Bette Davis and Ida Lupino were two of the top dramatic actresses in Hollywood in the 1940s. For seven years they overlapped at the same studio—Warner Brothers—yet they had little personal interaction and never acted in a movie together. There was one film, though, where the pairing of Davis and Lupino might have happened.
Several decades after this time, Ida Lupino told an interviewer that "Bette fought like mad to get me to play in The Corn is Green with her, playing the marvelous role of the young girl. I was committed to another picture, I'd already done wardrobe fittings and things. It would have been very exciting to do a picture with her." Yet when we survey the happenings at the time, Lupino's recollections appear distorted by rose-colored glasses. She may have later regretted never having worked with Bette Davis, but when she had the opportunity, she strongly resisted the specific vehicle.
The saga of the attempted pairing of Davis and Lupino in the Warner Brothers production of The Corn is Green begins in the spring of 1941. Davis, in her early thirties, was the most celebrated dramatic actress in Hollywood—a two-time Academy Award winner and reigning queen of the studio. Lupino, ten years her junior and new to Warners, was portrayed by press and publicists as the young upstart—a threat to Davis's position after celebrated performances in They Drive By Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941). In this atmosphere, Warner Brothers purchased the hit Broadway play, The Corn is Green and immediately promoted it as a co-starring vehicle for Davis and Lupino. "Won't that be something to star the two queens of the lot in one movie?" famed columnist Louella Parsons wrote.
The Corn is Green was written by Welsh playwright Emlyn Williams in 1938. It is the story of an English school teacher who moves to an impoverished coal mining town in Wales and mentors a promising male student to rise above the distractions of his environment. The play premiered in London in late 1938. That production's success prompted a Broadway version that opened in November, 1940, starring Ethel Barrymore, "the first lady of the American stage." Sixty-one-year-old Barrymore received headlines and great acclaim for her performance, turning the show into a prodigious moneymaker that would run for several years.
The play has a flashy secondary female role—a selfish young woman who tempts the teacher's protégé to deviate from his studies. This "horrid little Cockney wench" was portrayed on Broadway by an unknown 22-year-old named Thelma Schnee. Schnee received some fanfare for her performance, if few headlines. One critic wrote, "The woman who could steal a play from Ethel Barrymore has yet to be born, but Thelma Schnee, who plays the part of Bessie Watty, does such an astounding job that she comes dangerously close to it."
The bosses at Warner Brothers, production chief Jack Warner and executive producer Hal Wallis, saw the play as a vehicle for their star actress Bette Davis—who could transport the Barrymore role to the screen in the same fashion as she had successfully transported other celebrated stage roles of Broadway stars—such as Tallulah Bankhead's role in The Little Foxes (1940). Warner and Wallis figured the Bessie Watty role fit the villainous tramp type that Ida Lupino had performed so notably in her breakout roles—The Light That Failed (1939) and They Drive By Night (1940).
That Bette Davis would be attracted to the central role of the school teacher made sense, as it would be a showpiece for her acting. The role of a much older woman would not deter Davis, since she relished the opportunity to play unglamorous roles. Davis later wrote that the "The Corn is Green was in every way a rewarding part to play." For Lupino, the showy, but small, role of Bessie Watty was not tempting. The casting suggested she was becoming typed by the Warners producers, which was a major concern of hers after her typing as an ingenue and light comedienne in the 1930s had derailed her acting career. Any reluctance of Lupino to play this role was not an immediate concern in the spring of 1941, as Warners was contractually unable to release a film version of The Corn is Green until at least late 1943.
Through 1941 into 1942, Ethel Barrymore's performance in the stage version continued to draw praise from the New York critics and from around the country after she continued on a national tour. While Warners waited to begin the film production, their public plan continued to be to cast both Davis and Lupino. In May 1942, with filming reportedly slated for the fall, Hedda Hopper wrote, "Bette Davis gets the Ethel Barrymore role for the screen version of The Corn is Green, while Ida Lupino is set for the part of her daughter [sic]." Yet when a trade paper listed Warners' cast assignments in July, the only assignment for The Corn is Green was Bette Davis, while Lupino was assigned to three different pictures. Then in September, Hopper wrote, "It was denied at first, but now it's official that Ida Lupino will costar with Bette Davis in The Corn is Green, which is a Hal Wallis production."
The production date slipped into 1943. Meanwhile, Ethel Barrymore took the play back to Broadway for a second run, then started on another tour in late June. By this time, Lupino and the Warners executives were in a severe conflict. "Insiders report that Ida Lupino and Warner Brothers will sever relations, two months hence, by mutual consent," columnist Jimmie Fidler wrote. "She's dissatisfied with her roles, and they're irked with her constant dissatisfaction." Of the three future assignments for Lupino that had been reported in July 1942, Lupino had done none of them, suggesting she may have refused most or all of them. Instead, she had accepted lead roles in Devotion (not released until 1946) and In Our Time (1944), although the historical inaccuracies of Devotion also disturbed her. After completing these films, Lupino risked suspension by refusing to star in a re-make of Bette Davis' decade-old breakout picture, Of Human Bondage. Explaining her position, Lupino said in mid-1943, "Bette Davis was superb. She played it the only way it should be played, and I naturally will have to do it the same way. Then I'll again be called 'the poor man's Bette Davis'!" Notably this role was another villainous Cockney type like the role of Bessie Watty.
