Now, Voyager / Jezebel

NOW, VOYAGER, 1942, Warner Bros., 117 min. Dir. Irving Rapper. "Don't ask for the moon -- we have the stars." In this classic Bette Davis soap opera, the great actress plays a repressed spinster who finds love with Paul Henreid after psychiatrist Claude Rains encourages her to stand up to her domineering mother and to embrace life. Max Steiner's Oscar-winning score provides just the right amount of operatic emphasis in this manipulative but undeniably effective, intelligent Hollywood sudser.

JEZEBEL, 1938, Warner Bros., 103 min. Bette Davis won an Oscar for her performance as a tempestuous Southern belle torn between her prime suitor (George Brent) and the man she truly loves (Henry Fonda). In addition to the top-notch performances, director William Wyler provides some gorgeous set-pieces, from the fancy ball to which Davis wears her scandalous red dress to an eerie New Orleans plagued by a yellow fever epidemic.