Marked Woman (1937)

Director: Lloyd Bacon                              Writers: Robert Rossen & Albern Finkel
Film Score: Bernard Kaun                        Cinematography: George Barnes
Starring: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Eduardo Ciannelli and John Litel

Half crime drama, half women’s picture, Marked Woman is another of Warner’s teaming of Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. At the time, however, Bogart was far from being a star at this point, and was simply the only male lead they really had in their stable fit for a crime drama. He wouldn’t break out and make a name for himself until three years later in High Sierra. Davis, of course, was already being groomed for stardom and would break out the following year in Jezebel. Director Lloyd Bacon, who was incredibly prolific, was given the chores on this project and does a workmanlike job. The first half of the film is predictable and slow going, but in the second half things pick up and it becomes quite satisfying.

Eduardo Ciannelli is a mob boss who is taking over the Club Intime and is going to institute a few changes. The girls working for the club receive new instructions that they must kick back part of the money they get from the patrons to the boss for protection. Bette Davis refuses to go back to Ciannellis’s his apartment saying now she’s an employee, and saves long-in-the-tooth Mayo Methot--soon to be Mrs. Humphrey Bogart in real life--from being fired. When an apparently rich client comes in and runs up a huge bill, he pays with a check and on the way home admits to Davis that he doesn’t have a dime. She tells him to get out of town as soon as possible, but it’s too late. He’s murdered by the mob and Davis is arrested because she was the last one seen with him. Bogart plays the D.A who only wants Ciannelli, but will use Davis to get him, and veteran character actor John Litel plays Ciannelli’s lawyer who is going to try a few tricks of his own.

There’s something about the thirties Bette Davis that’s unpleasant for me to watch. She’s far too animated and most of the time exceeds her emotional justification in the film to an extent that she seems to be going way overboard. In the forties she had either mellowed or managed to be reigned in by directors and delivered much more even performances. During the second half of the film, however, her histrionics are justified and she gives a nice performance. Bogart is obviously feeling his way still, but does a much better part in a straight role than he did as his cartoon-like gangsters from the thirties. Jane Bryan is Davis’s kid sister, who doesn’t know what her big sister does for a living. The rest of the girls include Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell and Rosalind Marquis. And poor Frank Faylen has another bit part as a taxi driver.

In certain respects, one wishes this film were darker, literally and figuratively. The sets are bright and glittering and the juxtaposition with the plot is a bit incongruous. Five or six years later this would have been a terrific noir film. Even so, there are some shocking moments in the film and implied violence that harks back to the pre-code days, the most famous being Bette Davis’s bruised and beaten face. Ultimately, while this is an interesting story--based on the sensational trial of Lucky Luciano the previous year--it’s definitely a lesser Warner Brothers outing. Marked Woman has second-tier crew and principals who were not yet major movie stars. But for all that, the film has held up over the years and is definitely worth watching.