The Anniversary
by Roy Ward Baker
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DVD details
Actor: Bette Davis, Christian Roberts, Jack Hedley, James Cossins, Sheila HancockDirector: Roy Ward Baker
Brand: STARZ HOME ENTERTAINMENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-04
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of The Anniversary
DVD Review: You Won't Celebrate This ANNIVERSARY
Summary: 2 Stars
THE ANNIVERSARY is perhaps the most unusual film in Bette Davis' filmography. Coming after three fine "horror" thrillers, this one often gets pegged as another entry in the category (and was marketed as one by 20th Century-Fox who clearly was at a loss at how to sell it), THE ANNIVERSARY is actually a black comedy-melodrama with Davis playing such a monster mother she makes Gladys Cooper in NOW VOYAGER look like Stella Dallas in comparsion. Davis stars as Mrs. Taggart, owner of a construction company who keeps her three ineffectual adult sons on a tight leash. Unfortunately, the director failed to do likewise to Miss Davis but she can scarcely be blamed when the screenplay dares her to overact. Surprisingly successful playing a British matron (she does have the bad teeth for the role), Bette has a ball (and certainly a major segment of her audience will as well) but the bad taste and bad manners wears thin before long and the storyline, whatever it is, is just not interesting.
The movie is strong on outrageousness but weak on credibility, stunningly vicious remarks or actions are overlooked as if nothing happened moments later. Some of the insults are funny but the laughs are surprisingly few in this picture which has long stretches of melodrama. On the plus side there are two young actresses, Sheila Hancock and Elaine Taylor, who do very well and are able to stand up not only to Mrs. Taggart but to Bette Davis. The sons, unfortunately, are written off as drips although the hopelessly dominated middle son is well played.
THE ANNIVERSARY was for years a little seen film and television airings have always been extremely rare probably due to it's adult humor (although you will now see rougher stuff on TV cartoons). It's hard to miss in Bette Davis books with it's stills of Davis in a eyepatch or clutching a pissin' statue and I suspect many Davis fans have sought it out on video and DVD sight unseen.
This movie was apparently a bomb at the box office and started the most elusive chapter in Davis' career, 1968-1975 where she made some scarcely seen films like "Connecting Rooms", "Bunny O'Hare", and "The Scientific Cardplayer" as well as a few instantly forgotten TV projects. Bette Davis, like Mrs. Taggart, did not know the meaning of conceding and marched on and actually found a number of worthwhile and well-received projects in her senior years from 1976 until her death in 1989.
Description of The Anniversary
The legendary Bette Davis stars as Mrs. Taggart, a venomous one-eyed matriarch who ? despite her husband being long dead ? demands her three grown sons gather for her 40th anniversary. Eldest Henry is a mild-mannered cross-dresser; middle child Terry is a henpecked weakling; and carefree youngest son Thomas arrives with his pregnant fiancée. But this bumpy night has only just begun, as family secrets will be revealed, cruel insults hurled, and frilly underwear stolen. Even if the siblings can survive the festivities unscathed, does the biggest mother of them all have a shocking final surprise for everyone? Christian Roberts (TO SIR, WITH LOVE) and Sheila Hancock co-star in this deranged black comedy written and produced by Jimmy Sangster (THE NANNY, WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?) and directed by Roy Ward Baker (DON?T BOTHER TO KNOCK, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER) that Bette Davis fans still call one of her most outrageous performances ever!Bestsellers in DVD
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