Bad Girl

source: Bad Girl

This is a beautifully made, poignant drama about a young working-class couple starting their life together in the tenements of 1930s New York. This couple is incredibly normal and that's what makes this film so watchable. They're not gangsters, prostitutes, criminals, lawyers, or society girls down on their luck, they are just an ordinary couple without anything making them different to anyone else. What makes this so enthralling is therefore its story and specifically the storytelling. The world these people live in is perfectly encapsulated with a scene early on when a neighbour dies on one floor of their tenement and a baby is born on another. Our hero sadly concludes: "Born on the second story... he'll probably die on the fifth. All his life, just to climb three flights of stairs." This however is a positive story, it shows that although The Depression was of course a struggle, even living in a one-room-apartment people survived, they went to work, had fun, got married, started families and found happiness. It was just life and that's what this picture is about even though in this case the couple aren't sure they're ideal for each other, aren't sure what they want, aren't sure that the other one doesn't love them and that makes us uneasy as to whether they will stay together. It's so well presented that very quickly we feel we know these people so are hoping desperately that they will make a go of it and that everything works out for them. Inasmuch that it's about ordinary people, this is somewhat reminiscent of 1932's VIRTUE but the characters and the story and even the acting in this feel more natural and modern. It is perhaps more like the Kitchen Sink Dramas of the 50s and 60s such as LOOK BACK IN ANGER but set in America. Why is it called "Bad Girl" and why has it got such a salacious poster? Obviously to get people to flock to the cinema and obviously to get people like me nearly a century later to watch it! Fox Films however knew that to avoid riots in their theatres when the customers realised the extend of the false advertising, they had to provide a genuinely top rate entertainment and that's exactly what they did. There is no "bad girl" in this film, that was the name of the book on which this was based but even in the book "bad girl" is just an insult which is thrown unjustly around, a term which our protagonist doesn't want to get branded with. Although this was made in what's referred to as "the pre-code era" the PCA made very sure that with this picture, the Hays Code was very heavily enforced. The eyes of the nation were on them because Vina Delmar's book had caused such an outcry, it was banned in Boston and was cited as containing: downright and unforgivable nastiness. Any suggestions or even hints that pre-marital sex was something which actually existed was heavily censored. The long process of consultation with the PCA lasted so long that Fox Films considered abandoning this entire project but eventually Miss Delmar's novel was considered suitably sanitised. We obviously can't ever know how a film of the original story would have been but even so, the changes certainly haven't destroyed the theme or spirit of the story. Possibly the challenges they posed have made a more interesting movie since Borzage has had to compensate for the lack of explicit content, language and sex with a visual flair unique to him. The poster by the way does not seem remotely connected in any way with this film - it's good though isn't it!

source: Bad Girl

source: Bad Girl

Producer: Frank Borzage. Copyright 18 July 1931 by Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy, 14 August 1931. 8,046 feet. 89 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A year in the lives of two young married people in New York's tenements. The movie has considerably changed both the plot and the title character of the stage play. "Bad Girl" is now a totally incorrect title. There is no "bad girl" in the picture. NOTES: Feature film debut of Broadway stage star, James Dunn. (He had previously appeared in five movie shorts). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected Frank Borzage for Best Directing (defeating King Vidor's The Champ, and Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express), and Edwin Burke for Adapted Screenplay (defeating Sidney Howard's Arrowsmith, and Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). Bad Girl was also nominated for Best Picture (defeated by Grand Hotel), and was placed 4th in The Film Daily poll of U.S. film critics (after Cimarron, Street Scene and Skippy). It was selected by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1931. The stage play opened on Broadway at the Hudson on 2 October 1930 and ran a very moderately successful 85 performances. Sylvia Sidney played the title role, while Paul Kelly did the husband. Marion Gering directed. COMMENT: Frank Borzage was not only Hollywood's king of romance, but a superlative craftsman who could play on the strings of an audience's emotions like a master violinist. His own temperament echoed the image of a confirmed sentimentalist. A quiet man, Borzage (pronounced "Bore-zaig/ie", the "zaig" rhymes with "plague") never raised his voice on the set and never drew attention to himself. Untutored visitors always assumed he was a script clerk or continuity assistant. Yet any critic who writes a book on Romance in the Cinema will always place Borzage's name at the top of the list. He really believed in what he was doing. In fact, he persisted in his adoration for Romance even when it was out of fashion. In this instance, of course, the movie struck a timely chord with Depression audiences. Oddly, In the free-and-easy, pre-censorship Hollywood world of the early pre-code 1930s, Borzage and his very clever scriptwriters Edwin Burke and Rudolf Sieber cleaned up Delmar's play, changing characters and plot to an enormous extent, even though there was absolutely no pressure on them to do so. They succeeded in making Bad Girl far more romantic, if almost equally realistic. In fact, it's not the romance that seems artificial, but the occasional comic relief. In the stage play, the heroine, a little Bronx stenographer (Sylvia Sidney), is an unwed mother who is forced to marry a petty racketeer (Paul Kelly), whom she tries to reform. The film "version" bears only one vague relationship to the stage play, namely the fact that two young people get married and settle down in a New York apartment. Otherwise, it is completely different in every respect. Mordaunt Hall in his review in The New York Times even goes so far as to state that the "only adverse criticism" he could make of Bad Girl was "its strangely unsuitable title." He was being sarcastic, of course. He knew perfectly well how the title came about. He continues: "However, that is of small importance, for many a poor picture has boasted a good title." This must-see movie, is now available on a 10/10 Fox DVD set. In fact, I'd like to give this movie 10/10 also, but that deceptive title might annoy some people.

