Alexander Walker, who knew Bette Davis for 20 years, has pieced together her early life, from her unhappy childhood to her promising career on the New York stage, interrupted in 1930 when Bette and her mother moved to Hollywood. The subsequent film career was by no means an instant success. She had a turbulent relationship with Warner Brothers, but gradually she achieved the opportunities to show her range, reflected in the roles she played between 1939 and 1941. In this celebration, Walker identifies the qualities that enabled Bette Davis to survive the Hollywood system and become one of its most durable actresses. He sites her strength of mind and body, her will power, her attractive looks, her emphatic diction, and her sarcasm, which bore her through her 55 years in the film industry, and over 90 films.