An enjoyably bad film, that seems to be the consensus. I disagree. It's not a bad film. It's not a great one, but if you want to see a bad film there are many worthier candidates. In fact, "Beyond the Forrest" is a memorable film.
It's hard to say why it falls short of greatness, because it does just fall short. The flaws are due to the screenplay mainly, I think. It plops us down in the middle of the story. We have to learn, without explanation, that Rosa Moline is a backwoods Emma Bovary, a free spirit suffocating in a pointless world. If that character had been allowed a few scenes to develop, it would have been much more effective. Bette Davis herself complained that she was too old for the part. I don't see that as a problem. It's better that she's not a brazen nymph-ette. Would a hard-boiled type like David Brian's character have been attracted to that type? Maybe for a one-night stand, but not as a life-partner.
The main point is the incredible ability of Bette Davis, her ability to make any character believable. I found myself thinking of a novel. It's not an easy book to find or an easy book to read. My wife tried several times and couldn't get past chapter one. But if you persevere and let yourself become invested in the characters it is truly heartbreaking, especially at the end: "The Old Wives' Tale" by Arnold Bennett. (He was a contemporary of Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad and H.G. Wells.) It's very long but the story is very simple. It describes the lives of two sisters. We follow them from adolescence to old age and finally death. One, the younger sister, is beautiful, headstrong, passionate. She defies life and fate. The other is plain, placid; her only aim is to be a house-wife in the small town where they are born - exactly the sort of place Rosa Moline is desperate to flee. So I thought, just daydreaming. Who - in classic Hollywood - could have played these diametrically-opposed characters? Vivian Leigh or Ida Lupino could have done the younger sister, Olivia de Havilland or maybe Shelley Winters the other. But I kept coming back to Bette Davis. She could have played either one, or both, with equal brilliance. No one else could have done it. I can't think even of two male actors, if the novel's sisters had been brothers, who could have embodied both parts. Nobody but Bette Davis. That is her genius. That is why "Beyond the Forrest" is worth it. Tune out the screenplay and watch a brilliant performer work magic. (By the way, it's just my opinion, give "The Old Wives' Tale" a try, if you enjoy reading.)
It's hard to say why it falls short of greatness, because it does just fall short. The flaws are due to the screenplay mainly, I think. It plops us down in the middle of the story. We have to learn, without explanation, that Rosa Moline is a backwoods Emma Bovary, a free spirit suffocating in a pointless world. If that character had been allowed a few scenes to develop, it would have been much more effective. Bette Davis herself complained that she was too old for the part. I don't see that as a problem. It's better that she's not a brazen nymph-ette. Would a hard-boiled type like David Brian's character have been attracted to that type? Maybe for a one-night stand, but not as a life-partner.
The main point is the incredible ability of Bette Davis, her ability to make any character believable. I found myself thinking of a novel. It's not an easy book to find or an easy book to read. My wife tried several times and couldn't get past chapter one. But if you persevere and let yourself become invested in the characters it is truly heartbreaking, especially at the end: "The Old Wives' Tale" by Arnold Bennett. (He was a contemporary of Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad and H.G. Wells.) It's very long but the story is very simple. It describes the lives of two sisters. We follow them from adolescence to old age and finally death. One, the younger sister, is beautiful, headstrong, passionate. She defies life and fate. The other is plain, placid; her only aim is to be a house-wife in the small town where they are born - exactly the sort of place Rosa Moline is desperate to flee. So I thought, just daydreaming. Who - in classic Hollywood - could have played these diametrically-opposed characters? Vivian Leigh or Ida Lupino could have done the younger sister, Olivia de Havilland or maybe Shelley Winters the other. But I kept coming back to Bette Davis. She could have played either one, or both, with equal brilliance. No one else could have done it. I can't think even of two male actors, if the novel's sisters had been brothers, who could have embodied both parts. Nobody but Bette Davis. That is her genius. That is why "Beyond the Forrest" is worth it. Tune out the screenplay and watch a brilliant performer work magic. (By the way, it's just my opinion, give "The Old Wives' Tale" a try, if you enjoy reading.)