Jezebel

1938 | 103 minutes | 7.0 ★ (191)

Jezebel
  • Overview

    In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

  • Release Date

    26 March 1938

  • DirectingWilliam Wyler
  • Budget

    $1,250,000.00

  • Revenue

    $0.00

  • Stars

Videos

User Reviews

See more
CS

CinemaSerf

09 October 2023

This starts off really strongly with the arrival, on horseback, of the feisty "Miss Julie" (Bette Davis). She is the rather proud orphaned daughter of a wealthy southern family whom everyone wants to know and be seen with - even if she is a bit of a pain in the neck. It's "Dill" (a rather charmless Henry Fonda) who is the front runner for her rather vain affections but he is no push-over. Her desire to inappropriately wear a red gown to a formal ball initially elicits his reluctant support as he escorts her, but then the ensuing fallout ensures he flees leaving her alone and determined - to get him back. The onset of the plague forces her to flee to their plantation and he ends up there too - but with a significant complication. With her normally ordered life all askew, "Miss Julie" has to think, perhaps for the first time, not just about herself. I'm afraid, though that this film was just bit too much of a soap for me. Though Davis has loads of beans at the outset, the story rather manoeuvres us into a rather predictably sentimental cul-de-sac that's slightly cluttered up by the rather obnoxiously cocky "Buck" (George Brent). Donald Crisp and Spring Byington provide a bit of ballast now and again, but I just found this all rather disappointingly flighty and thin. A frustrated love story, yes - but I just needed much more of our original "Jezebel" and less of what her character became. I saw this very recently on a big screen and it is still, despite my reservations, a fine example of thoroughly well presented and opulent cinema with a star who very much owns the screen.

More Like This

The Cincinnati Kid

The Cincinnati Kid

An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.

See more
City Lights

City Lights

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and...

See more
The Great Love

The Great Love

The attractive Oberleutnant Paul Wendlandt is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's...

See more
Letter from an Unknown Woman

Letter from an Unknown Woman

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is...

See more
The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

See more
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.

See more
The Day of Destruction

The Day of Destruction

Seven years ago, a mysterious monster was found deep in a rural coal mine. Since then, rumors of a plague spread through the small town, and people...

See more
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful...

See more
The Small White Mouse

The Small White Mouse

„White mouse“ Fritz controls the traffic on Dresden’s Körner Square. Helene, who crosses the junction on her motor scooter every day, has taken a...

See more
Manderlay

Manderlay

In 1933, after leaving Dogville, Grace Margaret Mulligan sees a slave being punished at a cotton farm called Manderlay. Officially, slavery is...

See more
Live and Become

Live and Become

In 1980 the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognised as genuine Jews and are secretly carried to Israel. The day before the transport the son of a...

See more
Bell, Book and Candle

Bell, Book and Candle

A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead... only to fall in love with him for real.

See more
The Patriot

The Patriot

After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring...

See more
Infinity

Infinity

Story of the early life of genius and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.

See more
While You Were Sleeping

While You Were Sleeping

A transit worker pulls commuter Peter off railway tracks after he's mugged, but—while he's in a coma—his family mistakenly thinks she's Peter's...

See more
Big Fish

Big Fish

Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge...

See more
The Hours

The Hours

"The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by...

See more
The Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is...

See more
Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire

A vampire relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.

See more
Life Is Beautiful

Life Is Beautiful

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an...

See more