Lupino's casting in The Corn is Green soon became another casualty of her dissatisfaction and antipathy to being typed. Lupino's resistance to the role of Bessie Watty may well have begun with the initial talk of her casting in 1941, but was only was becoming public in 1943 due to additional pressure from the studio as production grew closer. In size and characterization, the role is similar to the role she had played in The Light That Failed several years earlier. The character even has the same name, Bessie. In 1939, she had fought hard for that very emotional part. It revealed her talent as a dramatic actress, allowing her to break out of a seven year rut as an ingenue and under-appreciated light comedienne. By the early 1940s, Lupino's stardom had increased dramatically and she likely would not have been inclined to revert to playing a size and type of role she had done at a much lower point in her career. On top of all that, the Bessie Watty of The Corn is Green is arguably a less substantial role than the Bessie Broke of The Light That Failed.
In August 1943, columnist Harry Mines reported, "Jack Warner still hopes to persuade Ida Lupino to play the part [of Bessie Watty], but she says definitely no." A week later, Hedda Hopper wrote, "In spite of the fact that Ida Lupino doesn't want to play any more Cockneys, Hal Wallis hopes she'll change her mind and do the part with Bette Davis in The Corn is Green." A peculiar item then appeared in Erskine Johnson's column: "Ida Lupino is sulking over failure to land the feminine lead in The Corn is Green. Bette Davis will play the part." Of course, Lupino had never been up for the lead part. This deceptive item, likely planted by studio executives to try to diminish their troublesome star, is a window into the bitterness of the dispute between Lupino and her bosses. After this extended period of discord over various projects, Lupino and Warners managed to reach one agreement—Lupino would take a six-month "leave of absence" from the studio.
Warners now started bringing in far less prominent actresses to test for the Bessie Watty part—one of whom was the role's Broadway originator. Thelma Schnee had left the stage run of The Corn is Green a couple years earlier, but the plays she had performed in afterwards had been flops. So Schnee traveled west to do a screen test in March, 1944, and allegedly became producer Hal Wallis' top choice. She promptly fell victim to Wallis' own disputes with studio chief Jack Warner. A reporter wrote in April, "Hal Wallis' resignation from Warner Brothers has held up the deal for Thelma Schnee... to play her original role of Bessy Watty in the screen version of The Corn is Green. The studio wants the new producer... of the picture to okay her first and he hasn't been assigned yet." Jack Chertok soon was assigned as producer and Schnee did not get the part.
In an odd turn, Warners now brought in another Lupino to test for the part—Rita Lupino, Ida's younger sister. Rita was a professional dancer and had not done any film acting of note. Hedda Hopper published this item on May 12, "Ida Lupino helping her sister Rita over the shakes as she tested for The Corn is Green with Bette Davis."
Rita later told more of the story:
I'd decided, after a lot of talk, and a lot more dancing, that I was pretty tired. Maybe acting wasn't a bad idea. There was a part coming up in the new Bette Davis movie--the part of the young Cockney girl, and I was set to try out for it. 'We'll work,' Ida said, and we did. She stood by, right through the test, and we saw it run off later. It was the only test of mine I'd ever glimpsed that didn't make me shrink down in the seat, and Ida grinned, and squeezed my hand. We were feeling high. The job fell through, for me. It was just one of those things, and it was Ida who broke up over it. I ended up trying to comfort her.
With Ida Lupino working so hard to prepare her novice sister for the part of Bessie Watty, it becomes even more clear that she did not contemplate the role for herself.
A few days later in May, 1944, Louella Parsons wrote that the studio was being "very secretive" about talks between producer Chertok and Lupino. Someone allegedly in the know told Parsons that "Ida is seriously considering playing the role of Bessie." Parsons added that Bette Davis was "enthusiastic about the idea," and that "Ida need have no fear she would be playing second fiddle, for Bessie is as important to the story as is the school teacher." That last sentence, inaccurately inflating the importance of the secondary character, gives away that the studio was making a last gasp attempt to convince Lupino to take a role she appears to never have had much interest in. Unsurprisingly, this did not work.
Given Davis's alleged enthusiasm for Lupino taking the part, this is the most likely time for Lupino's claim that Davis "fought like mad" for her to play the Bessie Watty role. Lupino's phrasing suggests that Davis was imploring Lupino to accept the role. (Warner executives already wanted Lupino, so who else needed to be "fought"?) The producers may even have enlisted Davis to further their cause, hoping that Davis's influence with a fellow actress would be persuasive. Lupino held firm, however.
