Jezebel

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Jezebel (1938), directed by William Wyler, with a screenwriting credit attributed to John Huston, came out one year before Gone with the Wind (which did not please David O. Selznick). The earlier film also has a selfish, but strong and defiant Southern belle who longs for an unattainable male close to the Civil War era. Despite its time period and year it was released, the film deals with issues that are present today, including confronting an outbreak of a disease, and the conflict between those wanting to change how to deal with problems and others who value traditional ways of doing things. 

 

The setting is New Orleans, 1852, where the streets are bustling with vendors and the hotels are elegant. Buck Cantrell (George Brent) is in one of the hotel bars and gets into an altercation when a man named De Lautruc (Georges Renavant) teases him about losing the affections of a woman, Julie Marsden (Bette Davis, winning a best acting Oscar for her performance). Buck wittily attacks De Lautrec’s intelligence when he says he doesn’t like his hat or ears or “anything between them.” They decide to fight a duel, which adds to the atmosphere of combativeness among the population. We find out later that he wounds De Lautrec in their confrontation. (De Lautruc’s first remark is that Buck doesn’t know what day it is. Buck admits to knowing at least the time of day, which means he will get drunk soon. This lack of awareness of what is going on because of self-involvement is shared by other characters who lack a broader perspective of what is happening and the ramifications of events and actions). 

 

Given the time in which the story takes place, the film depicts Black stereotypes that were perpetrated in the time of slavery, and which are now difficult to watch. For instance, Mrs. Kendrick (Spring Byington) orders her carriage driver around so much that he repeats “Yes, Mam” even when she isn’t saying anything to him. Mrs. Kendrick goes to a party with her daughter, Stephanie (Margaret Early) at the home of Belle Massey (Fay Bainter, winning the Oscar for supporting actress). Belle is upset because her niece, Julie, is late for her own party, which shows her disdain for social rules. Stephanie says she doesn’t have to curtsy anymore according to current social protocol, but her mother tells her not to adopt “Yankee manners.” Mrs. Kendrick also likes to quote old sayings, like “Spare the rod and you spoil the child.” Her attitude shows the resistance of the South to change, which its residents consider an assault on proper behavior. Of course, this is an ironic attitude given the savage way they treated slaves. 

 Ted Dillard (Richard Cromwell), the brother of Preston (Henry Fonda), also known as “Pres,” is in attendance. Stephanie asks Ted if Buck, who is also there, is devastated by Pres winning the affections of Julie. This exchange provides some background about the contention between these characters. Julie arrives riding a horse, not being driven, which illustrates her being an active, not passive, individual. Her aggressive nature shows when she tells the young Black boy who tries to handle her horse that if the animal bites, just “bite him back.” That the country was divided in 1852 is reflected in her character’s behavior as she sometimes embraces new ways and at other times praises tradition. Her lack of compliance (she enters the party in her riding clothes) with how she is supposed to behave has its attractive side since it exhibits freedom. Buck calls Pres a traitor because he went “up north.” Julie defends him, saying he is a banker, not a traitor to the South. Pres’s investment company has offices in New York and Boston, as well as in Europe. Buck reflects Southern hostility to anything having to do with the northern states, since the perception from the cotton-picking states is that Yankees want the ways of the South to be “gone with the wind.” 

 

There is a shift to Pres at the Dillard office in New Orleans. Pres is a humorless fellow who is not averse to change since he sees the financial opportunities in joining in on the development of railway systems. Others there talk about how the trains disrupt their farms. There is a conflict here between the older agrarian economy of the South and the onset of industrialization. One man brings up a problem that wasn’t pressing then but is now, the pollution caused by the fuel emissions from locomotives. There is also a yellow fever epidemic ravaging the area (sound timely?). Dr. Livingston (Donald Crisp) reminds those present that there was an outbreak in 1830, and that the men there seem to have forgotten how the disease eliminated so many people that there weren’t “enough men alive to bury the dead.” The film is pointing out how people don’t want to be bothered with the inconveniencing and expensive work involving preparation and action on health problems to minimize the risks. 

 

Just at that moment when the men are discussing important matters, the child Ti Bat (Stymie Beard), Julie’s African American slave servant, interrupts the meeting just because Julie wants to see Pres. Outside, Julie tells Belle she trained Pres “for years,” as if he is a pet, which shows her wanting to control others. Belle points out Julie couldn’t train her horse which threw her. She broke a collarbone and “her engagement” at the time because Pres was angered since he told her not to ride the animal. But Julie’s defiant attitude is shown when she says that Pres, “had no right to tell me what I could ride and what I couldn’t!” She says that since “they both mended ... I was right after all.” She is brave, but also reckless and self-righteous.

