In February and March of 1938, two of the greatest female performances in screen history were released within a month of each other, and Bringing Up [an Untamed Leopard]) and Jezebel represented new maturation points for both Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis, one in a screwball comedy and one in a southern soaper.

Forty years later, Sue Ellen Ewing of the TV show Dallas could have gotten her style--raging, plotting, seething under a surface of feminine southern charm which is completely inadequate to cover her frustrated sexuality--from Davis' Julie Marsden. Jezebel is also filled with the unique, almost shocking power of Davis, expressed through an inspired, Streep-like virtuosity; to name just one example, watch her singing "Raise a Ruckus", suddenly startled and terrified by her own wild impulses.