Marked Woman
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Movie Reviews of Marked Woman
Movie Review: Riveting melodramatic gem
Summary: 5 Stars
"Marked Woman" was the first film Bette Davis made when she returned to Warner Brothers after failing in court to break her contract in 1936. While the film lacks the production values of her gilt edged post "Jezebel" star vehicles, it is actually much more entertaining than some of those later more expensively made films.
Humphrey Bogart plays a lawyer defending a group of prostitutes who risk their lives to expose their boss pimp, a character based on the New York gangster Lucky Luciano. Eduardo Ciannelli gives a ferrocious performance as Luciano. Davis plays the leader of the girls and Jane Bryan plays Davis's innocent sister Betty who is murdered. Davis vows revenge and leads the other girls to court to expose Cianelli.
The girls are very convincing. Mayo Methot, Bogart's then wife, plays the vulnerable "hostess" who is passed her prime. Lola Lane plays a very jaded character and Isabel Jewell, another fine supporting actress of the thirties (remember "Lost Horizon"), plays the southern belle who leads Bryan into trouble. Davis leaps off the screen in every scene and in this milieu, her rangy intense performance fits perfectly. Bogart plays a very sympathetic character, demonstrating a much wider range than the norm at this time when he played so many gangsters. The film has a particularly memorable and somewhat downbeat ending as the girls walk into the mist, future uncertain.
The DVD contains an excellent print and re-instates a few bits which were cut from the print which has been shown on TCM. There is a worthwhile short documentary on the film too which ably describes the source of the script and the clever skirting of censorship. Incidentally, the film was banned in 1937 in Commonwealth countries.
Every frame of this terrific film packs a punch so don't miss it. Highly recommended and a favourite.
Movie Review: Davis redeemed, goes beyond the "marked woman"
Summary: 5 Stars
Humphrey Bogart is on the right side of the law in this melodrama about an underworld kingpin (played by Eduardo Ciannelli) and his stable of clip-joint "hostesses" led by Bette Davis. When a gambler is bumped off by one of Ciannelli's henchmen, DA Bogart looks like he'll get Davis's cooperation to indict Ciannelli, but on the witness stand she gets cold feet and Ciannelli goes free. Davis's reputation in zero now, but after her sister is killed by another one of Ciannelli's goons while making advances on her, Davis has a turn of heart. She threatens Ciannelli, is beaten up and has her face disfigured by his men, but from her hospital bed she nails him with the help of Bogart, and Ciannelli is sent up the river. Bette Davis is excellent as Mary Dwight in a very strong role. The script is compelling and Lloyd Bacon's direction is tight and assured. Davis's troubles with Warner Brothers (she had sued them to get out of her contract because of lousy roles) seemed to be over, and it looked as if the studio would meet her demand for better parts. At least they weren't going to retaliate and bury her.Movie Review: A Great Ol' Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're looking for an enthralling classic, you've got to get this film! The script is wonderful and full of old-fashioned, one-line zingers! The acting is great all 'round, and Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis really turn up the heat with their impressive acting and intelligent chemistry. This is defnitely the best drama I've seen of the old Hollywood gangster films. Vanning, the kingpin, is a cunning, evil, and blood-chillilng mafioso you'll never forget.
I've always been a Bette Davis fan, but her performance in this film really captured me. Humphrey Bogart also turns in a very fine performance as an idealistic prosecutor trying to save Bette from herself.
If you like vintage studio cinema, you'll love "Marked Woman"!
Movie Review: Davis and Bogart- one of the best!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing film that displays Davis at her best. Ripped from the headlines of the day, the gangsters against the show girls and DA Humphrey Bogart make for a terrific story. All the actresses have a great chemistry together and unlike some of Davis' roles, there is no overacting here. I am a big fan of films of the thirties, and this is a terrific example of Warner Brothers at its finest. One you can watch again and again.Movie Review: "Marked Woman (1937) ... Bette Davis ... Lloyd Bacon (Director) (2006)"
Summary: 4 Stars
Warner Bros. Pictures presents "MARKED WOMAN" (1937) (96 min/B&W) -- Starring Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Eduardo Ciannelli, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot & Jane Bryan, .
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Lloyd Bacon directed this tough, fast-paced film about "hostesses" in a nightclub run by a ruthless gangster. Star Bette Davis shines in the leading role, but it's cobra-like Eduardo Ciannelli who steals the film as the crime kingpin. A sleek, urbane actor, Ciannelli was a doctor before turning to the stage. He made his film debut in the previous year's Winterset, and would go along to become a top movie villain for the next several decades. Ciannelli had about him an air of refined cruelty that made him compelling to watch. Unlike Davis, his is a name that never became well-known.
Dedicated to realism, Bette Davis left the set when the makeup department outfitted her with dainty bandages for the hospital scene following the physical attack on her character by mobsters. She drove to her own doctor and instructed him to bandage her as he would a badly beaten woman. Returning to the set, she declared, "You shoot me this way, or not at all!" They did.
This film also shows wonderful examples of the Art Deco style in the Club Intime nightclub sequences. The design is lustrous. Hollywood Deco always signified glamor, modernity, and sexual liberation.
This film also has an up-and-coming actor by the name of Humphrey Bogart along with his soon-to-be-real-life-wife Mayo Methot. Get a load of some of the other female names in the cast: Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell and Rosalind Marquis - all "marked" women!
Special footnote -- Screenwriters Rossen and Finkel capitalized on a sensational trial reported by the "New York Times" between May 14 and June 22, 1936 according to film historian Charles Eckert. Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey was the prosecutor and Charles "Lucky Luciano" Lucania his target. Dewey went on to become New York governor and a two-time Presidential candidate while Luciano went on to organize Dannemora, the New York dock workers, and the international drug trade. The women whose testimony led to a conviction left the House of Detention and were sent to Dewey's offices in the Woolworth Building, where they received sums ranging between $150 and $175 dollars, barely a half week's wages that they earned as prostitutes. Then, according to Eckert they "disappeared, as they do in the film, into the fog."
BIOS:
1. Lloyd Bacon [aka: Lloyd Francis Bacon]
Date of Birth: 4 December 1889 - San Jose, California
Date of Death: 15 November 1955 - Burbank, California
2. Bette Davis [aka: Ruth Elizabeth Davis]
Date of Birth: 5 April 1908 - Lowell, Massachusetts
Date of Death: 6 October 1989 - Neuilly, France
3. Humphrey Bogart
Date of Birth: 25 December 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 14 January 1957 - Los Angeles, California
Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]
Total Time: 96 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (05/30/2006)