5 Olivia de Havilland Films and Where to Stream Them

One of the last surviving stars of Hollywood's fabled Golden Age, Olivia De Havilland died this past weekend in Paris. Her death came weeks after her 104th birthday and photos of her riding a tricycle down a Paris Street.

Her career spanned some 53 years, during which she appeared in some 49 films, winning two Oscars; she also famously feuded with her Oscar-winning sister Joan Fontaine, who also lived past 90; and she helped pave the way for actors' independence from the studio system when she sued the studio for extending her contract to include her 6-month suspension. Bette Davis lost a similar suit, but De Havilland's win "led to the 'seven-year rule' for personal services contracts, helping bring down the old studio system and bestowing unprecedented power on talent, reported Reuters in 2007. "California's seven-year rule, also known as Labor Code Section 2855, is such an accepted tenet of entertainment law that it's hard to imagine the business before it existed."

"Ms. de Havilland was both a classic Hollywood beauty and an honored screen actress whose very name and bearing suggested membership in a kind of aristocracy of moviedom," writes the New York Times in their obituary. "Though she was typecast early in her career as the demure ing�nue, she went on to earn meatier roles that led to five Academy Award nominations, two of which brought her the Oscar, for 'To Each His Own' (1946) and 'The Heiress' (1949).

"Those roles came to her in no small part because of the resolve she showed when she stood up to the studios and won a battle that helped push Hollywood into the modern era, surprising the movie moguls, who may not have expected such steel in an actress so softly attractive and, at 5-foot-3, so unintimidatingly petite."

She kept that resolve to the end, most recently when she sued television wunderkind Ryan Murphy for the portrayal of her (Catherine Zieta-Jones) in his hit miniseries "Feud."

Writes the Times: "She maintained that her portrayal constituted unauthorized use of her name and likeness and showed her in "a false light" as a hypocrite 'with a public image of being a lady and a private one as a vulgarity-using gossip.' A California appellate court dismissed the suit, ruling that the portrayal was 'not highly offensive to a reasonable person as a matter of law.'"

As for the subject of her feud with her sister, it was a topic she kept off-limits to the end. "That is one subject on which I never speak. Never," she said in an interview in the Independent in 2009. "And so we didn't." the interviewer added.

Below is a list of five of de Havilland's performances available for streaming. They run from a magical Shakespeare adaptation to sensational thriller that has her being held captive in an elevator by marauding thugs – a Trump commercial come true.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935)

de Havilland made her film debut with classy company: famed stage director Max Reinhart, composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, choreography by Bronislava Nijinska). It also featured 1930s superstars James Cagney and Mickey Rooney playing Shakespeare. The film flopped with audiences and critics, and de Havilland got what faint praise Variety gave the performances with "Olivia de Havilland, as Hermia, is a fine artist here."

Available on major streaming services from $1.99 to rent.

Gone With the Wind

That de Havilland lobbied for the part of Melanie Hamilton, described in a 2009 interview in the Independent as "the good-hearted, lovable counterpoint and rival to Vivien Leigh's wicked, lovable Scarlett O'Hara. Few actresses have so brilliantly managed to make a saint live as a flesh-and-blood woman."

She also thought of Melanie as "a real person, a caring person, a good woman but also an intelligent woman and a tough woman. Most of all she was a happy woman, a woman with a great capacity for happiness...." de Havilland was nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress. The award went to her co-star Hattie McDaniel.

Much has been written about the film's favorable portrayal of the slave owning Southern aristocracy, which led to be pulled from HBOMax last month and brought back with an introduction.

Writes the Times in a related story: "The HBO Max stream now begins with a four-and-a-half-minute video introduction by the TCM cable TV host, film scholar and University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart. As is the custom for TCM intros, Stewart provides background on the picture's production, reception, and awards, before moving on to the controversies, noting that "the film paints the picture of the antebellum South as a romantic, idyllic setting that's tragically been lost to the past," presenting the Georgia plantation at its center as "a world of grace and beauty, without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery upon which this world is based."

Available on HBO Max with subscription and to rent on all major streaming services.

Libel (1959)

Oddly de Havilland's best performance as William James' lovestruck spinster in "The Heiress" is not available on any streaming service. Instead take in this entertaining 1959 courtroom drama in which she plays the loyal wife to Dirk Bogarde, who may or may not be an imposter at the heart of a libel suit.

"For Bogarde's leading lady, Olivia de Havilland, 'Libel' brought her the kind of glamorous part she had hoped to settle into when she re-located to Paris in the mid-50s. Not only did she get to trot out her best stage diction as the proper British lady led to doubt her own husband, but she got the producers to hire Christian Dior to design her costumes." Frank Mills on the Turner Classic Movies website.

"But her transformation into a grande dame may have been too much too fast. As the New York Times critic noted, she seemed to be 'balancing Big Ben on her hat.' The performance would come back to haunt her in future years, with other critics complaining that she seemed to be giving testimonials rather than acting."

Available at TCM and for rent on major streaming services.

Light in the Piazza (1962)

After "Libel," de Havilland took a four year hiatus from filmmaking, returning with this touching melodrama based on a popular novel by Elizabeth Spencer in which she played Meg, a mother traveling in Florence with her 26-year old daughter. Clara is enamored of young Florentine and they plan to marry; but Meg has genuine concerns about her daughter staying in Italy. Upon its opening, Variety said the film "achieves the rare and delicate balance of artistic beauty, romantic substance, dramatic novelty and commercial appeal."

"One audience member was especially moved by the picture, and made her feelings known in a remarkable, unsolicited gesture," . "That movie-goer was author Elizabeth Spencer, who sent a letter to Olin Clark, the MGM story editor who initially handled the literary property, saying, "I have seen 'Light in the Piazza' twice now, and I want to express my thanks through you to everyone responsible for making the picture. An author approaches this experience fearfully. So much has been seen to happen when books are transferred to film. The range is a wide one, but would seem often to include murder in every degree along with lots of plain bad taste. Still, one has to go and see: no power on earth could keep us away; so imagine my relief to find the movie Messrs. Freed, Epstein, Green, etc. have actually done sincere, sweet, moving, and as kindly attentive to the pages as I wrote them as one's own friends might be."

Available to rent on Apple TV, Vudo and Amazon Prime.

Lady in a Cage (1964)

"The picture should be burned," wrote gossip columnist Hedda Hopper when this film was released. "Why did Olivia do it?" New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote a column condemning as "irresponsible" in its depiction of violence. In this home invasion film de Havilland plays the titular character – a woman trapped in a home elevator as a gang takes over her house. While a lurid commentary on changing mores in the 1960s, it also features some gay drama that resonates today: de Havilland son, who is shaded as gay, is thinking of suicide and writes her a note. When one of the gang members finds the note, he says: "This whole letter. It sounds real... what you might say... gay."

Available to stream on Amazon Prime, Hulu, Epix, Sling, and Direct TV