# Jezebel (1938 film)
**Jezebel** is a 1938 American black-and-white drama directed by William Wyler for Warner Bros., starring [Bette Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bette-davis) as Julie Marsden, a headstrong [Southern belle](https://www.edgepedia.org/southern-belle) in 1850s New Orleans who scandalizes society by wearing a red gown to a ball that requires white dresses, and [Henry Fonda](https://www.edgepedia.org/henry-fonda) as her fiancé, the banker Preston Dillard.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) The film won Davis her second Academy Award for Best Actress and Fay Bainter the award for Best Supporting Actress, and it was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2009.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | World premiere in New York on 10 March 1938; general release 26 March 1938; 103 minutes, black and white[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) |
| Source | Play *Jezebel* by Owen Davis, Sr. (Broadway, 13 December 1933), which closed after 32 performances; screen rights bought by Warner Bros. in January 1937 for $12,000[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) • [4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) |
| Lead roles | Bette Davis (Julie Marsden), Henry Fonda (Preston Dillard), George Brent (Buck Cantrell), Fay Bainter (Aunt Belle Massey)[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) |
| Key crew | Screenplay by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston, and Robert Buckner; cinematography by Ernest Haller; music by Max Steiner; costumes by Orry-Kelly[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) |
| Academy Awards | Best Actress (Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Bainter) wins; nominations for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Music, Scoring[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) • [6](https://lunarafilm.com/film/jezebel/) |
| Production cost | Budget of around $800,000, the largest ever for a Davis film; shooting ran 28 days over schedule and almost $400,000 over budget[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) |
| Preservation | Added to the National Film Registry in 2009[3](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The film is set in New Orleans in 1850 (one account gives 1852). Julie Marsden, a strong-willed Southern belle, is engaged to Preston Dillard, a prominent banker. Their struggle for dominance in the relationship comes to a head at the traditional Olympus Ball, to which unmarried women are expected to wear white; Julie defiantly insists on red. Pres escorts her anyway, forces her to dance, and afterward ends the engagement, then leaves for the North on business.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) Julie's later story involves her attempt at social redemption and, in the film's final movement, a yellow fever epidemic and quarantine, subjects the AFI catalog lists among the film's minor themes alongside slavery, duels, and physicians.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL)
The red dress became the film's signature image. Because red registers as gray in black-and-white film, the gown Davis wore was actually bronze-colored; it cost $850, one of sixteen costumes made for her at over $500 each, with $30,000 spent on dresses for the film and seventy-five seamstresses working a month on them.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) Film scholar Cary O'Dell, writing for the Library of Congress, calls it "the reddest dress in the history of black and white film."[8](https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2023/04/happy-birthday-bette-davis-you-jezebel/)
## From stage to screen
The source play was written by Owen Davis (1874–1956), one of the most prolific playwrights in American theater with well over 150 plays, including the [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize)-winning *Icebound* (1923).[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) Davis wrote the play with [Tallulah Bankhead](https://www.edgepedia.org/tallulah-bankhead) in mind for the lead; when illness forced Bankhead out of rehearsals, [Miriam Hopkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/miriam-hopkins) inherited the role and bought a half interest in the production from producer-director Guthrie McClintic. The show ran for just 32 performances in 1933.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel) The play has never been published.[9](https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813142098.003.0008)
Warner Bros. considered a film version for Bette Davis as early as 1935, with Ruth Chatterton also considered for the lead, but head of production Hal Wallis passed after being advised that the heroine was too unsympathetic to appeal to audiences.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel) The project revived after [Margaret Mitchell](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-mitchell)'s novel *Gone with the Wind* became a bestseller in 1936 and renewed interest in stories of the old South. Jack Warner had optioned Mitchell's novel in 1936 as a possible Davis vehicle but let the option lapse during their contract disputes; [David O. Selznick](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-o-selznick) then bought it. When Davis lost the chance to play [Scarlett O'Hara](https://www.edgepedia.org/scarlett-ohara), Warner bought the *Jezebel* rights partly as a consolation and partly to beat Selznick's production to theaters, which it did by 20 months.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel)
Hopkins's contractual claim on the film rights was the last obstacle. Warner got her to sell her share for $12,000 with a promise that she would be the first actress considered for the role; she took this to mean the part was hers, only to learn she had been considered and rejected almost immediately.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel)
## Production
**Directors before Wyler.** Edmund Goulding was assigned first but left after complaining that the leading character was too nasty to hold an audience; in a July 1937 memo he told Wallis the picture could only tell "the story of the triumph of bitchery." [Michael Curtiz](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-curtiz) was next but left to direct *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938). Warner then hired [William Wyler](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-wyler) on loan from [Samuel Goldwyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-goldwyn) for a fee of $75,000 for twelve weeks of work.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel) Wyler already knew the play; he had seen it in New York while working for Universal and had recommended it to Carl Laemmle Jr. as "an excellent foundation for a picture."[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) Since Wyler was still finishing *Dead End* for Goldwyn, he asked the studio to assign his friend John Huston to work on the screenplay and represent him in script meetings.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel)
**Shooting.** Filming ran from 25 October 1937 to 17 January 1938, with added scenes completed 4 February 1938.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL) Wyler's habit of demanding take after take put the picture behind schedule; Wallis sent associate producer Henry Blanke a series of memos between November 1937 and January 1938 criticizing the over-shooting, at one point asking about a scene taken sixteen times, "What the hell is the matter with him anyhow--is he absolutely daffy?" Jack Warner considered replacing Wyler with William Dieterle, but Davis stormed into Warner's office and said she could not keep up her level of performance with another director, offering to work until midnight to keep the film on track.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel)
Henry Fonda, a last-minute choice for Preston Dillard a year before the roles that made him famous, had an agreement to finish by early December 1937 to attend the birth of his daughter [Jane Fonda](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-fonda). Because the production was behind schedule, he left before all his scenes with Davis were done, and Davis played the remaining exchanges in close-up without him present to read his lines.[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal)
