CORE POST - Dyer, LaPlace, Eckert on Bette Davis and "Now, Voyager"

In Richard Dyer’s Stars chapter “Part Two: Stars as Images,” Dyer discusses the connections between stars and their fans’ modes of consumption. Dyer dissects several fan magazine pages from 1930s editions of “Photoplay,” an early fan magazine devoted to giving star admirers glimpses into the private lives of stars. Dyer considers whether the magazine’s overtly lush and lavish depictions of stars work to portray them as “ordinary” or rather help stars epitomize specific “social types” (Dyer 43, 47). Dyer examines how certain stars are represented - from Elizabeth Taylor to Marlon Brando to James Dean - in terms of their “social types” and what those personas suggest regarding Hollywood’s notions of wealth and gender roles. Ultimately, Dyer implies that these “social types” dually help establish specific star personalities while also legitimizing the mythology of those celebrities’ Hollywood successes. 

In her article “Producing and Consuming the Woman’s Film,” Maria LaPlace discusses consumerism and advertising techniques in regards to female-led films. She specifically details her arguments in relation to Now, Voyager and how Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) both subverts but also reinforces notions of domesticity, femininity, and beauty. Dyer argues that Bette Davis’s star persona is indeed one of an “independent woman,” but he argues that Davis constructed that personality in a less obvious, more subtle manner (Dyer 59). LaPlace contests, though, that Davis “could offer a certain kind of ego ideal for women…who is intelligent, articulate, self-possessed, dedicated to her profession and an artist, willing to fight for herself…” (LaPlace 150). In other words, LaPlace argues that Davis’s social impact was fully established and crystal clear.

Charles Eckert’s chapter “The Carole Lombard in Macy’s Window” in Stardom: Industry of Desire focuses more so on the negotiations between Hollywood studios (primarily Warner Bros. and MGM) and American consumer goods companies (primarily Coca-Cola and GE) during the 1930s. Eckert argues that product placement “permanently affected the character of films” but also proved radio could be a critical marketing component for studios ands stars alike (Eckert 36). He also highlights how stars were paired with major companies to help advertise their products, and how this ultimately ended up making the stars even more popular as they were essentially given more time in the spotlight alongside their products. 

To me, LaPlace identifies the most enduring aspects of Charlotte’s transformation in Now, Voyager. I found that for all of the ways in which, as LaPlace suggests, Davis’s character reinforces traditional ideals about American womanhood and beauty, the most startling aspects of the film were when Charlotte “snapped” - or, she seemed to be near full rehabilitation but had a momentary lapse. These are the moments, LaPlace claims, which helped to establish unconventional, even subversive ideologies surrounding female protagonists in films in the 1940s. Ultimately, too, these moments enabled Davis’s extraordinary range - just as in All About Eve - to be on full display. 

-Dean Moro (Core Post #1, 1/30/17)