Feud: Bette and Joan "And the Winner Is" (Part 2)
Friday, April 7, 2017 at 4:36PM Previously... And the Winner Is (Pt 1)
-Wait up for me boys. Tonight I'm bringing you home a baby brother.
by Nathaniel R
Picking up where we left off... and, to quote, Mamacita (the delightfully dry Jackie Hoffman) "pick up the pace, it's Oscar day!"
In the second half of Feud's best episode, after watching Joan & Hedda swaying voters away from Bette Davis and arranging for Joan to both present (Best Director) and accept (Best Actress should Bancroft or Page win), it's time for Oscar night. A whole army of hair and makeup people swam Chez Crawford...
This episode has so many beautiful shots of Crawford's spotless home that it's practically an FYC ad for the Emmys in art direction. Joan gets the idea to be pure silver on the golden night -- silver hair, silver jewelry, silver gown -- from Oscars most honored costume designer Edith Head (sadly not a character on the show, despite being a "character," if you will).
We watch Ms Crawford having makeup and hair done. I need to consult my makeup artist friend about this scene. It's cool to watch and I'm guesing they did research for it because the technique and tools look period specific.
Okay, full confession: I watched this scene like five times. I'm possibly obsessed with it.
And, a truth, Joan did look utterly fabulous that night even if she was at her most vindicative as there are always thousands of photos to prove such things from each year's Oscar ceremony.
So many flashbulbs sacrificed their lives that night.
Once Joan is putting on the finishing touches, George Cukor (John Rubinstein), one of Hollywood's all time greatest director-of-actresses, arrives to pay respects. Cukor directed Crawford & Shearer in The Women (1939) one of their very best and that's just scratching the surface of the iconic star turns he guided from virtually every A list movie queen during the studio system.
-There's something I need to say to you and you need to listen: don't do this...
Joanie, you're bigger than this.-No I'm not.
She calls him Mr. Cukor and he calls her Joanie. Was that formality/informality was true about their relationship? It doesn't feel false per se, just noticeably strange.
(One of the reasons I object to Feud's portrayal of Joan Crawford is that it makes all of her longterm Hollywood relationships feel highly implausible. Who would work AND socialize constantly with such a depressive drunk monster?)
Next we get a scene where Bette Davis confesses to Olivia de Havilland that she holds one of her Oscars in bed when she's lonely. Stars are so nonchalant about what they do with their Oscars in interviews that these "exposes" in biopics or tv specials also play like fan fiction -- we hope movie stars care as much as we movie fans. To quote Bette/Susan
God, that's sad.
A recreation of the arrivals at the Oscars in black and white. Lots of actors doing cameos of then famous names that won't mean much to many viewers at home. But when Bette/Susan and Joan/Jessica arrive we switch to color and fiction/reality intermingling.
Love this bit.
Reporter: Your Baby Jane co-star is nominated for Best Actress tonight? Who did you vote for.
Crawford: The Winner.
THE SHADE OF IT ALL.
Joan turns the green room into her own hosted soiree. She makes insulting small talk with Patty Duke who's just become the youngest ever winner of the Oscar for The Miracle Worker (in a leading role which was deemed supporting... commonplace now of course even with movie stars but in earlier decades that was only totally expected when it involved under age actors.)
Remember when Quvenzhané Wallis brought a "puppy purse" to the Oscars at 9 years of age? Well, Patty actually brought her puppy IN a purse.
Okay, so I hate to nitpick. No, no. I am totally okay with nitpicking in this case. It doesn't take much research at all to know that Joan Crawford loved dogs. And here we see the only dog scene in the entire series and it involves Joan bitching out another actress about loving her dog? ARGH. This show can't even gift even one iota of endearing human qualities to its Joan... only her evil and her misery. In this way the show remains super boring. It could still be an intense catty battle show with a little three dimensionality to the portraits!
From here on out, the episode is super intense. The dialogue free stare down when Bette enters the Joan-usurped green room is breath-catching
As is that long mostly dialogue free backstage tracking shot when Joan escorts David Lean to the press room through seemingly endless hallways full of Oscar night bustle.
It's all a long way of building up a remarkable amount of suspense and tension for the Best Actress announcement. Even though everyone with any knowledge whatsoever of movie history knows that Bette Davis lost, it feels like a nail-biter nonetheless... or perhaps like a carcrash that you can't look away from.
Waiting for Best Actress. The tension is unbearable. And the Winner Is...
Bette Davis getting the wind knocked out of her, gasping for air and Joan Crawford's triumphant evil catwalk to the stage and back again is just unbearably intense really.
the recreation
the real night
IF YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING FEUD WITH ANY PEOPLE WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT THE OSCARS, SPILL: DID THEY GAG ON THIS EPISODE? (We have heard that such people exist though we don't like to think about them.)
After the event Bette gets drunk with friends, and furiously snaps at them. She wanted it so badly. Meanwhile Joan returns to her home, as champion of her own evil game. But the camera and staging suddenly revealhow hollow and short-lived that feeling will be for her.
The loneliness of glamour and the emptiness of golden idols are exposed in this final slow zoom out from Feud's very best episode.
Did you also think this Feud's finest hour?
Reader Comments (28)
Though I knew in detail what would happen, I kept hoping this time Bette would actually win :-)
I am holding my breath,it's not here in the UK yet.
I loved this episode, especially that Oscar announcement!
I agree that this was the best episode... because it is so well known with movie buffs. Very well done.. attention to detail was remarkable.
