominates 3 sons. One is a pervert, the second she pays off to keep his wife forever pregnant and the youngest brings home women who are promptly gotten rid of by the evil Mrs. Taggert (Davis) Of course, Davis gives a good performance. She's Bette Davis! Why do the British always make the most boring films. I know, "Brief Encounter" is the exception. If this had been an American film, it would have been far better. With it all, there is a very good performance by Sheila Hancock as the repressed daughter-in-law who loathes her mother-in-law. Who wouldn't?

Quite simply, Bette Davis dominates every scene and every aspect of The Anniversary. If you don't like Bette Davis, you'd be wise to skip this one altogether. Davis plays Mrs. Taggart, the overbearing mother to three sons. She controls every aspect of their lives. They cannot make a move without her approval. And if she doesn't approve, she's not above ruining one of her sons if it suits her selfish purposes. The Anniversary covers the events surrounding the annual celebration of Mrs. Taggart's wedding anniversary to the late Mr. Taggart. It's Mrs. Taggart's day and she lets everyone know it. She uses this event to cement her control over her sons by threatening financial ruin, jail, and/or public humiliation and by degrading them and their significant others. Bette Davis is in fine form in The Anniversary. She's evil, vindictive, manipulative, and a ton of fun. She chews scenery like nobody's business. The rest of the cast is good, but they are no match for Ms. Davis. Some of the comments she makes to her youngest son's new fiancé are unbelievable. One of the best is when she quite casually tells the girl, "My dear, would you mind sitting somewhere else? Body odor offends me." Another priceless example is Mrs. Taggart's reaction to the frightened fiancé when she discovers Mrs. Taggart's glass eye in her bed. I don't know of many actresses who could pull-off being so rude and just plain evil and still have the viewer rooting for them. Hammer Studios made this incredibly black comedy during the 60s when a lot of aging female stars were taking roles in horror movies. The Anniversary may not be a horror film, but it's certainly not the norm you would expect for someone like Bette Davis. I don't know how The Anniversary did financially upon release, but it's the kind of movie I would have liked to have seen Hammer making more of in the late 60, early 70s. Who knows? It might have saved the company.