Perhaps the most well known detail about this 1949 melodrama is that it was the film that ended Bette Davis’ career with Warner Bros. She signed up with the studio initially for five years and ended up with them for eighteen before finally deciding she needed to move on. Warner Bros., consequently, assigned her this movie believing that she would refuse to appear in it. She didn’t, but she fought them and director King Vidor all through the production. The end result is a film where it is obvious Davis doesn’t want to be there. Her performance is lackluster, lacking the fire and enthusiasm Davis can bring to the screen when she is passionate about a project.
The story is fairly simple. Rosa Moline (Davis) is dissatisfied with her life. She is married to a small-town Wisconsin doctor who enjoys the quiet life, caring for patients who often cannot afford his services. Meanwhile, she is easily bored and seeks the excitement of the city, as well as the luxuries of life her husband cannot provide. This leads her to latching on to a wealthy Chicago businessman who owns the local hunting lodge. Her restlessness leads her to having an affair, then committing murder to hide it. Though she is eventually acquitted of the crime, her conscience starts getting the better of her.
This film is famous for another reason other than Bette Davis’ disdain for it. It is referenced in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? along with the line “What a dump” that Bette uses to refer to the small town she looks down upon. Beyond the Forest makes sure we see the stark differences between small-town and big-city life, too. When Rosa does go to Chicago for a bit, the city is hectic and ominous, a common trope for any large metropolis. In contrast, the small-town of Loyalton, Wisconsin is shown as idealistic, with the sole blemish being a textile mill that looks almost volcanic against the night sky.
But, as mentioned above, Bette Davis’ lack of enthusiasm for this project translates into a lack of energy on screen. There are moments of her usual brilliance here and there but all too often she is just walking through the scenes, giving us the bare minimum to fulfill her contract with the studio. There is little of her usual fire and even when she is at her darkest—for instance, when she is committing murder—it is devoid of any energy whatsoever. This is a lackluster film, the type you watch for the star power alone. The problem, though, is that the star isn’t burning brightly this time around. 1949 - 97 minutes
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