 

After Ti Bat delivers his message that Pres is busy, Julie bursts into the bank and insists on seeing Pres. He can’t get in a word as she goes on about what is most important in her vain world, which is how she will look in her dress at the upcoming Olympus Ball. He was supposed to be present at the fitting. She quickly accuses Pres of only caring about what is most important to him, which is ironic, because she is the selfish one. 

 

At the dress shop, Julie rejects wearing virginal white, the color Pres likes her in. She picks a red dress, just because it is “saucy” and “vulgar.” She is choosing it to cause Pres to be outraged, as a sort of revenge for his not accompanying her there. But, she also is declaring her independence from past rules, saying it is 1852, “Not the Dark Ages. Girls don’t have to simper around in white just because they’re not married.”

 

After the meeting at the bank concludes, with Pres successful in his argument, Dr. Livingston notes that Pres has not been handling his personal life so well, referring to his relationship with Julie. He tells Pres that his younger generation doesn’t know how to deal with women. Livingston, too, espouses rules of the past, praising the attitude of the Middle Ages and the Age of Chivalry, that places a woman (notice it is the men doing the placing) on a pedestal because a female is a “frail, delicate chalice” that needs protecting. Yet, he is contradictory in his saying Pres’s father would not tolerate his woman interrupting business, and would have used a “hickory” stick and “flailed the living daylights out of her” for the transgression. Then he would put “lard” on the “welts” and “bought her a diamond broach.” This description sounds like the acts of a domestic abuser who at one moment harms his female partner and then acts like he loves her. It is a condescending, controlling attitude, and one that doesn’t consider Julie’s forceful nature. 

 At Belle’s house, General Theopholus Bogardus (Henry O’Neill), Julie’s uncle, notes to Pres and Belle how “willful” Julie can be, and echoes Livingston’s old-fashioned belief that a rebellious woman needs to be handled with a “firm hand.” Julie sends a message that she can’t see Pres, most likely because she wants to inflict on him what she sees as his earlier rejection of spending time with her. As Pres goes up the steps to confront Julie, he grabs a cane, apparently taking the advice of the other men. He pounds on the door and demands to see her so that they can stop the skirmishes between them. He is reasonable when he says he couldn’t be with her that day and was disappointed about not helping her pick out a dress. But, his yelling and pounding is barbaric. Julie plays it cool, locking the door, showing her control over the situation, and humorously asking, “Who is it?” When she opens the door, the camera shoots from below Pres’s waist and at his side, aimed at Julie’s face, with the cane seen protruding upward. She looks at the cane, and she pauses, probably understanding that he has brought it to ensure her compliance with a threat of violence. It almost looks like a phallic symbol, which joins sex and power in the one image. But, his assertion of his manhood can’t be realized unless she opens the door, a symbol of her control over her sexuality. He says she is a spoiled child, but she reminds him that he used to like her youthful ways. She has made sure her cheeks are flushed and uses her alluring appearance as her weapon. He leans the cane against the door threshold, showing how she has disarmed him. 

 

They kiss, but she then shows him the red dress, which he finds unacceptable. She reverses her presentation of herself as the innocent child and now is sarcastic about how she must pretend that she isn’t supposed to know that the dress may make her look like the women on Gallatin Street, who are presumably prostitutes. He realizes that she is getting back at him for earlier in the day and asserts that she will do as he wants this time. He says she will wear a white dress or else they will sit at home instead. She acts demurely and agrees, allowing him this supposed victory.

 

Julie, however, still wants to show her independence and wants to spite Pres by having Buck take her to the Olympus Ball. She wears the low-cut red dress but Buck refuses to escort her because of the commotion she will cause, which upsets her plans. That she does not anticipate the repercussions of her actions is repeated later. He says that everybody has their rules, which Julie scorns. Pres arrives and wants her to change her dress. She questions his courage to defend her if someone insults her for what she is wearing. He agrees to be seen with her as she is, and they leave with Belle and the General.

