[2] It stars Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell and Fay Bainter.

The film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Robert Buckner from the 1933 play by Owen Davis Sr.

The film tells the story of a headstrong, young woman during the antebellum period whose actions cost her the man she loves.

In 2009, Jezebel was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and recommended for preservation.

In retaliation for Pres refusing to leave an important business meeting to accompany her to the last fitting of her ball gown, Julie buys a brazen red satin dress.

When the leper wagon comes to pick up Pres, his wife Amy begs to accompany him, but Julie tells her that she is too unfamiliar with Southern culture to be able to deal with the desperate conditions and people there.

Turner Classic Movies states that the lead role was offered as compensation for Bette Davis after she failed to win the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939),[6] but David O. Selznick never seriously considered her for it.

Contemporary reviews were generally positive and praised Davis' performance, but some found her character's redemption at the end of the film to be unconvincing.

The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote that the film "would have been considerably more effective...if its heroine had remained unregenerate to the end.