The Olympus Ball, the film's centerpiece, was largely Wyler's creation; it is barely mentioned in the play and absent from early screenplay versions. It took five days to film. Wyler staged it as a study of space, with Julie's red dress filling the screen in close-up twice as her confidence breaks down against the empty ballroom floor, set to [Max Steiner](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-steiner)'s waltz music and photographed by Ernest Haller with a camera that moves behind pillars and travels from ceiling to floor.[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf)
## Wyler and Davis
*Jezebel* was Wyler's first film for Warner Bros. and his first collaboration with Bette Davis, with whom he began an affair during production.[9](https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813142098.003.0008) Davis later called Wyler the one great love of her life, and in her autobiography wrote, "It was he who made me realize my full potential as an actress."[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) • [4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) Wyler was the first really strong director she had worked with; he showed her how to pace herself and toned down her mannerisms, at one point threatening to put a chain around her neck to keep her from moving her head.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) The pairing became one of Hollywood's notable director-star combinations and also one of the most contentious; Davis later earned two more Oscar nominations under Wyler, for *The Letter* (1940) and *The Little Foxes* (1941).[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf)
## Reception and awards
The film opened at [Radio City Music Hall](https://www.edgepedia.org/radio-city-music-hall) on 10 March 1938 and garnered mostly excellent reviews, with Davis receiving raves; some critics objected to Julie's conversion to goodness at the end.[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) Davis landed on the cover of *Time* magazine, and the film made the studio a nice profit despite the overruns.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel) • [4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) The National Board of Review named Jezebel one of its Top Ten Films.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) • [13](https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1938/)
At the Academy Awards, Davis won Best Actress and Bainter Best Supporting Actress; the film was nominated for Best Picture, Ernest Haller for Best Cinematography, and Max Steiner for Best Music, Scoring, five nominations in all.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal) • [4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf) Davis complained in her acceptance speech that the only thing dimming her victory was Wyler's failure to win Best Director; he had not even been nominated.[10](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136755/the-critics-corner-jezebel)
## Relation to Gone with the Wind
*Jezebel* has often been described as a lesser *Gone with the Wind* made as consolation for Davis, and the two works do share an antebellum Southern setting, a headstrong heroine, and a prominent red dress. The timing complicates that theory: the play reached Broadway in 1933, while Mitchell's novel did not appear in print until 1936.[11](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel_ODell.pdf) Still, the novel's success was what brought the earlier, lesser-known property to the screen.[11](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel_ODell.pdf)
Selznick himself objected. In an 8 March 1938 telegram to Jack Warner, he accused Warner of making a film "permeated with characterizations, attitudes, and scenes which unfortunately resemble Gone with the Wind," listing a dinner-table discussion of North-South differences and an imminent war among the similarities; that scene was removed before release. According to modern sources, Selznick was so impressed with Steiner's music for *Jezebel* that he commissioned him to compose the *Gone with the Wind* score.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal)
## Legacy
The Library of Congress added *Jezebel* to the National Film Registry in 2009 as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."[3](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/) Later scholarship has treated the film's portrait of the antebellum South critically: as one study puts it, audiences and critics of the time took the film as a piece of historical reality, presenting a world in which women knew their place and enslaved people appeared content, aspects that were largely incorrect and that helped shape a false cultural memory of the antebellum South.[12](https://etd.library.emory.edu/downloads/1g05fc936?locale=pt-BR) Davis and Bainter re-created their roles on radio for the Academy Award Theatre program in the late 1940s, and a Lux Video Theatre television version aired on NBC on 8 November 1956 starring Martha Hyer and Charles Drake.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal)
## References
1. [Jezebel (1938), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL)
2. [Jezebel (1938), AFI Catalog, history and awards page](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3971-JEZEBEL?cxt=ymal)
3. [Complete National Film Registry Listing, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/)
4. [Gabriel Miller, "Jezebel," National Film Preservation Board essay, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel.pdf)
5. [Frank Miller, "Jezebel," Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/79875/jezebel)
6. [Jezebel (1938) awards, Lunara Film](https://lunarafilm.com/film/jezebel/)
7. [Frank Miller, "The Big Idea - Jezebel," Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136753/the-big-idea-jezebel)
8. [Cary O'Dell, "Happy Birthday Bette Davis--You 'Jezebel'!" Now See Hear!, Library of Congress](https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2023/04/happy-birthday-bette-davis-you-jezebel/)
9. [Gabriel Miller, "Gone with the Plague: Jezebel (1938)," in William Wyler: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Most Celebrated Director, Oxford Academic](https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813142098.003.0008)
10. [The Critics' Corner - Jezebel, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/136755/the-critics-corner-jezebel)
11. [Cary O'Dell, "Jezebel (1938)," National Film Registry essay, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Jezebel_ODell.pdf)
12. [Distribution Agreement thesis, Emory University (antebellum representation in Jezebel)](https://etd.library.emory.edu/downloads/1g05fc936?locale=pt-BR)
13. [1938 Archives - National Board of Review](https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1938/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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