 

The ball is a sumptuous affair with an orchestra and dancing. Everyone stares at Julie as they are startled by her flaunting the rules of etiquette with her outfit. Many shun the couple as the two walk the ballroom floor. Julie is ready to leave, feeling the social pressure intimidating, but Pres insists that he wants to dance. However, the other dancers leave the dance floor, distancing themselves literally and figuratively from Pres and Julie. Her lack of conformity now backfires on her as she feels stigmatized, and pleads that she wants to go home. Pres is punishing her for her willful ways, making her appear almost like a destructive disease, similar to the yellow fever plague. 

 

Pres takes Julie home and simply tells her goodbye. She knows that he doesn't mean farewell just for the evening. When she says it appears he has made up his mind about her, he says, “No, you made up my mind.” He is placing the blame of their separating on her behavior. She tries to maintain a strong emotional appearance, offering to shake his hand before he departs. But then she slaps his face, angry that he is rejecting her. Belle wants her to pursue him, but Julie’s egocentric personality causes her to delude herself and she says that Pres will return to her, despite her aunt’s warning that he will not this time.

 

One year passes, and men speak of the increasing threat of the epidemic. Dr. Livingston advises Julie and Belle that they should enjoy themselves socially while they can since a public health shutdown is imminent. The physical isolation of a quarantine mirrors Julie’s loneliness brought on by Pres’s absence. She has been withdrawn, channeling her energies into taking care of the house. After she steps out of the room, Belle says to the doctor that Julie still rides her wild horse, which shows her spirit has not been entirely broken. Dr, Livingston says that Julie is like Belle, only more so. Belle says of Julie, “I love her most when she’s her meanest, because I know that’s when she’s loving most.” The contradictory statement implies that Julie is most alive when she exhibits her passionate nature, whether it’s in negative or positive ways. Livingston says there is word that Pres is returning to New Orleans after having left to live up north. The doctor says he is returning to help his hometown deal with the yellow fever outbreak. 

 

After the doctor leaves, Belle informs Julie that Pres is coming home. Julie is thrilled, believing Pres is finally returning to her as she thought he would. She shows remorse for how she acted and says she will beg his forgiveness for past transgressions. She assumes they will be married this time, and makes plans for all of the family and servants to leave the house to stay at Halcyon Plantation, which she believes is the best place to have a party to welcome Pres and reunite with him. She most likely wants to use the plantation to highlight Pres again embracing her and the Southern life he left behind.

 

The wealth of these plantation owners is obvious in the luxurious houses they own. Julie is hyperactive in her optimistic preparations for the party. She wears a white dress this time to suggest her willingness to marry Pres on his terms. Buck, the General, and Dick Allen (Gordon Oliver) arrive noting how epidemic restrictions are now in place and the disease has caused the sick to be sequestered and most likely die on Lazaret Island where those who have leprosy are quarantined. Some are not reporting feeling ill so they will not be relocated to the island. The rich however can find sanctuary on their estates, as those did during the Black Death in the Middle Ages. That ongoing practice implies that some things do not change.

 

Julie’s joy is erased when Pres arrives with his new wife, Amy Bradford (Margaret Lindsay) of New York. Belle mostly hides her shock and is generous in her hospitality toward Amy, offering a place to stay safe from the yellow fever raging in New Orleans. Pres talks with one of the Black house slaves, Cato (Lew Payton), who he has known for a long time and offers to share a mint julep with him. Cato says it wouldn’t be proper but will have the drink in the pantry. Pres already talked of change before he left New Orleans. Upon his return, having stayed in the abolitionist territory of the North, and, in a sense, marrying it in the person of Amy, he is breaking precedents. 

 

Julie, not knowing about Amy, approaches Pres in her white gown, gets on her knees to ask forgiveness, and professes her love for him. He acknowledges that she looks more “lovely” than ever, which shows she has made a visual impact on him. But, he stops her from going further on her appeals for his affection. Amy then enters and Julie has a difficult time accepting the reality of his marriage as she repeats what she is being told as if in a state of disbelief. She keeps up appearances, however, at least until she exits with Belle. Alone with Belle, Julie’s combative nature takes over, saying she doesn’t want to be “wept over,” but instead must “plan” and “fight” to get Pres back, who she feels has always been hers. She doesn’t recognize his marriage to that “washed-out little Yankee.” She is ready to start her own version of a civil war. When Buck appears, she sees an opportunity to divide and conquer by using him to make Pres jealous. 

