Michael Merrill

Combining unprecedented access to Davis' vast personal archives with original interviews, this documentary reveals a startling portrait of one of Hollywood's most gifted and enigmatic stars.

Margo Channing's famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," characterizes well the actress who played her in All About Eve--the inimitable Bette Davis. In fact, Davis's son comments in Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis that watching Margo Channing is much like watching Bette Davis. Davis's film career spanned six decades, in which she starred in 112 films, receiving 10 Academy Award nominations and 2 Oscars. Yet her life was not always the charmed one of a starlet; from a broken home, herself three times divorced, once widowed, betrayed by her own daughter's scathing biography, Davis found solace in her work, which didn't always come easy for her. When she first approached Hollywood in 1930, the studios didn't know what to do with such an odd beauty. This portrait of the actress covers a lot of ground, and leaves you wanting more.