Marked Woman

source: Marked Woman

Trailer—Marked Woman

Marked Woman

Mob czar takes over swanky nightclub and turns it into a "clip joint", keeping the hostesses on to tempt and tantalize the male clientèle and using his gorillas as bouncers; when a customer is murdered after trying to skip out on his bill, the Chief Prosecutor hopes one of the working girls will rat her bosses out in the courtroom. Thinly-veiled chronicle of Thomas E. Dewey's real-life legal showdown with Lucky Luciano, now with much of the emphasis placed on Bette Davis' role as tough-talking broad-*-caring big sister. Screenplay by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel is unusually taut, while Lloyd Bacon's direction manages to be compact and yet artistically solid. Humphrey Bogart's attorney isn't the dynamic character one is expecting, and his performance seems a little slow and dull. Davis, on the other hand, is at full-throttle, with big, incredulous eyes, nifty costumes, and a flip, exasperated manner. She's the reason to watch. **1/2 from ****

Bette Davis plays Mary Strauber, a nightclub hostess working in club 'Intime' which gets taken over by a gangster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) who soon changes the decor and the name to 'Intimate'. Mary stands up to the gangster right from the start,defending a friend he tries to fire, and letting him know he won't intimidate her. Her resolve is tested to the limit after her younger sister comes to stay, who unwittingly crosses Vanning's path, leading to tragedy. Davis gives a commanding performance and Eduardo Ciannelli is effective as the ruthless gangster. Humphrey Bogart also puts in an appearance - cast against type as an earnest DA. They don't make movies like this any more - enjoy!

Bette Davis is a night club hostess who becomes a "Marked Woman" in this 1937 film directed by Lloyd Bacon and also starring Eduardo Ciannelli, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewel, Mayo Methot (the future Mrs. Bogart) and Jane Bryan. Davis plays Mary, who joins DA Bogart in trying to bring down her employer, gangster Johnny Vanning (Ciannelli), a character based on Lucky Luciano. This is a great early star turn for the pretty Davis who insisted on looking terrible after Mary gets a beating. Though Davis has the screen persona audiences identified with her, Bogart wasn't there yet - it would be three more years before "High Sierra." Warners still didn't know what they had. Jane Bryan, who retired early to marry the owner of Rexall Drugs, Justin Dart, plays Mary's sister. Heavy on the melodrama, as is to be expected from Warners in the '30s - to many, some of the acting will seem overdone at times. However, even seen now, "Marked Woman" remains a good story with good performances.

Bette Davis looks as though she was rested (after her hiatus involving litigation) and raring to sink her teeth in a juicy part. Well, she got her wish in this finely directed Lloyd Bacon gangster drama. Davis is alert, focused, and driven here, putting her all into the dance hall hostess. It's one of her best roles in a film unfamiliar to many movie goers. The film is notable for some fine work by most talented character actors, and for an unusual "good guy" role for Humphrey Bogart. This crusading D.A. on a mission is skillfully etched by Mr. B. and his scenes with Davis are particularly engaging. Everyone knows the true life basis for this drama, and the exclaimer at the start doesn't fool anyone. This is a mean expose of some very callus criminals, and has the feel of that period's current newspaper headlines. A well made drama, worth checking out.

I thought this was a pretty interesting tale of a sassy escort service-type woman (women, plural, if you include all her roommates) who work for a nightclub owner who was supposedly portraying famous gangster "Lucky" Luciano. The woman featured is the famous Bette Davis, who never looked better. She was "hot" in the 1930s. After 1940 I can't say that, but she was always a great actress. She, as so many in the classic-era period, was also a recipient of soft- lens shots on all closeups. Eduardo Cianelli plays the gangster does an effective job. Unlike Davis, his is a name that never became well-known. 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! Lloyd Bacon directed this movie, which should tell you something. This guy was responsible for a ton of entertaining films.

Back to Hollywood and this is Warners 30s black & white highly dramatic fare starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Not much of Bogart's work from around this time is all that strong but here he almost already seems the big star he would become, most comfortable in the forthright and caring lawyer. He takes nothing away from Davis, of course, though who still shines through a film that is clearly centred around her. It is a very good performance throughout from the not quite dizzy blonde to the pioneering and ruthless dame. The film begins with great scenes inside the clip-joint where the girls work and money and drinks flow as the girls flirt and the gangsters prowl. The film doesn't exactly lose its way in the middle but it just seemed to me that it might be going to lapse into some moralising crusade. Not at all, this really gets into another gear and the violence surprises. Good low key ending too. Impressive with good script, stirring music and fine performances all round.