Beyond the Forest

Beyond the Forest (1949)

Nobody's as good as Bette when she's bad!

Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man insists she get a divorce and marry him instead. Soon she demonstrates she is capable of rather deplorable acts -- including murder.

Date of release
1949-10-21
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (54)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
King Vidor

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Chicago
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Beyond the Forest is a 1949 American melodrama directed by King Vidor, and featuring Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian, and Ruth Roman. The screenplay is written by Lenore Coffee based on the 1947 novel by Stuart Engstrand.

Production

The production of Beyond the Forest experienced several director-star contretemps that influenced Vidor's and Davis' evaluation of the film upon its completion.

Film historian David Melville suggests that Warner Bros. Pictures offered Bette Davis, the aging seventeen-year veteran of the studio, the role of Rosa Moline anticipating she would reject the project, a move that would allow executives to void her contract. She completed the film nevertheless, but it would be her last with Warner Bros.

Vidor and Davis feuded over direction of the film throughout its filming.

In an especially dramatic scene in the filming where Davis berates her "dull-but-decent doctor husband" (Joseph Cotten), Vidor demanded "greater vehemence" in her delivery. In response, Davis went to Jack Warner to ask that Vidor be replaced with another director, which Warner declined. Vidor was unaware of the request until the shooting was completed.

Davis’ complaints concerning Vidor had the opposite effect and spurred Warner executives to cancel her contract, a finale satisfactory to both parties.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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