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Bette Davis gave many great performances, but she did not make many great films or work with many truly great directors (with the exception of William Wyler & Joseph L. Mankiewicz). King Vidor ranks as one of Bette Davis' greatest directors and Beyond the Forest is her most underrated film (another underrated film is The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex, directed by the superb technician Michael Curtiz). The eminent film critic Pauline Kael wrote that "there's not a sane dull scene in this peerless piece of camp." And I agree that this film is never boring. It has elements of film noir, melodrama, comedy and stands the test of time, as it is not sentimental like so many of Bette's soap operas (The Great Lie is a great bore). I challenge anyone to watch this film and be bored by it. Impossible. It starts off slowly, but after the first 20 minutes, it is compulsively watchable: a hoot! And although Bette in her later years said she "loathed" this film, it is clear that she relished the part of Rosa Moline and was living the part as she played it. She poured into the part all of the frustration & fury with Jack Warner and the studio for giving her bad roles & bad scripts, her own fears of aging after she had her baby and she was no longer box office, and all the emotional turmoil (both the sexual electricity & the physical & verbal abuse) of her marriage to William Grant Sherry. Ruth Roman (who played a small role in this film) said that she watched Bette on set and it was all too REAL for her that she was terrified of Bette. And indeed, this is one of Bette's most real performances, however over the top it may be. Rosa Moline is a precursor to Margo Channing in All About Eve, yet I find Beyond the Forest more interesting because King Vidor is more of a stylist than Joseph L. Mankiewicz. All About Eve is theatrical, not cinematic; Beyond the Forest is pure cinema. Savor every frame of this fading femme fatale in this film noir farce. You will laugh at Rosa, be moved by her, feel sorry for her, but ultimately admire her for her courage, pride & determination. She was just a dame who was trying to get out of her own personal prison & hell.

Only Bette Davis (along with Joan Crawford) could take a trashy film and make it absolutely compelling. No, this isn't a good movie, probably not even a fair movie but oh, Bette, you make it all worthwhile.

Bette wears the worst wig of her career, some really surrealistic make-up and was years too old for the part......so what?? When she delivers those famous lines "What a dump", you could jump for joy. This is Davis at her campiest and you can bet she knew it.

The story line is fairly simple. A small town bitch wants to be a big city bitch and takes a lover to attain that goal. She couldn't care less that she has a husband, played by Joseph Cotton, when she sets her sights for the boyfriend played by that perpetually bland actor David Brian. All hell breaks loose as Davis chews up the scenery and her fellow actors. The final scene as Davis drags herself to the train station is the raison d'etre for the cult following that has developed around this film. It is a film lovers delight. She was some dame!!!

Many have blasted this film as pure camp, some without having even seen it, I'm sure. While this is no masterpiece, it really isn't that bad--it plays for the most part like a standard noirish "woman's film" from the forties. Since this sort of thing was Davis' specialty, she isn't particularly out of place here. Some of the dialog is dated and over the top, but not nearly so much as this film's detractors would have one believe. What truly stays in the mind is Bette's awful appearance--she's obviously too old to play the part of the small town sexpot, Rosa Moline. Beyond that, she's made to wear some awful black fright wig that makes her prematurely saggy face look positively witch like! As a romantic interest, she stretches our sense of credibility (however, I will allow for the fact that black Maria Montez type hair was probably thought sexy in those days-and she does grasp a sense of how a faded small town belle might try to put herself across, as she swaggers around with false bravado in her tight dresses and sexy ---- me shoes. All in all, not as bad as they say--the whole project probably shocked Davis herself (as well as quite a few critics who generally not kind to it) into realizing that her leading lady days were numbered. A strange career move in the lengthly career of a great, if misunderstood star.

...in fact, a deeply disturbing film! What's most disturbing is that back in those days, people were supposed to be shocked and disgusted with the character Rosa Moline, (needless to say, so brilliantly acted by Davis) but today, I'm sure a lot of viewers would sympathise with her desperation to get out of the confines of a dead-end life. From the beginning, we learn of her hatred for life- her husband being a doctor is a sick irony!

If morbid humour is your thing, then you'll love this film. Especially when she says things along the lines of "the only people who are doing a worthwhile job in this town are the undertakers who carry the dead out of here". The only flaw in this film, is the ending. Not enough explanation is given. Give it a try.

"Beyond the Forest" is finally getting the respect it's always deserved. A number of film historians are finally appraising this masterpiece as the work of art it is. Thanks to its phenomenal star, Bette Davis, this King Vidor production has had to struggle with a bad reputation since it was first seen back in l949. Davis was going through a breakdown: she hated her studio, her marriage was dead, and Jack Warner finally kicked her ass off the Warner lot. Forever after, Davis always slammed everything about "Beyond the Forest" and people who never even saw it, joked about it and tore it to pieces. Especially, the gay crowds. When I saw "Beyond the Forest" at the old Regency Theater here in Manhattan back in the 80s, no one could enjoy it, since the gaggle of screeching queens ruined it for everyone by camping it up. Davis' inner turmoil and fury is what makes Rosa Moline literally seethe with fury, bristling with electricity in her greatest role. No other major star would have taken the risks that Davis does. As to the many comments about her black wig, make-up, clevage. This is how small-town women tried to look during that era. The Maria Montez look. I remember this from my small Southern town. All women dyed their hair black, grew long tresses, etc. Max Steiner's musical score is among his greatest (next to another masterpiece that Bette always put down, the l942 "In This Our life.")Davis' role is among the greatest ever put on screen. She displays her genius here like never before. To those who like to be clever and cute and view this gem as "camp", get a life. Davis is at her most brilliant. She nearly matches her brilliant portrayal of a psychopathic Southern Belle, Stanley Timberlake, in the great "In This Our Life." Bravo to Bette! To new viewers, watch it alone without the wisecracks, giggles and smart inside jokes. Warner Brothers did itself and its great star proud.