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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Frankly Speaking

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Probing interviews with some of the arts and entertainment world's most notable figures.

Frankly Speaking: Bette Davis - Self-Portrait of a Star

Bette Davis - Self-Portrait of a Star

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Frankly Speaking, Bette Davis - Self-Portrait of a Star

Oscar-winning Bette Davis on her Hollywood life.

Oscar-winning Bette Davis on her Hollywood life. With actor George Coulouris and BBC producer Peter Duval Smith. From June 1963.

Actor George Coulouris and BBC producer Peter Duval Smith interview Hollywood icon Bette Davis.
 
In an occasionally heated conversation about her career, Oscar-winning Davis shares her opinions on what it means to be a star after 30 years in the business.

Davis shoots down the "misconception" that she creates frictions on her movie sets. Her arguments were always with the front office. The actress also strongly counters Duvall Smith's claim that she uses the same mannerisms in every performance - blaming instead her imitators.

Films discussed include 'Dark Victory' (1939), 'Juarez' (1939), 'Watch on the Rhine' (1943) and Davis's most recent hit at the time, 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' with Joan Crawford (1962).

George Coulouris had previously starred alongside Bette Davis in the films 'All This, and Heaven Too' (1940), 'Watch on the Rhine' (1943) and 'Mr Skeffington' (1944). He's best known for playing Walter Parks Thatcher in the Orson Welles drama 'Citizen Kane' (1941).

Launched in 1952, Frankly Speaking was a completely novel and ground breaking BBC series. Initially there were three interviewers and the series was both unrehearsed and unscripted.

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1963.

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