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Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis | 
 enlarge | Author: Ed Sikov
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $20.01 (67%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 80023
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
ASIN: B001FB62IM
Publication Date: October 30, 2007
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Product Description
The legendary Hollywood star blazes a fiery trail in this enthralling portrait of a brilliant actress and the movies her talent elevated to greatness She was magnificent and exasperating in equal measure. Jack Warner called her “an explosive little broad with a sharp left.” Humphrey Bogart once remarked, “Unless you’re very big she can knock you down.” Bette Davis was a force of nature—an idiosyncratic talent who nevertheless defined the words “movie star” for more than half a century and who created an extraordinary body of work filled with unforgettable performances.
In Dark Victory, the noted film critic and biographer Ed Sikov paints the most detailed picture ever delivered of this intelligent, opinionated, and unusual woman who was—in the words of a close friend—“one of the major events of the twentieth century.” Drawing on new interviews with friends, directors, and admirers, as well as archival research and a fresh look at the films, this stylish, intimate biography reveals Davis’s personal as well as professional life in a way that is both revealing and sympathetic. With his wise and well-informed take on the production and accomplishments of such movie milestones as Jezebel, All About Eve, and Now, Voyager, as well as the turbulent life and complicated personality of the actress who made them, Sikov’s Dark Victory brings to life the two-time Academy Award–winning actress’s unmistakable screen style, and shows the reader how Davis’s art was her own dark victory.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 not a bad bette for bette August 5, 2008
sikov's writing style is clear and very focused, which helps because there are many signs that he adores his subject slavishly. and he particularly adores the film 'dark victory' because it's his go-to bette davis and sums up many things regarding her mystique, her stylized and highly effective performances in her best films and her place in the warner brothers pantheon.
but because the heart of the book is this film, it climaxes a bit early. and sikov seems disdainful of davis' later work, not to mention the other films that were released in 1939 and 1940 starring davis.
it does, however regain credibility because he tries to elucidate the pained relationships davis had with immediate family and her oldest daughter, bd hyman. hyman, as everyone knows, wrote a tough-to-take bio of life with her mother called 'my mother's keeper'. i don't remember the book that well. but hyman's self-serving sanctimonious attitude has scored her some well-deserved derision from historians and fans of miss davis.
but the anecdotes that drive davis' life, like the court battle in england, the abusive third husband, her high sex drive and many partners and the wonderful work she did on building characters are very well recounted--just like (pun intended) a boy's favorite fairy story.
Certainly a worthwhile read June 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the only bio I've read on Bette Davis so I can't compare it to any others.
Most of the book is about the 1930's and 1940's when Bette did many pictures under contract to Warner Bros. She was constantly making movies, most of them not particularly memorable. Her personal life is lived in and around her movie making schedule. There's a lot of details about the movies that I will enjoy rereading the next time I see the movie on tv and via a rental. Bette has a lot of affairs during this period of her life, many of which are men who are her directors, costars, etc. It doesn't matter that she is married to various others during this period as well.
Once she leaves Warner Bros., her career life is more varied and spread out as she has more control over it. The author also starts to spend more time on just Bette's personal life as a consequence.
This is a lengthy book that appears to be the result of a lot of research and pulling together a lot of resource material judging from the credits. There were a few times I got a bit impatient and bored but really only a tiny bit. Overall I recommend the book but you have to be interested in the subject.
The Davis that emerges at the end in retrospect is the culmination of all the stories and details the author has presented. I really think the author let others tell Bette's story including Bette herself as he used her own memoir as part of his source material along with many of her print/tv interviews.
I spent most of the time in the back of my mind as I read the book wondering if I could've been a friend of hers as she is really tough on people - at times loyal and at other times rude and angry and very unpredictable.
One of the aspects of the book I really liked was detailing her mannerisms and how she used body language to add nuance and meaning to her acting. Much of this knowledge is tied to specific movies and I am interested to rewatch certain films now because of this.
There's really too much in this book to go into without making this review excessively long. Other reviewers have said a lot already. If you enjoy reading about complex people, want to know more about Bette Davis specifically, want to better appreciate her talent and be able to enjoy her movies based on knowing more of the backstories, this is definitely the book to do it.
