THEY were the duelling queens of cinema’s golden age who smouldered on screen but scratched each other’s eyes out in private.
The epic feud between vintage Hollywood sirens Joan Crawford and Bette Davis makes today’s spats among the likes of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry look like playground squabbles.
It was a masterclass in A-list bitchiness and the mutual loathing is now the subject of BBC2 drama The Feud, starring Susan Sarandon as Davis and Jessica Lange as Crawford.
Already it is attracting controversy.
Dame Olivia de Havilland, 101, who is played by Catherine Zeta Jones in the show, was a long-time ally of Bette. This week she launched a legal action against producers, claiming they portrayed her as a “gossipmonger”.
Throughout the Thirties and Forties, Crawford and Davis were the biggest idols of their day, having risen to fame at rival studios MGM and Warner Brothers respectively.
Over the years they scrapped over lovers, movie roles, Oscars and even tried to outdo each other in parenting. As the pair aged and their careers waned, the animosity grew.
When Crawford died in 1977 from a heart attack aged 69, Davis allegedly said: “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
The Feud focuses on the period when Davis and Crawford starred in the only movie they ever made together, 1962 psychological thriller What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, in which Davis played a former child star who imprisons her wheelchair-bound sister, portrayed by Crawford.
Crawford signed up first and in a surprising move she invited her rival to star as her antagonist.
Christ! You never know what size boobs that broad has strapped on. She’s supposed to be shrivelling away but her t*ts keep growing. I keep running into them, like the Hollywood Hills
Bette Davis about Joan Crawford
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Warner Brothers boss Jack Warner said when approached with the movie: “I wouldn’t give you one dime for those two washed-up old bitches.”
Production went ahead on a tight budget and the violent scenes allowed them to vent long-held frustrations.
As Davis once remarked: “The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?”
During one scene, Davis was only supposed to mime kicking Joan in the head. She actually gashed her scalp, which needed three stitches.
But Crawford got her revenge later in the shoot when Davis had to drag her out of bed and across a room.
Knowing Davis had a bad back, Crawford reportedly wore a heavy weightlifter’s belt under her costume and intentionally ruined several takes so the scene had to be repeated.
Davis despaired that her co-star insisted on wearing full make-up, false eyelashes, shoulder pads and fake breasts despite playing a woman who was being beaten and starved.
Bette reportedly once said: “Christ! You never know what size boobs that broad has strapped on. She’s supposed to be shrivelling away but her t*ts keep growing. I keep running into them, like the Hollywood Hills.”
On another occasion a friend of both women said Davis launched into an on-set tirade about “phony Joany”, branding Crawford a “c***”.
The film was a surprise hit, yet the bitterness only deepened. Davis got a Best Actress Oscar nomination, while Crawford was overlooked.
It is believed Crawford campaigned for her co-star not to win, despite them both getting a share of box office proceeds which would be boosted by a Davis Oscar victory.
Crawford also called Davis’s rival nominees who were unable to attend the 1963 ceremony and offered to accept any awards on their behalf should they win. That is how, when the Best Actress was announced, it was Crawford, not Davis, who swept on to the stage to collect the gong on behalf of Anne Bancroft.
Davis later said: “I will never forget the look she gave me. It was triumphant. It clearly said, ‘You didn’t win and I am elated’.”
The seeds of their animosity were sown many years before. Despite being similar ages, Crawford began her screen career much earlier and was an established screen idol by the time Davis made it to Hollywood in 1930.
In 1933, Davis was furious that on the day reviews for her first starring role were due to appear, Crawford announced she was divorcing her first husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, and stole the headlines.
Several years later, Davis fell for her Dangerous co-star Franchot Tone, who Crawford then married.
More than 50 years later, Davis was still complaining about Crawford’s move, claiming: “She took him from me. She did it coldly, deliberately and with complete ruthlessness.”
Davis won her first Oscar for Dangerous.
As Davis, who had not expected to win the prize and wore a casual, navy blue dress to the ceremony, passed Tone’s table, he jumped to his feet to congratulate her. Crawford coolly turned and said: “Dear Bette. What a lovely frock.”
Davis, the daughter of a lawyer, had flings with other Hollywood figures but Crawford’s conquests were the stuff of legend. Davis once said: “She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.”
She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie
Bette Davis about Joan Crawford
Crawford, who bedded Clark Gable, a young Kirk Douglas and even the teenage sons of female friends, once said: “I like sex and it likes me.”
She came from dirt-poor beginnings and reportedly lost her virginity to her stepfather at the age of 11.
There were suggestions the actress may have harboured an unrequited lesbian crush on Davis, which may have further fuelled tension between the pair.
One confidant of Crawford’s once said the actress told him, around the time of Davis’ infatuation with Tone: “Franchot isn’t interested in Bette but I wouldn’t mind giving her a poke if I was in the right mood.”
Crawford was often accused of sleeping her way to the top and when asked once about Hollywood’s infamous casting couch, she answered: “Well it sure as hell beat the hard, cold floor.”
Crawford jumped ship from MGM to Warner Brothers in 1943.
The pair warred over roles and matters only got worse when Crawford scooped a Best Actress Oscar at her new studio for 1945 thriller Mildred Pierce. Even worse was when Crawford got an Oscar nomination for Possessed in 1947, a role that would have gone to Davis had she not been on maternity leave.
Davis had always been widely acknowledged as the superior actress.
She trained with theatre companies while Crawford was a chorus girl.
Davis never tired of reminding people: “Miss Crawford is a movie star, and I am an actress.”
And Crawford once said: “Miss Davis was always partial to covering up her face in motion pictures.
“She called it ‘art’. Others might call it camouflage.”
In 1947, Bette had her first child. To the dismay of the crew at Warner Brothers, Crawford, who already had two adopted children, arrived on set shortly afterwards wheeling a pram containing two baby girls.
In retirement, both movie icons drank heavily and supposedly watched repeats of each other’s movies.
In a rare moment of generosity, Davis, who died of breast cancer aged 81 in 1989, reportedly once remarked while watching an old Crawford movie: “Christ, that dame had a face.”
Film historian Ed Sikov told The Sun: “Joan was always the much more superficially glamorous actress, always immaculately coiffed, attired and dripping in diamonds.
“Bette struggled with that side of things more — she didn’t have a great dress sense.
“Although they competed to outdo each other, in many ways they were so similar and both were incredibly ambitious and driven. They had a lot in common.”
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