NEVER, ACCORDING TO ANY reliable account, did either Joan or Bette claim there was trouble between them, and writers who protested otherwise have no firsthand sources. On the contrary, as Joan wrote to a friend on August 25, “Bette Davis is a joy to work with—very professional and completely dedicated to her work. She and I get to the studio every morning, a half-hour before our calls, just longing to get in front of that camera. She is really a dear human being, with a divine sense of humor.” Years later, little had changed in her memory of that movie: “We didn’t feud the way the publicity
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