I read the Kindle version of the book and need to warn that none of the illustrations are included. The cover page is some generic design so you don't even get the head shot shown on Amazon. There is also a subject index at the back of the book that is inactive - there's no page numbers listed even.
Dark Victory: Bette Davis with Flaws March 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although I enjoyed the book, there was little new material presented. I read "The Lonely Life" many years ago and found that Mr. Sikov used this autobiography frequently as a resource. [He rightly referenced this throughout his book.] I consider many of Ed Sikov's statements and opinions questionable and uninformed. For example, he dismisses Eddie Cantor as "hard-to-take" with stale comedy routines. Some of this documents the way Mr. Cantor is intentionally presented on film but other negative statements appear to be opinions of Sikov. I have a different opinion. I've seen many Cantor musicals from the early 1930s and find him quite funny and very talented. This too, is a personal opinion but, in contrast, clearly cited as such as opposed to being presented as a universally accepted fact.
Another and more troubling instance involves the photograph Mr. Sikov uses to illustrate the physical beauty of Bette Davis despite the many opinions to the contrary stated and implied throughout her career. I agree that Bette Davis was beautiful but, unfortunately, I do not believe the photo of the lovely woman at a window used by Sikov is an image of Bette Davis. It may well be an early portrait of Patricia Neal.
The issues I've raised may be of minor importance but they caused me to question the veracity of other assertions in the book. All in all, though, an enjoyable read!
Good, but.... February 19, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Dark Victory" is not only another biography about Bette Davis, but also a culmination of previous biographical work on the cinema star. Sikov filters the pre-existing material, looking for consistency then uses this, as well as hundreds of items from the Davis archives, as a basis for the chronology used in his work.
The chronicling of Davis' reign at Warner Brothers is the highlight of the book, although more information about her relationships with and observations of other stars might have made this a more interesting work. Instead, Sikov focuses on proving that the stereotype of Davis as a driven indomitable actress is absolutely true. Although this seems a natural angle, it flatly leads the reader to this conclusion by tireless psychiatric observations (of Davis, her mother, or especially her father) through the narrative, rather than allowing this revelation to discreetly prove true through example.
There are very few photos used in this book. Instead "famous shots" of the actress referred to in the text are described, rather than provided.
Another bothersome element in the text is the scattered non-sequitur-like celebration of gays in cinema (either stars or crew). Though this is a fascinating area of study, it seems well out of place in a Davis biography, given that this particular actress did not have homosexual tendencies, unlike her peers Crawford or Hepburn. It also seems strange that, in the mentioning of Davis as a pop-culture icon, that no mention of her importance to women occurs. However, it is well-known that Davis brought a new dimension to female roles by not portraying the sex goddess or ingenue, but instead the independent head-strong woman - which only served as a precursor to the more raw, gritty depictions of women in the 50's and 60's.
I have enjoyed this biography, and can say it is a good read. Its flip chatty tone keeps the text moving. However, it isn't exactly the glorious rendition parlayed by other reviewers, and it left me wanting to know more, rather that feeling sated with information about the great star, as well as tired of reading dissections of Davis' perceived neuroses.
 AS ENTERTAINING AS THE LADY HERSELF January 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ed Sikov's masterful biography accomplishes something I thought to be nearly impossible; it is a book that is as entertaining as the legend it captures so beautifully. Cinema buffs will love the way he disects and analyzes her movies ( minor complaint, I would have liked to have seen more deconstruction of the performances in Now Voyager ). I've read the odd criticism here and there that he spends too much time on the movies themselves at the cost of details regarding the actress, but that criticism falls flat, in that the subtle point being made is that Miss Davis, to a large extent, WAS the movies she made. It is also to the author's credit that he takes to task previous biographers at certain points, as well as those contemporaries who were unfair in certain criticisms of the actress.
Where Sikov really triumphs is in allowing his marvelous...no FABULOUS! sense of humor to scream through on nearly every page. This is an author I want to have dinner with!
A great read, a thorough biography, and a book that captures the texture of the one and only Miss D.
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