 

At dinner, Julie fawns over Buck as the conversation includes a discussion of the abolitionists and their plans to change the South. Buck talks about hanging some of those northerners who want to end slavery. Pres quotes Voltaire who said that although he may disagree with someone, he would fight to defend the right for that person to say it. Pres is arguing for allowing the expression of other points of view. Buck says it doesn’t make sense because he can’t see tolerating anything that he self-righteously believes is the only way to think. 

 

Pres says he is preoccupied with remembering his history in New Orleans, but Julie uses his remarks to subtly attack him by saying he is a “forward-looking banker” who should just “kill” those memories. She is implying that she is part of his past and because he has moved away from his original home which included memories of her, then he has no right to cherish those recollections. Here, Julie, as opposed to what she said earlier, is against change since it caused Pres to leave her behind. She says that Pres has adopted ideas that are above “ignorant Southerners” who expect to just act according to their “raising.” She is attacking Pres for being a snob. Buck adheres to the old-fashioned notion that “cotton is king,” so he says New Orleans will retain its greatness. Pres has broken away from the unquestioned insulated views of where he grew up and now sees how things are evolving. He says that the North will prevail economically because there will be a victory of “machines over unskilled slave labor.” Buck accuses him of being an abolitionist, but Pres says he is not, that he is a realist, and sees the “tide” turning against them. He claims that he is still loyal to the traditions of the South, although he says some may question the “value of those customs.” He is open to self-examination and alternatives, unlike Buck, who epitomizes the mind that is closed to other possibilities when he says, “I like my convictions undiluted, same as I do my bourbon.”

 

After the meal ends, Buck expresses his displeasure with how Pres keeps telling Buck that his desire of “teaching” the North manners will not be that easy. Pres says it’s nothing personal, but he then becomes confrontational by saying that he doesn’t care personally what Buck thinks. The political and private situations seem to be converging so that Pres is feeling he is under attack in both areas. His brother Ted points out in private that Julie seems to be acting like a seductive “Gallatin girl” with Buck. The sullen and wounded Pres makes a sexist remark by saying that Gallatin girls, that is prostitutes, and “great ladies,” those in high society, “have a lot in common.” Pres finds out from Cato that Julie has been isolated for quite a while and Buck has not been around. Pres may be deducing that Julie’s behavior is just another ploy on her part to arouse Pres’s jealousy. 

 

While Belle plays piano, Pres wanders outside, swatting an evening mosquito, and touching leaves, perhaps reconnecting with his roots. Julie joins him and tries to associate herself with the mockingbirds and the magnolia trees to persuade him that she is part of the home that he felt compelled to return to, the country he “was born to,” and that he “trusts.” She argues that what draws him there is in his “blood,” and he can’t turn away from it. In this metaphor, Amy is the wrong blood type, being from the North, and his nature will reject her. She says that the South “isn’t tame and easy like the North. It’s quick and dangerous, but you trust it … because it’s part of you. Just as I’m part of you, and we’ll never let you go.” She is presenting herself as the embodiment of what is primal in the South. She kisses him but he pushes her away, since, as he said, he loves Amy, and he goes back inside.

 

Buck comes outside and he makes negative comments about Amy, which pleases Julie. He pledges his support of her, since he most likely sees himself in a good position to press his advantage in trying to win over Julie with Pres being married. They hear cannon fire which is supposed to shift the winds and make the yellow fever less contagious. Pres suggests that it would be better to “drain the swamps and clean up the city.” He is being scientifically practical since the fever is carried by mosquitoes. But Buck is sarcastic of his “Yankee” ideas, another example of trying to hold onto behavior that does not stand up to verifiable evidence. Buck’s anti-North statements cause Pres to defend his wife who comes from New York, and Belle intercedes to quell any arguments at this social gathering. She tries to gain Julie’s support on the matter, but Julie says she would not want to hinder a person’s expression of thoughts. She is encouraging, as she has done in the past, division instead of unity among others out of her own selfish interests. 

