Directed by the great William Wyler Jezebel won Bette Davis the second of her two Best Actress Oscars. Legend has it that she made this movie as a way of thumbing her nose at Jack Warner for refusing to lend her to David O. Selznick for the highly coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. Though not as epic or as famous as that landmark movie Jezebel did give Davis a great opportunity to strut her stuff before the camera. She gets to be athletic, regal, pouty, stubborn, seductive, teasing and even courageously self-sacrificing, and all with a flamboyant southern accent. Henry Fonda co-stars as her fiancé.

Set in New Orleans in 1852, Jezebel is Julie Marsden (Davis), a spoiled and headstrong southern flirt. She is engaged to Preston Dillard (Fonda) a prominent young businessman. Julie's constant demands for Preston's attention finally backfire when she insists on wearing a red evening gown to the annual Olympus Ball. Blatantly defying the time-honored code of propriety that unmarried women always wear white gowns to the ball. She creates a scandal and loses Preston in the process.

A year later Preston returns from up north with a Yankee bride in tow. When a sudden outbreak of Yellow Fever strikes and Preston catches the highly contagious disease someone must be willing to go with him to the quarantined Yellow Fever colony to desperately fight for his life. Will it be the wife or the Jezebel?

The fine supporting cast includes George Brent as Buck Cantrell the man in love with Julie, the imposing Donald Crisp as Dr. Livingstone and Fay Bainter who won the Supporting Actress Award for her role as Aunt Belle.

Max Steiner's sweeping score is similar to the more famous one he would write for Gone with the Wind the following year. Jezebel is a memorable movie that unfortunately gets too often overlooked, sitting as it does smack in the middle of the giant shadow cast by Gone with the Wind.

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