Whose face - ravaged, grotesque - is in the mirror? Surely it's not that of Fanny Skeffington, the prettiest woman in New York. Fanny always used her beauty to manipulate her way through life. She's encouraged dozens of suitors, even after her marriage. But now diphtheria has robbed her of her only attribute. And without her looks, she's lost.
Bette Davis earned her eighth Best Actress Oscar® nomination portraying Fanny. Backed by Claude Rains as her devoted husband, glorious costumes and a lush Franz Waxman score, Davis takes what might in lesser hands be just a woman's picture and turns it into art. Watch her ruined face glow with an inner light when she find hope in the words: "A woman is beautiful when she's loved. And only then." Magic.
