Jezebel

New Orleans, 1852, the Lympus Ball. Enter Julie Marston (Davis) dressed in scarlet. Deep shock from the maidens in white and the matrons in grey. She starts to waltz and couples shrink from the contaminating touch of her red gown. This justly famous scene from Jezebel (filmed, incidentally, in black-and-white) telescopes many of the film's themes. Julie is socially and sexually transgressive. Indeed her defiance of conventions threatens the very Social Order, and she is soon associated with the fever and fires that devastate the town. Preston Dillard (Fonda), engaged to Julie but already insecure in his masculinity, cannot cope with her dangerous sexuality and finds refuge with a safe woman from the North. But when Preston returns to the South, he meets Julie again and gets the fever...