Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis, two great Hollywood divas
In the early 1950s, Bette Davis's sovereignty as queen of classic cinema was undisputed. Her figure rose above the rest of the mortals when her acting talent burst onto the big screen, with that blinding brilliance that surrounds the great stars, between the admiration and mysticism of the Hollywood universe. That was the way it was for almost two decades, until that woman who held the record for Oscar nominations, who had already won two Golden statuettes, ran into the one who was going to be her worthy successor.
It was 1951 and a still unknown Marilyn Monroe made one of her first film appearances with N- Eve, the film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Davis. The film, a portrait of the ruthless world in which theater stars operate, offered an accurate profile of a world of cannibalistic ambitions.
Fiction and reality have never been so close in a shoot
In the film, the aging that torments Margo Channing, the character lucidly played by Bette Davis, is the same terror that began to terrify the actress in her off-screen life. At that time, Davis had already crossed the border of 40 years and began to notice how the phone rang less and less to be offered a leading role. In these vital circumstances, it must not have been easy for the actress to come across the dazzling youth, an abundance of talent, and beauty of Marilyn in N- Eve. Their fleeting encounter lasts just a few minutes in the film. But the scene they shared is full of symbolism and it is really appropriate that Mankiewicz chose these two actresses.
Marilyn appears, in a sparkling white dress that glows, serene, innocent, and naive. She is approached by Davis's character who ignores her and despises her, but who will end up having to hold her coat while she resignedly sentences a: amen!
In the scene where they exchange a few words, the blonde interpreter had to repeat the shot up to 10 times, a situation that unhinged the protagonist of What Happened to Baby Jane? In some interviews, the actors in the film recounted that, at that time, during breaks, Marilyn still did not know how to function, she felt lonely, she was almost sickly shy, and almost always ate alone.
Of course, Davis didn't forgive her mistakes. Let alone that the scenes were repeated several times, so it didn't help her successor feel comfortable either. The great diva, who then had a position of power concerning the young Monroe, failed to see then that many things united them, including the pain of helplessness and loneliness.
Because as the character played by George Sanders says in the film itself, "Actors are a race apart from the rest of humanity, we are displaced personalities." Something like how both actresses felt, both afraid of the future, dragging a turbulent life and a past that weighed too much.
The truth is that n@k-d eve (1951), a film that can be seen tonight at Días de Cine Clásico on La 2, was one of the last great films made by the old star of classic cinema, while for Marilyn it was the takeoff of his career, the film helped him get a contract with Fox, the first step to become, shortly after, the great pop legend of golden Hollywood.