With production on The Corn is Green on track to start before the end of June, Warners was compelled to bring the casting of Bessie Watty to a conclusion. Established dramatic actress Betty Field was tested, and she seriously considered the role—but opted to do Tomorrow the World instead. Eighteen-year-old Angela Lansbury, recently praised by critics for her role as a Cockney maid in MGM's Gaslight (1944), offered herself up for the similar type part in The Corn is Green. She reported that "the studio said 'no' [presumably MGM, concerning a loan-out to Warners]. I guess they know what they want me to do."
In the end, Warner Brothers chose a different youngster. On June 12, Louella Parsons wrote, "You can well imagine the excitement of Joan Lorring, 18 year old, who gets the chance to play the coveted role of 'Bessie Watty' in The Corn is Green with Bette Davis. With such stars as Ida Lupino and Betty Field mentioned for the role, Joan gets a break." Later in life, Lorring said that Warner Brothers had been leaning towards casting their new contract player Andrea King as Bessie, but that Bette Davis saw Lorring's screen test—made after two earlier rejections—and asked for her, with director Irving Rapper and producer Chertok agreeing.
A few weeks later, while filming on The Corn is Green was underway, Joan Lorring appeared on the radio show Hollywood Showcase to be congratulated by Ida Lupino and to do a scene from Lupino's dramatic breakthrough The Light That Failed. The studio could not have the original Lupino, so they portrayed Lorring to the public as a new Lupino.
In the end, Ida Lupino and Bette Davis never worked in a film together. Young Joan Lorring's break as Bessie Watty in The Corn is Green led to an Academy Award nomination in 1946 for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress. Lorring was unable to convert this success into a substantial film career. Meanwhile, Ida Lupino, despite her prolonged conflict with the Warner Brothers executives and eventual departure from Warners in early 1947, continued her distinguished career as a film and television star for decades—also becoming a writer, producer and director. Ironically, Lupino never received any Academy Award nominations.
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Notes
- "Bette fought like mad...": John Kobal, People Will Talk, Alfred A. Knopf, 1985, p. 542.
- "Won't that be something...": Louella Parsons, April 2, 1941
- "horrid little Cockney wench": Robert Francis, Candid Close-Ups, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 13, 1941
- "the first lady...: Nelson Hunter, Bad Girl Makes Good, King Features Syndicate, Tacoma News Tribune, August 24, 1941
- "the woman who could steal...": Axel Storm, Broadway Nights, King Features Syndicate, Two Rivers Reporter, July 9, 1941. Other rave reviews for Thelma Schnee included this: "I think the finest performance in the cast is that of Miss Thelma Schnee, who plays the disreputable girl of the story with remarkable deftness and skill.", from Harold V. Cohen, *The Drama Desk", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 29, 1940
- "The Corn is Green was in every way...": Bette Davis, The Lonely Life, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962, p. 217.
- Warners was contractually unable... : Jack Gaver, United Press, April 26, 1941
- "Bette Davis gets the Ethel Barrymore role...": Hedda Hopper, May 6, 1942
- Yet when a trade paper...: Motion Picture Herald, July 18, 1942. Lupino's assignments from Warners were The Damned Don't Cry, Night Freight, and The Horn Blows at Midnight. In the end, she did not make any of those films.
- "It was denied at first...": Hedda Hopper, Sep 29, 1942
- Meanwhile, Ethel Barrymore took the play...: Wood Soanes, Oakland Tribune, May 18, 1943; and Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1943
- "She's dissatisfied with her roles...": Jimmie Fidler, May 24, 1943.
- "Bette Davis was superb...": Hedda Hopper, July 14, 1943
- "Jack Warner still hopes to persuade...": Harry Mines, Los Angeles Daily News, August 5, 1943. Mines was one of Lupino's closest friends for many years, so his reporting on Lupino's thoughts has extra credibility.
- "In spite of the fact...": Hedda Hopper, August 14, 1943
- "Ida Lupino is sulking...": Erskine Johnson, August 16, 1943
- "leave of absence": Louella Parsons, November 4, 1943. "There’s nothing up anybody’s sleeve about Warners granting Ida Lupino a six months’ leave of absence. What was first rumored as another 'feud' turns out to be an amicable agreement. Ida asked for permission to take 'time out' for six months to have a complete rest if she wants it, or to make an outside picture—and Jack Warner has said ‘okay’. She hasn’t yet made up her mind which she will do, but after three pictures in a row the idea of resting sounds good to her now."
- "Hal Wallis' resignation...": Harold V. Cohen, The Drama Desk, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 14, 1944
- "Ida Lupino helping her sister....": Hedda Hopper, May 12, 1944
- "I'd decided, after a lot of talk...": Rita Lupino, My Sister and I, Modern Screen, May 1948
- "Ida need have no fear...": Louella Parsons, May 17, 1944
- Established dramatic actress Betty Field was tested...: Louella Parsons, June 8, 1944
- "the studio said 'no'...": Louella Parsons, June 11, 1944
- "You can well imagine the excitement...": Louella Parsons, June 12, 1944
- Later in life, Lorring said...: Lawrence J. Quirk, The Passionate Life of Bette Davis, Robson Books, 1990, p. 277
- A few weeks later, while filming...: Hedda Hopper, July 21, 1944
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