Interesting read, Nathaniel. Funny, I thought this episode was probably the weakest of the season so far (except maybe the first episode). Super duper fun to watch but I felt the actresses had less diverse beats to play in this chapter.
Jessica is a smoking loon. Does she dress up as other famous people for birthday parties?
Nathaniel, any thoughts on that super long take?
I agree this was an excellent episode in every way visually and dramatically- but why didn't they have a scene with Victor Buono was nominated for best supporting actor?
Apologies, I can see you actually mentioned it.
I love this show! True, I'm not familiar with the historical context, but it's exactly what you said -- fan fiction. Is it defaming these women's legacy? Not any more than previous films and autobiographies have already tried. It's Ryan Murphy -- I'm not expecting anything other than a good cat fight and a little glamour. To the nitpicky haters, I'd quote Latrice Royale's 5 Gs: Good God Get a Grip Girl.
What a gift for Oscarfiles like me! That green room showdown was volcanic. It's ironic that the prize Crawford wanted so badly to put her back on top was won by Bancroft, whose victory returned her to Hollywood after her film career faltered. Without this resullt, we might never have witnessed such a glorious movie legacy.
On the contrary, I think that Joan (and Jessica) looks utterly horrendous in that overdone silver getup.
As much as I love Lange tho, Sarandon (and Davis) is walking away with this series (but the Emmy is still Kidman's!)
With this much fan fiction and celebrity impressions, I still don't know why Feud is still kinda disappointing to me lol
Ryan Murphy has earned the right to be a panelist on the next Smackdown. Just saying.
Jessica Lange slayed it. I'm sorry Nat, but I will never agree with you that she is an overrated actress. This episode alone is a testament to how excellent she is an actress.
I wonder though what else there is to expect from this show. This should have been the finale.
Who'd you cast as younger Bette and Joan in their Studio System heydays? Reese and Nicole?
The segments detailing "Oscar Night '63" was easily the best that "Feud" has had to offer.
There are great artists from all walks who have been legendarily difficult as people, and they attract friends and admirers despite that, for many reasons--both admirable and some not-so-admirable. By the end, except for the hardy few, most have long left. This happened to Joan in the '70s and Bette in the '80s.
My only thought is that both of these past Oscar ladies (Jessica and Susan) are no longer nominated for Oscars, their last Oscar nominations were 20 years ago (?), so maybe they are unconsciously repeating the past as far as being over the hill and put out to pasture to TV, etc. It's easy to make fun of Joan or Bette, but honestly, they come off better in real life.
Loved it. The series high so far, but I gotta admit I've been loving the show. Maybe it's the 60s Hollywood vibe, the actress-ing shenanigans, or just the sheer catty inside gossip but thematically resonant fun of it all. My fave Murphy joint outside of People v OJ.
This inspired me to revisit some of the nominees from that year - and "Feud" was right, Lee Remick must have been barely in the running.
I actually thought Jessica had some good moments in this episode, despite still not being a fan of her Joan Crawford overall.
It really bothers me that she's just doing a shade of Jessica Lange, rather than trying to channel Joan Crawford (there's no attempt at changing her voice), but I thought she had some great acting moments this episode.
And there was more attention to detail direction-wise with this episode.
Dave S : totally disagree. Lee Remick was fantastic in Days of Wine and Roses. The scene where she explains how the world looks dirty and filthy when she is sober but when she drinks everything is in glorious color is just heartbreaking.
I'ts one of the best lineups ever.
Bette Davis has two Oscars but deserved and wanted a third one. Now seeing her lose through Susan Sarandon is heartbreaking. But imagine what it feels like for perennial losers like Glenn Close, Amy Adams, and Annette Bening? The closest thing we've experienced to this recently was Washington being pitiful he lost to Affleck in the end. The precursors did not make it a race. SAG liked Fences and owed Washington a competitive win.
Imo. The 1962 best actress race was between Bancroft n Page w Remick a distant third. I dun believe Davis ever stands a chance as the show makes her out to be. As a matter o fact i tink she probably ranked last among the voters after Hepburn.
She had alr won twice in BA n her nom is for an OTT caricature kinda performance in a horror campy genre Oscar rarely honours. If anything, her nom itself is alr a huge miracle (considering tt Crawford who is EQUALLY magnificent was totally n unjustly snubbed). Its Davis wistful thinking tt she was gonna win it n i dun tink Hedda or Joan cld easily sway the votes away fr Bette as the show had us believe.
I also would have loved to see some mention of the Supporting Actor race. After all, Joan must have been pissed that she was not only snubbed but that Victor was nominated, too - so she was, after all, the only one of the three principles to be ignored.
And yes, 1962 is maybe the best line-up ever. Personally, I would assume that Davis was fourth behind Bancroft, Page and Remick. This was probably Hepburn's greatest work but I think she had no chance that year. And yes, the fact that we think today that Davis' loss was an upset is probably mostly due to the fact that she spent the rest of her life saying so. I just can't believe that Academy members really wanted to award her for that. After all, Agnes Moorehead was a favorite for Supporting Actress two years later for Hush, Hush and she lost as well. Oscar voters simply don't care for these movies.
This episode was the most intricate and skilled episode of the series so far. I agree that we are only shown one side of Joan Crawford's personality. Most noticeably omitted is her well documented loyalty to her friends. While William Haines' furniture is mentioned, her close relationship and support of her old friend who dared to live his life honestly is ignored.
There will be quite a few Emmys going out for this series. I haven't had this much fun watching anything since The Sopranos! The recreation of the Baby Jane scenes alone are incredible. You can tell both Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange were having a ball doing this. I wish it wouldn't end! Hat's off!