Life This Week: April 24, 1939

Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis and George Brent, is the "Movie of the Week." Naturally, Life gives away the ending (you might need a hanky for this one, folks). Thankfully, Dark Victory is an excellent example of melodrama. It seems that they're so easy to do badly!

What is particularly interesting in the Life article, though, is the breakdown of Dark Victory's budget. The entire production cost $800,000. The cost of all the film used was $15,000! Davis and Brent had to split $85,000, which comes out to about $1.3 million in 2010 dollars. I guess they were used to sharing the big bucks--Dark Victory was Bette Davis and George Brent's eighth film together.

We've had a couple days of rather warm weather, so I wanted to make something quick and easy. The asparagus is the asparagus salad from last week and the portobello mushrooms are made using this recipe from last year (but with thyme instead of parsley). I served the mushrooms over crème fraîche scrambled eggs.

Crème Fraîche Scrambled Eggs

1 tablespoon butter
4 eggs
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
salt

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Meanwhile, break the eggs into a large bowl and beat with a fork until the yolks are completely broken up. When the butter is melted, pour the eggs into the skillet and cook, stirring with the fork (don't use a non-stick skillet!). Add the crème fraîche and keep cooking (and stirring) until eggs are as firm as you'd like. Turn down the heat, if needed, to keep the eggs from browning. Season to taste with salt.

Serves 2

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You could also add herbs, scallions or even top with caviar. Yum yum!


Dark Victory still