Dangerous (1935)

An alcoholic actress considered a dangerous jinx is rehabilitated but shows she's as dangerous as ever.

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writer:

Laird Doyle (story)

Stars:

Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay

Won 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bette Davis	...	Joyce Heath
Franchot Tone	...	Don Bellows
Margaret Lindsay	...	Gail Armitage
Alison Skipworth	...	Mrs. Williams
John Eldredge	...	Gordon Heath
Dick Foran	...	Teddy
Walter Walker	...	Roger Farnsworth
Richard Carle	...	Pitt Hanley
George Irving	...	Charles Melton
Pierre Watkin	...	George Sheffield
Douglas Wood	...	Elmont
William B. Davidson	...	Reed Walsh (as William Davidson)

Storyline

Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness.

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Plot Keywords:

divorce | jinx | actress | nurse | moral transformation | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hard Luck Dame

Filming Locations:

Stage 11, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though Bette Davis was very proud of the Oscar she won for this film, she didn't think she deserved it that year - in her opinion, Katharine Hepburn should have won for Alice Adams. Davis always thought she won as compensation for not even being nominated for her star-making performance in Of Human Bondage the previous year.

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Quotes

Joyce Heath: You with your fat little soul and your smug face - picking your way so cautiously through a pastel existence.

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Connections

Featured in American Masters: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Sweet and Slow"
(1935) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played on the piano in the bar

User Reviews

The Consolation Prize

We're it not for the fact that Bette Davis won her first Academy Award in Dangerous, this film would hardly be remembered by anyone except the most ardent Bette Davis fans. There were a number of films that woman carried by sheer force of nature and this is probably the best example of one.

Her character of Joyce Heath is rather obviously based on Jeanne Eagels who was only dead six years and who many had vivid memories of on stage and screen. In fact at one point in the film it's mentioned that a play that Franchot Tone is interested in being the financial backer of could only be played by Bette's character Joyce Heath and Jeanne Eagels.

Franchot Tone is a dapper successful young architect to the rich and famous and he's got a few bucks himself and he's engaged to society débutante Margaret Lindsay. But one fateful night he meets up with Bette Davis who was once big, but is now down and out. She broke many a heart in her day and even she considers herself a jinx to any who get involved with her. That don't stop Tone who hears his hormones calling.

You will not forget Bette as the hedonistic and reckless Joyce Heath, she really dominates this film. Because of that and because there was a big outcry about her not even being nominated the year before for Of Human Bondage, Davis got a nomination and to her surprise got the Oscar for Best Actress.

If the criteria for winning an Oscar is carrying a mediocre film to glory than Bette deserved it. There have been a few times in Academy history that a performance of a star just totally dominates the film, the best examples I can think of besides this is Jose Ferrer is Cyrano DeBergerac and Susan Hayward in I Want To Live. But both Jose and Susan had a whole lot better material to work with.

Even Davis while proud of the Oscar thought the film mediocre, the way Elizabeth Taylor felt about Butterfield 8. Part of the reason is that the Code had come into being. If this film had been made a year or two earlier we would not have had the absolute cop out of a finish.

Still Bette's fans will love it, no doubt.