Bette Davis Centenary Celebration Collection (All About Eve / Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte / The Virgin Queen / Phone Call from a Stranger / The Nanny)

Three films new to DVD, two double-dips
This is the second of two boxed sets celebrating the one hundredth birthday of Bette Davis. The other one is from Warner Home Video, and since Bette Davis is often called "the fifth Warner Brother", obviously Warner's has a much larger library of films from which to choose. My main complaint with this set is not that the films are not good, but that two of the films - "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" and "All About Eve" have already been released by Fox under the Studio Classics label. That leaves only three films new to DVD in this set.

As for the three films that are new to DVD, chances are you may have never even heard of them, much less seen them. The problem is that Fox owns the rights, won't let anyone else such as Turner Classic Movies televise them, and would rather televise "Wall Street" ten times a month on the Fox Movie Channel rather than put these older good films on at all.

All About Eve (1950) - This film brought Davis' career back from the brink and...

TWO RE-ISSUES, THREE NEW TO DVD....
"All About Eve" & "Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte" are re-issued and re-packaged with new extras in this fine set. New to DVD are "The Virgin Queen", "The Nanny", and "Phone Call From a Stranger". All are encased in their own individual slim-cases with art work. For Davis fans, this edition is completely worth it. A bravura array of Davis performances is featured here. And the performances couldn't be more different: a Broadway star, a haunted Southern recluse, a Queen of England, a British nanny, and the small but pivotal role of a wife of a plane crash victim. The prints are fine and the extras are good including a 4-page booklet with added info on each film. As with all these sets, it just leaves you wanting more. However, this one was worth waiting for. Enjoy.

Fox's cheap shot
20th Century FOx doesn't hold many Bette Davis movies so they stash all of them in this fine box. But how? In slimline cases, so kinda cheap, maybe not, but what kind of idiot packs a two-disc edition in slimline case WITH a booklet inside that obvisouly is going to be punched through in the middle several times because that's how the casing works? Only idiots approve these. It's really a low low shot and I would not expect this from ANYONE, not even the cheapest studio ever. It's just unbelievable. And that's supposed to be the special edition movie of the pack!!!!
As for the content, no complaint there, and love the extras on Hush Hush where for the first time I see more than one still of Joan Crawford on the set and there's even a featurette on the backstory.

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