The Bette Davis Collection (DVD)

Dark Victory (1939): Bette Davis's bravura, moving-but-never-morbid performance as Judith Traherne, a dying heiress determined to find happiness in her few remaining months, remains a three-hankie classic. But that success would never have happened if Davis hadn't pestered studio brass to buy Dark Victory's story rights. Jack Warner finally did so skeptically. Who wants to see a dame go blind' he asked. Almost everyone: Dark Victory was Davis' biggest box-office hit yet and garnered Academy Award nominations for 1939's Best Picture, Actress and Original Score (Max Steiner).

The Letter (1940): Six years after exploding to stardom in Of Human Bondage, Bette Davis equaled that excitement with another W. Somerset Maugham role as an adulteress using her sexual wiles to escape a murder conviction in The Letter. Nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Actress, Director and Supporting Actor (James Stephenson, superb as the anguished defense attorney), The Letter remains one of Hollywood's most special deliveries, a peerless example of melodrama as movie art.

Now, Voyager (1942): A tender love story, a taut psychological drama, an inspiring tale of physical and spiritual transformation. Now, Voyager is all three, as well as a Bette Davis career milestone, resulting in her sixth Best Actress Oscar nomination. She magically plays Charlotte Vale, a spinster who defies her domineering mother (fellow Oscar nominee Gladys Cooper) to discover love, heartbreak and eventual contentment. More magic is generated by a top-notch ensemble, Max Steiner's Academy Award-winning score and an improvised moment by Paul Henreid that became an instant classic: he lights two cigarettes at once and hands one to Davis.

Mr. Skeffington (1944): Whose face ravaged, grotesque is in the mirror' Surely it's not that of Fanny Skeffington, the prettiest woman in New York. Fanny always used her beauty to manipulate her way through life. She's encouraged dozens of suitors, even after her marriage. But now diphtheria has robbed her of her only attribute. And without her looks, she's lost.

The Star (1952): As Margaret, Bette Davis got yet another good picture and earned her ninth Academy Award nomination. Davis's confident, perceptive performance lends absolute authenticy, as did a prop she provided. An Oscar stautette set noticeably on the car dashboard during Margaret's drunken spin through Beverly Hills' was one of two Davis owned. Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood co-star in this gripping story that has many moments of truth (Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide).