In Marked Woman, Betty Davis plays the snappy, titular character in this above-average crime-drama about the career of Lucky Luciano who financed his stay at the Waldorf-Astoria from the proceeds of his merry band of “hostesses” (translation: prostitutes), a story ripped straight from the headlines of the mid-thirties.
Lloyd Bacon (42nd Street) directed from a Robert Rossen (who would later go on to write and direct ‘The Hustler’ among others) and Abem Finkel script in a film that would not be out of place in a WB’s Gangsters set instead of their Vol. 2 Bette Davis collection.
However, it’s a nice addition to this set, and a good change of pace from the other films. It was Bette Davis’s first film made after a long-standing battle with Warner Brothers to get better roles and she came back with the epitome of a Bette Davis role, slinking through the frame, cigarette in hand as a “hostess” who finds herself battling a monstrous mobster who takes to slapping women around. The film also sports one of Humphrey Bogart’s few “nice” roles of the thirties in which he is put on the right side of the law as a friendly prosecutor.
Mary Dwight (Bette Davis), a “hostess” at the swank “Club Intimate”, a gambling joint recently bought and renamed by local heavyweight kingpin Johnny Vanning (a thinly veiled Lucky Luciano) played by Eduardo Ciannelli, is passed along to the new establishment along with other hostesses. When Johnny takes issue with an older hostess who he thinks won’t bring in clientele, Mary Dwight rushes to her defense, seemingly unafraid of big-time Johnny Vanning, and in a pivotal moment earns his respect as he lets the aging hostess keep her job.
Not everyone seems so lucky, as some surrounding characters find themselves “in the river” due to unwise finance decisions. Meanwhile, an ambitious district attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart) has been trying to nail Johnny Vanning for years and when one of Mary’s clients winds up dead, pursues the hostesses to testify against him.
No one is stupid enough to take the bait and Mary is strong-armed into getting Johnny off in court which results in Mary being ousted as a “hostess” in front of her little sister, Betty. Mary had been sending Betty to college on “clientele” money and Betty had no idea what Mary does for a living.
In a fit of disappointment, Betty rushes off with another hostess and becomes enveloped in this world which causes a client to mistake her for a hostess and when she rebuffs some unwanted advances, she finds herself on the wrong side of Vanning who puts the beat down on her. When word spreads of this to Mary, personal safety becomes less a priority and she rushes in to take him down face first which results in a great sequence, the culmination of which is the perfect Bette Davis line: “I’ll get even if I have to crawl back from my grave to do it.” Needless to say, when Davis speaks this line, you believe it.
Mary returns to Graham for help and Vanning, expectedly not quick to lie down, sends some of his goons to pay her a visit, to make her a ‘marked woman’ by slicing an x into her face and beating her to near death. This violence provokes the other hostesses to testify in a courtroom climax with an impassioned speech from Graham and justice served.
If you are a fan of Bette Davis, then you will love this over-the-top performance - which shines in every scene. With the chance to try and prove herself to the studio to justify better roles, you can tell she is taking advantage of every opportunity here in which she goes toe to toe with Humphrey Bogart and Eduardo Ciannelli without blinking an eye. Besides the last court speech, Bogart’s role here is rather thankless - a clear supporting turn to Davis but it’s nice to see him as a good guy for once in this era of his career. Davis and Bogart teamed up together for five other films including The Petrified Forest (1936) the year before and Dark Victory in 1939.
The film is presented in it’s original aspect ratio of 4:3 full frame. Special Features include an informative featurette entitled ‘Marked Woman: Ripped from the Headlines’ which details the actual account of the 1936 Lucky Luciano trial and also covers the feud between Bette Davis and the studio and the pairings of Davis and Bogart. Well worth a watch. Also included are 2 cartoons, “Porky’s Hero Agency” and “She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter”, and the film’s theatrical trailer.
A film that should appeal to Bette Davis and gangster pic fans alike, this a fine entry in the Bette Davis canon and well worth a watch for fans of classic cinema.
Marked Woman is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information. The film is also part of the Bette Davis Collection Vol. 2 which is now available at Amazon .
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