Marked Woman (1937)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Abem Finkel (writer)
Robert Rossen (writer)

Release Date:

10 April 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A crusading DA persuades a clip joint "party girl" to testify against her mobster boss after her innocent sister is accidentally murdered during one of his unsavory "parties."

Plot Keywords:

Party | Gangster | Roommate | Boss | Clip Joint

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Mary Dwight Strauber
Humphrey Bogart	...	David Graham
Lola Lane	...	Dorothy 'Gabby' Marvin
Isabel Jewell	...	Emmy Lou Eagan
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Johnny Vanning
Rosalind Marquis	...	Florrie Liggett
Mayo Methot	...	Estelle Porter
Jane Bryan	...	Betty Strauber
Allen Jenkins	...	Louie
John Litel	...	Gordon
Ben Welden	...	Charlie Delaney
Damian O'Flynn	...	Ralph Krawford
Henry O'Neill	...	District Attorney Arthur Sheldon
Raymond Hatton	...	Vanning's Lawyer
Carlos San Martín	...	Head Waiter

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1937-1950) | Finland:K-16 (1950) | USA:Approved (PCA #2936)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot fell in love during production. They were married as soon as he had divorced his second wife, Mary Philips.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Emmy Lou gets out of the elevator at the thirty-fifth floor, she leaves the threatening gangsters behind, but they are there waiting for her when the elevator opens on the ground floor.

Quotes:

Mary Dwight Strauber: Please don't ask me to talk. He'll kill me.
David Graham: Now you help me to prove that he was responsible for this and I'll put him where he won't kill anybody.
Mary Dwight Strauber: You don't know what he's like! He stops at nothing. People just disappear and are never heard of again. I don't want that to happen to me.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

My Silver Dollar Man

"Ripped From the Headlines"

This film moves swiftly in that wonderfully fast-paced,1930s no-holds- barred Warner Bros. manner. The storyline is based on the Lucky Luciano vice lord expose of the previous season, which would have been familiar to most film-goers. Warner Bros.melodramas thrived on the kind of gritty, working class stories that were "ripped from the headlines" during the Depression years. Until the Production Code clamp-down of 1934, the girls in the film would have been shown as more clearly identifiable prostitutes. Here it's all thinly veiled. Just what IS a "clip-joint hostess," one wonders. They obviously perform other business in the upstairs rooms. But the movie never goes there. The women are shown to be strong, independent, yet exploited. Though they are bordello babes, the audience sympathy is for them. The film was made the same year as "Stage Door," and it's got some similarities. These young ladies of the evening seem like they're staying in a sorority house for hookers.

For Bogart fans, this is a rather stilted, seemingly out-of-character performance for him. It's like watching Bogie's clone--the role doesn't quite seem to fit him.

This film also shows wonderful examples of the Art Deco style in the Club Intime nightclub sequences. The design is lustrous. Hollywood Deco always signified glamor, modernity, and sexual liberation.

Bette Davis insisted her make-up following the beating and slashing look horrific. If Joan Crawford had played this role, she might have sported a slight bruise. Here Davis is heavily bandaged--realistic and frightening.

This is an overblown melodrama but it shows Warner Bros. and Bette Davis doing what they did best--telling a fast-paced story with lots of scintillating, snappy dialogue. Jack Warner may not have been much different than Lucky Luciano in many ways, but his studio sure could churn out some gripping tales.