Thank You

Bette Davis, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex  (1939)

When I received an email from Rick Armstrong the other day telling me that I'd been awarded the Classic Movie Blog Association's 2011  "Best Review/Drama" CiMBA for my post on The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, I was thrilled - and also surprised. The post had originally been my entry in CMBA's "Movies of 1939 Blogathon" last spring and I'd always thought of it as something of an outlier, being about a film that isn't generally counted among the truly great films of that much-vaunted movie year.

CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon - The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

“In 1939, I secured my career and my stardom forever. I made five pictures in twelve months and every one of them was successful.” Bette Davis was referring to the string of movies she made in rapid succession, beginning with The Sisters in 1938 and followed by four more the next year – Dark Victory, Juarez, The Old Maid and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. If 1939 was a watershed year for Hollywood, it was, too, for the actress who was about to begin her reign as America’s top film actress.