Mack Sennett once called Sally Eilers "the most beautiful brunette in Hollywood" and she was very eye catching, even in roles that didn't give her much to do. Then Frank Borzage started a hunt for a couple of unknowns for a film he was directing called "Bad Girl". Sylvia Sidney had starred in the original Broadway production which was an adaptation of a best selling book by Vina Delmar and ran for 85 performances in 1930. Borzage wanted to find a new romantic team to rival Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell and originally he had wanted Spencer Tracy but he was unavailable. Sally was picked and for the male lead, a young, fresh faced actor from Broadway - James Dunn. For a film debut he had the ease and confidence of a veteran. He was sensational and should have been nominated for an Academy Award. This was not a typical "boy meets girl in the big city" romance. It had more in common with "The Crowd" although without "The Crowd"'s bleakness. When we first meet Dorothy (Sally Eilers) she is modeling bridal wear but she is not at all dewy eyed - she has all the answers and knows all the lines to keep the "wolves" at arms length. She meets Eddie (James Dunn) at Coney Island and while it definitely isn't "love at first sight", they end the evening in a heart to heart talk at the bottom of the stairs. Eddie is a rough diamond who claims he can't talk to women but somehow he seems to get on with Dorothy. Their's is a bitter sweet romance - it's real and something the audiences of the day could probably relate to. They marry and Eddie can see his long cherished dream of owning his own radio shop within his grasp. Sally has some news of her own - and after Eddie has a tirade about the stupidity of bringing a child into a world of poverty - confesses she is going to have a baby. The rest of the film is concerned with mistaken feelings. Eddie thinks Sally is not keen to have a child but she is only trying to hide her joy because of his gruffness. Inside he is tickled to death and often stops parents with prams in the street to ask their advice, he is also working overtime and risking his life doing amateur boxing to get Dorothy the best possible care. She doesn't know and thinks he is spending his time in bars and getting into fights. In one of the most heart wrenching scenes, James Dunn plays with all the emotion he can muster, trying to convince a society doctor to deliver Dorothy's baby. And for once a friend wasn't just part of the furniture. Minna Gombell was great as Edna, Dorothy's best friend and mentor. It was a 3 dimensional part - Edna was hard boiled and tough but astute enough to realise that Eddie was a genuine guy. This role should have made Sally a star but it didn't. She and Dunn were paired several times but she became fed up and apparently refused to do "Jimmy and Sally" with him (Claire Trevor was substituted). James Dunn became an overnight star. He was extremely likable and also had a warmth and talent that both critics and the public liked. Highly, Highly Recommended.

An interesting little Borzage love story set during the Depression, detailing the struggles of young couple (Sally Eilers & James Dunn) with their hopes and dreams. Curiously Borzage won his second Oscar as Best Director for this oddly heady little movie and that's perhaps the only reason to watch it. It works as a timepiece of its era. But I definitely wouldn't call "Bad Girl" one of Borzage's best romances (in many ways it strikes me as turgid and unaffecting in several moments, and I didn't like the ending), but it is definitely worth catching if you are fan or a student of the director's sublime and unheralded oeuvre.

Unfortunately, this is apparently a very scarce film, not available on VHS or DVD, and seldom if ever broadcast. However, as a fan of Vina Delmar I have read the novel upon which the film is based, and must point out that the story takes place in 1923. This was the flapper era, the roaring twenties, the jazz age . . . and the era of Prohibition! A very different period from that of the Great Depression, which began in 1929, and was two years old when the film was made. Whether the story line was changed to place the story in Depression-era New York instead of Roaring Twenties New York, is interesting to consider. I would dearly love to see this film, and to see how well it lives up to the very fine novel by Vina Delmar, BAD GIRL. Regis Hardy

I finally tracked down Bad Girl. It had been on my list of wanna sees for years as it had won a major Oscar for Best Director- Frank Borzage.It was one of those tantalizing early talkies that had not actually been lost it had merely fell from sight. When I finally saw it last year at a Borzage revival, the film was a revelation.It was a pre-code delight about an ordinary couple, falling in love, struggling financially and having a baby etc.It most reminded me of the great silent film-The Crowd, which dealt with similar matters. What was especially fascinating to me was its depiction of "average" lower middle class types and how they lived and spoke in Depression America. The apartments... the slang, all of it, seemed real. It wouldn't be until the 50's neo realism hit American movies that we would see ordinary people depicted on the screen again, without condescension The movie has all the Borzage trademarks- love surviving against all odds, even an exciting if a little hokey climax.Unfortunately, the film has been slighted often in movie books,most likely, because the authors have never actually seen it. If it is ever shown again, try to see it. It's a wonderful peek at average city folks in Depression America.

Most possibly the greatest disappointment of all Oscar winners. But does anybody remember it?? I don't think so. Such a sad and boring film. What was wrong with people in the 1930s, really!?