 

Pres is informed that Jean La Cour (John Litel), a bank official, is seriously ill with yellow fever and wants to talk to Pres about important business matters before “it's too late.” Before Pres leaves he tells his brother, Ted, to look after Amy while he’s gone. Julie, creating dissension, says to Amy that Pres doesn’t have his priorities straight since he runs off to the bank, implying he should stay with his wife and friends. She again encourages Buck to add to her negative comments as he then denigrates the banking profession. Ted tells Buck that he is coarse and ignorant of how Julie is manipulating him. When Ted brings up Julie’s name, Buck sees that offense as requiring what duelists would call “satisfaction.” Buck acts as if they are just talking, but Julie realizes she has gone too far in using Buck and tells him not to follow the South’s “stupid code” which is for “fools.” Buck accuses her of wanting to turn away from Southern traditions, as she now is more like she was at the beginning of the story. She changes her stance depending how it will suit her desires. Julie begs the General to stop the duel, but he places the blame on her, stating that her plans have gone “astray.” Belle tells her that women may incite men to fight but can’t stop them once they get started. She, too, is indicting Julie for her actions, but also how the combative nature of men can’t be reined in. Julie then sings with the slaves in a partial attempt to escape her responsibility for what she has instigated, but she is also sorrowful and sarcastic as she talks about the charm of Southern traditions.

 At the duel, Buck tells his second that he just wants to “wing” Ted. He seems to want to comply with the tradition of the faceoff but only to put Ted in his place. The General urges Ted not to participate because Buck is willing to accept an apology and doesn’t really want to fight. But they have their duel, and the camera only shows the gunshots but not the men as the audience is kept in suspense as to the outcome.

 

Back at the plantation, Amy joins the silent women and accuses the Southerners of being savages for allowing a duel to take place. Julie enters after gathering flowers and she seems to be in fine spirits, reverting again to admiring the Southern way of allowing men to be able to face one’s enemy and settle scores. Amy says the flowers Julie is enjoying may be used on Ted’s grave. But the shaken Ted enters and tells Julie that Buck is dead, and before he died he told Ted he knew that he was a victim of Julie’s scheming, which deflates Julie’s high spirits. After the others have left, Julie can feel that Belle is judging her and, when asked, Belle says she was thinking of the Biblical Jezebel “who did evil in the sight of God.” Julie knows she is being compared to the woman in the Bible who promoted rebellious ideas and partisan turmoil, and has come to represent a wicked woman. 

 

Just then a gunshot is heard, and a man was shot by the authorities outside the house for not adhering to territorial restrictions mandated to hinder the spread of yellow fever. (And we think wearing a mask is bad!). This violence adds to the disintegration of what is happening in society as a whole and which is mirrored in the lives of the individual characters. The next scene stresses this theme as the epidemic is creating financial and interpersonal chaos in New Orleans. Wagons go through the streets to gather the sick and dying as soldiers patrol the city. Men fill the bars to drink alcohol, which was considered a way of treating the disease, another fake traditional belief that seems to be a justification to become intoxicated. Pres and Dr. Livingston drink for alleged medicinal purposes, but Pres is already not feeling well. After hearing that Ted killed Buck he passes out, and all the Southern gentlemen scatter, none of them showing the courage or loyalty they espoused to help Livingston carry Pres out. 

 Back at Halcyon, word comes that Pres is sick and staying at Julie’s house below the quarantine line in New Orleans to avoid being shipped to the leprosy island. Julie, most likely seeking redemption, decides to join the slave who brought the message and sneak past the guards by boat to New Orleans to help Pres. Julie risks becoming infected by getting in close contact with Pres. She finds him delirious in bed with a burning fever. She helps apply cool compresses and fans him to keep the fever down. The General acquired an exemption and Amy, Belle, and Ted travel to Julie’s house. Livingston says that he told the authorities that Pres was sick. The doctor sees the bigger picture and says there would be even more anarchy if there is one set of laws for the rich and another for the poor. He feels that the honorable Pres would agree to going to Lazaret Island. 

 

When Dr. Livingston tells Julie that she’s worn out and needs rest or she might get sick and wind up on Lazaret Island, there is an alert look on Julie’s face that shows she has decided she must go there with Pres. Amy has the same idea as she joins them and pleads that she must be allowed to accompany her husband to the quarantined location. Julie begs Amy to let her go to the island because she says she knows Creole words and how to deal with the slaves so that she is more equipped to take care of Pres. She says she is the stronger of the two women and can get Pres the drugs, food, and water he will need. She promises to make sure he will live, admitting that Pres loves Amy, not her. She only wants the chance to prove that she “can be brave and strong and unselfish,” She is asking Amy to help her be “clean” again, which suggests a sort of baptism to wash away her past sins.

 

As men come to take Pres away, Amy gives her consent, and Julie rides in the wagon with Pres and the other infected. These two characters, like the land they come from, are caught between a fading past and a changing future. There are canons going off and the last camera shot is that of a fire burning in a trash can, symbolizing the destructive war to come between the old and the new.

The next film is Miller's Crossing.