Mary Astor (Bitch)/George Sanders (Blaggard)

This is the first in the "Bitches and Blaggards" series; monthly posts devoted to my favorite movie bad girls and rogues. A bitch is a selfish, malicious woman. A blaggard is a villain, a rogue and a black-hearted man. Both are bad, both are devastatingly alluring.

Mary Astor

Mary Astor is my favorite "movie bitch." Like a jagged shard of glass, she glitters, she shines, but she is hard and she can cut deep. As an actress, Mary Astor has few equals. Her first roles were of the Madonna type, but she soon found her niche playing ladies who were lethally lovely and never to be trusted.

Mary's two crowning "B" roles are Brigid O'Shaughnessy in "The Maltese Falcon" and Sandra Kovak in "The Great Lie."

Brigid O'Shaughnessy ("The Maltese Falcon")

Did you fall for Brigid's act the first time you saw this film? If you did, don't feel foolish, since a tough guy like Bogey's Sam Spade also fell hook, line and sinker. Her eyes are so moist, her voice trembles, she so needs the protection of a man like Sam Spade. How could he resist? Selfish, duplicitous, conniving, unrepentant and beautiful, she is the ultimate noir femme fatale. We really don't like her, but we can't take our eyes off of her, either.

Sandra Kovak ("The Great Lie")

This is Mary Astor's finest hour as the ultimate movie bitch. In "The Great Lie" Bette Davis (who can bitch with the best of them) steps aside and lets Astor steal the show. Davis' acting generosity to Mary Astor in this film is stunning. As the cold, selfish, brilliant pianist and party girl Sandra Kovak, Astor poaches George Brent's Pete from Bette's Maggie, impulsively marries him and manages to get pregnant by him before the two discover the marriage was not valid because Sandra's divorce from hubby #1 was not final. Pete, unaware of the pregnancy, feels he dodged a bullet, ditches Sandra and returns to true love Maggie before flying off into the unknown. Not wanting the child, Sandra willingly gives it to Maggie to raise before embarking on a successful world tour. Imagine the surprise of both gals when Pete returns home alive. He happily reunites with Maggie, who tells him that the child is theirs. Selfish Sandra decides she wants Pete for herself and holds the secret of the child's paternity over poor Maggie's head. Apparently, both natural mom and dad really don't want that kid, as Pete tells Sandra she can have the child, but he'll keep Maggie, thank you. Good thing Maggie wants the child, since Sandra doesn't want him without the father. Astor elevates screen acting to its highest art. She is amazing and was awarded 1941's Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress.

Mary Astor had a long and varied career in Hollywood. She went from the perfect innocent in the 1920s, to the perfect sophisticate in the 1930s to the perfect bitch in the 1940s. She could be nice ("Dodsworth") and not so nice ("Red Dust"). Her playing was always delicate, incisive and refined.

Mary Astor's personal life proved to be even more dramatic than any film she ever made. Prodded into acting by oppressive parents who virtually held her a prisoner into her 20s, at age 18 she engaged in a passionate affair with the much older John Barrymore (until he ditched her for equally young Dolores Costello). She married four times, and, during a bitter child custody battle with husband #2, her private diary (which contained much purple prose and detailed a sexual affair with playwright George S. Kaufman) was exposed with much publicity. Later, she became disenchanted with Hollywood and struggled with alcoholism and several suicide attempts. She recovered and went on to write six novels, two autobiographies and kept her hand in acting on both stage and screen (her last appearance being in "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" with friend Bette Davis).

George Sanders

Suave, elegant, deadly - ah the magic of George Sanders. Was there ever a man so sophisticated, so cynical, so seemingly morally corrupt - yet so attractive? I can't think of any.

I am sure George Sanders played some nice men, but it's hard to think of him as anything but a rogue. My two favorite George Sanders roguish roles are Jack Favell in "Rebecca" and Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve."

Jack Favell ("Rebecca")

Jack Favell is a blaggard, plain and simple. As Rebecca's disreputable cousin (and Mrs. Danvers' partner in psychological crime), Sanders is a charmer with a capital "C". Joan Fontaine knows he's bad, but he sure seems nice - and much more fun than stuffy Maxim De Winter. She doesn't close the door in his face, even though she knows she should, and neither would any of us because you just know he'd never, ever be a bore. And besides, he was right, wasn't he?

Addison DeWitt ("All About Eve")

Addison DeWitt is probably one of the best written and best performed characters in the history of film. That's a pretty strong statement, but I stand behind it. George Sanders is perfection as the acid-tongued theater critic who knows all the players and all the angles and who has Eve Harrington's number right from the start. Sardonic and suave, I can't imagine any other actor who could do justice to Addison DeWitt. With a love of self that cannot be trumped by any feminine wiles, he is the perfect dinner guest and the most deadly of enemies. For his brilliant work he was awarded the 1950 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


The one Sanders role I long to see is his performance in "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami." As a rogue who climbs over a series of women to attain social prominence, it seems to be the ultimate George Sanders role (and Ann Dvorak is in it, too!). It is on VHS, but since my VCR melted long ago, I'll have to wait and hope it is either released on DVD or TCM decides to show it.


George Sanders' career lasted into the 1970s. Not only was he Hollywood's premier rogue ("The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" are two other good examples), he was also Simon Templar of "The Saint" series.


Sanders personal life seemed to have mirrored his movie portrayals. Married four times (once to Zsa Zsa Gabor, once to Magda Gabor - I guess he liked the Gabor sisters), he titled his witty autobiography "Memoirs of a Professional Cad." In his later years, alcoholism and ill health eroded his will to live and, in 1972 he committed suicide, leaving behind these famous "last words" that could easily have been penned by Addison DeWitt: 

Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.

Coming in February: Miriam Hopkins and Warren William.