Bette Davis (Rosa) is a wildcat in a small town. She is married to nice guy doctor Joseph Cotton (Louis) but longs for a more adventurous life in Chicago. Wealthy David Brian (Neil) provides her with some hope for a new lifestyle …..but is he really that interested? When Cotton's friend Minor Watson (Moose) discovers Bette's plans, she kicks in with an even newer plan that results in her going on trial for murder.This film, sadly, is rather boring. Bette Davis does deliver some classic lines of dialogue but there is nothing much more going on. She is given a Katy Jurado gypsy kind of look which I think works fine with Bette but not with her servant Dona Drake (Jenny). Not only does Dona Drake's look not seem right but she plays her role as a caricature of Bette Davis which is somewhat unconvincing. There is only one Bette and no-one should be answering her back and having the last word! This is Bette's film all the way. It's a pity that the storyline is unconvincing (Bette's character would have left this sleepy town yonks ago) and pedestrian. A couple of good scenes can't really save this one.

Any other actress than Bette Davis couldn't have even made this trashy a film rate as high as it does. Bette was winding up her contract with Warner Brothers and Jack Warner gave her a stinker as a going away present. So Bette does what Bette always did when she got a part like Rosa Moline, just shout her way through and pull out all the restraints.For reasons that defy any belief Bette thinks she's way much better than the other citizens of her small Wisconsin town. Or at least destined for better things. How she gets them is to seduce a millionaire played by David Brian who has a hunting lodge in the area. He lives in Chicago and she dreams of going to Chicago like it was the Emerald City. And a few emeralds wouldn't be bad either.The problem is that she's married to kindly country doctor Joseph Cotten who's content with his life. That's a good deal of the problem with this film. Cotten is one of my favorite players, he's a person of great class always in his prime years. The man definitely qualified for sainthood. Davis looks so bad because Cotten is so good. The two have no chemistry at all together. That in a strange way helps the film which is about a pair of unhappy marrieds. But there was no way Cotten could have done much with a character who is as big a milksop as Dr. Moline.You will look far and wide among thousands of cans of film or DVDs or VHSs and will never find a character in any of them as incredibly self centered as Bette Davis's Rosa Moline. Everyone quotes her 'what a dump' line, but she's constantly saying even to herself 'I'm Rosa Moline' as if Hershey wraps her fecal matter and sells it as chocolate.And talking about a dump, when she reaches for the big moment Brian takes one royal dump on her. But that doesn't deter Bette in the slightest. She has no conscience whatever even to committing a couple of murders.Max Steiner's original music earned Beyond The Forest an Oscar nomination. Within his original score is interwoven the classic popular song Chicago which acts like a siren call luring Bette to what she feels will be good times and good living in the Windy City with Brian.Beyond The Forest is well remembered by Davis fans because of how she gave one of the most brazen and overacted performances in the history of cinema to breathe life into an unbelievable character.

I saw this movie on my 21st B-day, and was really loaded... I loved it!! Then forgot what it was called.The shot with Bette on the porch swing and the burning lumber thing in the background still creeps me out, it looks insane. What kind of husband would put up with that tramping around? And the long,long.... drawn out crawling back to the train scene is a riot. I thought she got ran over but i guess she has a miscarriage? What is the deal with the ending?I don't know but I'm happy with thinking she get run over.The ending is the best!! THE BEST!!!

"Beyond the Forest" is finally getting the respect it's always deserved. A number of film historians are finally appraising this masterpiece as the work of art it is. Thanks to its phenomenal star, Bette Davis, this King Vidor production has had to struggle with a bad reputation since it was first seen back in l949. Davis was going through a breakdown: she hated her studio, her marriage was dead, and Jack Warner finally kicked her ass off the Warner lot. Forever after, Davis always slammed everything about "Beyond the Forest" and people who never even saw it, joked about it and tore it to pieces. Especially, the gay crowds. When I saw "Beyond the Forest" at the old Regency Theater here in Manhattan back in the 80s, no one could enjoy it, since the gaggle of screeching queens ruined it for everyone by camping it up. Davis' inner turmoil and fury is what makes Rosa Moline literally seethe with fury, bristling with electricity in her greatest role. No other major star would have taken the risks that Davis does. As to the many comments about her black wig, make-up, clevage. This is how small-town women tried to look during that era. The Maria Montez look. I remember this from my small Southern town. All women dyed their hair black, grew long tresses, etc. Max Steiner's musical score is among his greatest (next to another masterpiece that Bette always put down, the l942 "In This Our life.")Davis' role is among the greatest ever put on screen. She displays her genius here like never before. To those who like to be clever and cute and view this gem as "camp", get a life. Davis is at her most brilliant. She nearly matches her brilliant portrayal of a psychopathic Southern Belle, Stanley Timberlake, in the great "In This Our Life." Bravo to Bette! To new viewers, watch it alone without the wisecracks, giggles and smart inside jokes. Warner Brothers did itself and its great star proud.