Product Description: A JUKE JOINT HOSTESS BECOMES ENTANGLED WITH A GANGSTER IN A VENGEFUL PLOT.
Amazon.com: In the mood for a dose of unfiltered, high-octane Bette Davis? Check out Marked Woman, a bristling 1937 vehicle from her early Warners period. This one is loosely based on the Lucky Luciano saga, with maybe a few borrowings from Edna Ferber's Stage Door. Davis plays the feistiest of a group of clip-joint girls, who board together when they're not cutting a rug with clients (read: suckers) at a nightclub. Crusading district attorney Humphrey Bogart wants Davis to testify against mobster Eduardo Ciannelli, but the price would be high. Meanwhile, Bette's innocent little sister (Jane Bryan) comes to visit from college and gets more than she bargained for. The melodrama of the story is a blunt object, but you won't be able to keep your eyes off Davis, who spits and sparks like a young dragon. She's so electrically "on" that other actors sometimes look a little afraid of her. The film is true to the Warners spirit of surveying a lower tier of society, and the actresses who play the clip-joint girls have an earthy energy (Isabel Jewell is a standout). One of them is Mayo Methot, the tough-looking character actress who married Bogart shortly after the film's release. --Robert Horton
Davis and Bogart- one of the best! ^ 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.
Davis and Bogart Combine For High Drama ^ Bette Davis is Mary Dwight, a woman on a mission: to bring down the mobster who killed her younger sister. Bogart is the crusading Prosecutor who after being duped by Davis, is cajoled by her into going after mob kingpin Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli.)
While Bogart's character is a cliche, his performance is not overblown and he brings the role a level of believability. Under the capable direction of Lloyd Bacon, the story also unfolds without all the melodrama film noir is oftentimes noted for, which is necessary since the film is loosely based on a true story--the saga of Lucky Luciano.
This film is a must not only for both Davis and Bogart fans, but anyone who loves noir cinema.
no resolution ^ I have attempted to contact both amazon and the seller to complain that all I had received was an empty container with no dvd inside. Neither wanted to do anything about it so I will never purchase another item from this seller and will go to ebay next time.
Tough crowd ^ Almost immediately after New York attorney general Thomas Dewey successfully prosecuted Lucky Luciano for running a massive prostitution ring in 1936, Warner Bros. came out with this excellent version of the story starring Bette Davis. This is one of the rare Thirites crime dramas where the emphasis is mostly on women and their interrelations: Davis plays Mary Dwight, an especially vivacious hostess at Eduardo Cianelli's Manhattan clip joint the Club Intime, and the film is primarily about her relationship with her sister and with the other "hostesses." (Despite the fact that the film came out after the institution of the Hays Code, the film is exceptionally clear about what Davis and the other women actually do to make their money.) The suspense is terrific, and the film treats violence pretty unflinchingly for its period: there's a horrifying sequence where two of Cianelli's thugs work Davis over in another room as the other women she works with listen in horror. Humphrey Bogart is better than might be expected in an atypical heroic part, the Thomas Dewey role, and Davis is as usual in the Thirties quite fine (except for the one disappointing scene where she overdoes it when she learns in Bogart's office the fate of her sister). Her ability to hold the camera's attention was perhaps unparalleled in Hollywood at this stage in her career. Cianelli deserves much credit for making such a villain so genuinely loathsome; the unusual Mayo Methot, who married Bogart after meeting him on the set of this film, plays one of the other hostesses.
a black mark ^ try as i may, this is one bette davis film that contains a davis performance i don't like. until the final two reels or so, she never relaxes in to the story or to lloyd bacon's fast-paced direction.
it may have been where she was in her career. she had just finished fighting a losing battle with warners. she hated her husband. and she probably wasn't too fond of the rest of her family as well. but to make professional amends, warners offered her this film and tricked it out with good sets, a firm cast, some sharp orry-kelly costumes and murky, inky camera work that hints at film noir. davis responds to this care with a brittle, strident performance that doesn't start to go somewhere until the scene where her character mary dwight is in the hospital after a brutal workover.
besides being her snarling davis self, she seems way too nervy to play a woman that survives by using her face and body. i always watch this film wishing for joan blondell or glenda farrell to be the lead.
so, what keeps drawing me back to the film besides davis' last moments?
humphrey bogart as the crusading attorney, jane bryan as the daffofil-lovely baby sister of davis' clip joint hostess, mayo methot and lola lane as hardened b-girl friends of davis and eduardo cianelli as slimy underworld figure johnny vanning. and the very best performance in the cast is isabel jewell as the provocative emmy lou. look at her closely. some of her costumes and her tightly curled platinum bob were borrowed for madonna's look as breathless mahoney in 1990's 'dick tracy'. had madonna played breathless with a southern accent, the theft would have been complete. jewell makes the most of every moment she has, whether she's vamping vanning or outwitting his goons.
and the final image of the five women heading in to the mist--poetic!
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