Davis had a lot of "fresh impact" in Cabin in the Cotton, wrote Pauline Kael. Director Michael Curtiz had opposed casting her and, according to Davis, complained on set that she was a "goddamn lousy actress" -- but he lets her hold the screen in several scenes. Reportedly, it was this performance that caught the eye of John Cromwell, director of Of Human Bondage, helping Bette get cast in the role that made her a star.
She plays Madge, the daughter of a wealthy cotton planter in the deep during the Great Depression. In this scene, she and her family are having dinner, talking about the son of one of the sharecroppers on the plantation, when he bursts in on them with terrible news about his father. Silent film star Richard Barthelmess may have been a little old to play the son, Marvin Blake, but he responds perceptively to Davis's energy in all their scenes together.
Berton Churchill plays Madge's father, the plantation owner Lane Norwood; Virginia Hammond is Miriam Norwood.
Barney McGill, the cinematography, did great by Davis-- I need to find the credits for her hair and makeup, too. Orry Kelly may have done her clothes. The screenplay by Professor Paul Green was adapted from the novel by Harry Harrison Kroll. Produced by Hal Wallis, Darryl Zanuck, and Jack Warner for Warner Brothers, 1932
#BetteBeforeBondage #BestSupportingActressof1932