In the “Gunsmoke” episode “The Jailer” (October 1, 1966), Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Matt Dillon (James Arness) are kidnapped by a bitter old woman in a black dress. Her name is Etta Stone, and she was played by the legendary Bette Davis (who was credited as “Miss Bette Davis”). Etta aims to hang Matt, as he killed her husband — a criminal — several years before. The old woman feels as if Matt himself committed a crime with his murder, however, and needed to face her own frontier justice. The episode also starred “Gunsmoke” regular-guest Bruce Dern (star of “Nebraska”) as Etta Stone’s son.
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Working with a star of Davis’ stature was, according to the trivia section on IMDb, intimidating for the “Gunsmoke” cast. Even though the show had been a hit for 12 seasons by the time “The Jailer” aired, there were still levels of fame that Arness and especially Blake weren’t used to dealing with. During filming, though, the edge was taken off by Davis’ own professionalism. She arrived on set with her lines memorized and her character defined. She treated each one of her scene partners as an equal, never once mentioning her legacy or her fame. It helped get the episode made on schedule and left everyone at ease. What a class act. Arness even recalled that Davis “went out of her way” to work with Blake.
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Back in 2013, Bruce Dern was interviewed by CBS News about his time on “Gunsmoke,” and he recalled “The Jailer” with clarity. He also recalled a great deal of trepidation from Davis, who was initially reluctant to appear on television. It seems that Davis was at a low point in her career and was having trouble finding roles. This, despite having won several Oscars.
Bette Davis had trouble finding work in the 1960s
By the 1960s, Davis was appearing in excellent horror thrillers like “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” and “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (which also starred Dern), but her output was greatly reduced from her busiest, Oscar-ready days of the 1940s. Hollywood was simply disinterested in Davis as a lead actress anymore, forcing her to take jobs on television. Recall that TV was, for many decades, seen as a much “lesser” medium than film, and many considered a move from movies to television to be a substantial step down in one’s career.
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This was true for Davis, but she also knew that she needed the money. Dern recalls being introduced to Davis by “Dead for a Dollar” director Walter Hill, who served as an assistant director on “Gunsmoke” at the time. Dern recalls talking down the prestige of the series, only to get a pragmatic retort. As Dern put it:
“[I went] to work on a ‘Gunsmoke.’ And Walter Hill, who’s a wonderful, fabulous director — I’d go anywhere for Walter Hill to work for him; I’ve done three [films] for him — he comes up to me (it was [my] second ‘Gunsmoke’) [and] he says, ‘Wait ’til you see who your mom is today.’ And I walk in, and there’s Bette Davis sitting a chair. And I get tears in my eyes. She said, ‘And what’s the matter with you, Brucester?’ I said, ‘Bette, it’s a “Gunsmoke.”‘ [She said] ‘Who’s gonna pay for my cigarettes? I took an ad out in the trades, [saying] ‘seven-time Oscar nominee looking for work.’ Nobody cares.'”
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Indeed, Davis placed an ad in the Hollywood Reporter, although it didn’t actually land her any jobs. The ad wasn’t an earnest plea for a gig, but it was a sarcastic way the actress could point out how performers her age were too often ignored by casting directors. Was “Gunsmoke” beneath her? No. She needed to get her cigarettes somehow.
