Bette and Joan The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine Page A

for that sort of thing—for soundstage romances. It's not that she was a Holy Mary; she wasn't. Her career always came first. So I kidded with her, saying that we all get crushes on our leading men from time to time and they passed, although I wasn't one to prove it: I married one [Dick Powell]. Bette got very angry with me. She said, 'Joan! I am
not
a schoolgirl. I don't
get
crushes. I am in love with Franchot, and I think he's in love with me.' I said something lame, like 'Give it time, honey,' although I was really thinking, 'Boy! If Joan Crawford gets wind of this, there is going to be
war.'"
     
    Adela Rogers St. Johns was at Warner Bros. during the making of
Dangerous.
"I didn't know Davis too well," she said, "but I knew she had a reputation for being tough on her leading men. She hauled off and socked Charlie Farrell over some minor misunderstanding on one picture, and Jimmy Cagney got the brunt of her temper on another. So, when
Dangerous
began and the reports went out that Bette was behaving like a little lamb with Franchot, I suspected something was up."
     
    Davis and Tone held frequent meetings in her dressing room. The actress explained he was a serious artist and she needed his input on her character. "Playing an actress," she said at the time, "is unlike playing an ordinary woman. All her gestures are a little too broad, all her emotions a little too threatening. Her greed, her insatiable zest for living, her all-encompassing ego make her seem completely pagan, but an articulate pagan, one who knows all the tricks of the trade."
     

    Bette Davis and Franchot Tone, working in Dangerous
     

    Joan and Franchot in "No More Ladies"
     
    During the making of
Dangerous,
Joan Crawford suddenly announced her engagement to Franchot Tone. There were no immediate plans for marriage, she repeated: "Marriage makes lovers just people." Her relationship with Franchot was one of utter freedom—although, according to Bette, Joan kept Tone on a short leash throughout the filming. "They met for lunch each day," she said in 1987. "After lunch he would return to the set, his face covered with lipstick. He made sure we all knew it was Crawford's lipstick. He was very honored that this great star was in love with him. I was jealous, of course."
     
    But not beaten. She appealed to Franchot's actor's ego. She had Laird Doyle, the writer of
Dangerous,
add new material to his scenes with her. This of course necessitated additional rehearsals, and more private meetings with her. "She almost drove herself crazy, scheming on how to get Franchot away from Joan," said Adela Rogers St. Johns, who eventually carried the news of Bette's romantic interest to Crawford.
     
    "Oh," said Joan, when told of the competition, "that coarse little thing doesn't stand a chance with Franchot."
     
    "I mentioned that Bette was a fine actress," said St. Johns, "and was going to become a big, big star."
     
    The latter news apparently intrigued Crawford. She called Adela a few mornings later and asked the writer if she would accompany her to the set of
Dangerous.
"To my knowledge," said St. Johns, "this was the first time Bette and Joan had been formally introduced."
     
    "We met previously," said Davis, "at a party at Marion Davies'."
     
    "I met many lovely people at Marion's," Crawford insisted, "but Miss Davis was
not
one of them."
     
    At Warner's that day Crawford, the bigger star, was "her usual gracious self," said St. Johns, "while Bette did her best to ignore her, keeping those huge eyes of hers fixed like a bayonet on Franchot." The visitors stood on the sidelines and watched Davis emote in the scene where she visits Tone in his office and tells him he is a sap to believe she ever loved him.
     
    "You! With your
fat
little soul and smug face. I've lived
more
in a single day than you'll ever
dare
live," said Bette as Joyce Heath.
     
    "It was a powerful scene," said St. Johns. "The contrast in style between her and Franchot was striking. I could