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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

"So," asked quiz champeen Wayne Palmer, "is this your Mother's Day tribute?" Yes, indeed, The Anniversary (1968) starring Bette Davis is a great "Mommy Dearest"-type movie, and one of the best from the latter part of her career. Perhaps that might not seem like much of a compliment, considering that it was only a couple years later she was starring in stuff like Bunny O'Hare, but the 60-year-old Davis really shines in one of her most enjoyably evil roles.

(If you're into plot synopses, here's a decent one from, of all places, TV Guide.)

At the time, it also brought her to a new generation of horror fans: it was produced by Hammer Studios, the people who rejuvenated Dracula and his friends with a series of films starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, among others. The Anniversary was scripted and directed by Hammer stalwarts Jimmy Sangster and Roy Ward Baker. Based on a play (and it shows), it's much more a black comedy than anything else, and Davis is a scream in more ways than one. (Her cackle is a thing of sinister beauty.) She also conveys more subtle emotion and expression using just one eye than Joan Crawford ever got with two.

This brings me to comments made by a couple of quiz winners: as one put it, "Bette Davis + eye patch," equals Googled correct answer. Fair enough, but that presumes you recognized Bette to begin with, and considering the small turnout of correct replies this time, I'm still assuming that it was a tough quiz. So congratulations to the handful of guys who got it-- Wayne A. Palmer, Steve Perry, Mark Gisleson, E. Yarber, and Hank Parmer.

Posted by Steve Monaco at May 9, 2005 8:05 PM

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