I got interested in Wagon Train with an episode that game Judith Anderson appeared on. Joan Crawford took me to Route 66. I found Barbara Stanwyck simply Untouchable. When the veteran movie and stage actors provide critical interest by appearing on TV, it gives that series a boost, not only in the ratings but as works of art as well. In the case of Betty Davis, I have seen her on several anthology series and of course her 80 something movies. I probably had not seen "The Virginian" in years, so finding her in an episode while exploring her television career brought me back to a series I distinctly remember watching in reruns as a child.
When the stars I mention appear on an established series, they are most likely playing a person of mystery, suddenly thrust into the midst of the regular characters, and briefly providing them with some drama and a touch of class as they show the mostly younger actors a thing or two about their craft. Davis plays the witness to a bank robbery where the manager was killed and falsely identifies Doug McClure as the robber. But with pal Gary Clarke how to find the truth, knowing for certain that McClure is innocent, Davis has to make her move especially when she recognizes the eyes and a scar of the real culprit and blackmails them for $10,000 with a promise of perjuring herself.
Coming out the same year as "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", this was one of Davis's continued efforts as a working mother to remain in front of the camera. Her performance is subtle and only has a select bit of Davis's clicky speech pattern. She is dignified and subtle, but planning a con that the audience somehow knows she won't get away with. Yet there is plenty of sympathy for her even though it's lies she tells digs her in deeper. The script is good, and even if Davis had not been cast with the part going to a less well-known actress, it still would have been a good one.
When the stars I mention appear on an established series, they are most likely playing a person of mystery, suddenly thrust into the midst of the regular characters, and briefly providing them with some drama and a touch of class as they show the mostly younger actors a thing or two about their craft. Davis plays the witness to a bank robbery where the manager was killed and falsely identifies Doug McClure as the robber. But with pal Gary Clarke how to find the truth, knowing for certain that McClure is innocent, Davis has to make her move especially when she recognizes the eyes and a scar of the real culprit and blackmails them for $10,000 with a promise of perjuring herself.
Coming out the same year as "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", this was one of Davis's continued efforts as a working mother to remain in front of the camera. Her performance is subtle and only has a select bit of Davis's clicky speech pattern. She is dignified and subtle, but planning a con that the audience somehow knows she won't get away with. Yet there is plenty of sympathy for her even though it's lies she tells digs her in deeper. The script is good, and even if Davis had not been cast with the part going to a less well-known actress, it still would have been a good one.