Dangerous (C+ or 2.5/4 stars)
Bette Davis won her 1st Academy Award for this soap opera film, 'Dangerous' (directed by Alfred E. Green). In what was the 1st instance of someone winning an Oscar as, perhaps, a make-up win for the year previous when she DIDN'T win for Of Human Bondage. Davis has her moments here, but the previous film & performance was much better. The character Davis plays was inspired by stage legend Jeanne Eagels, who became a drug addict & died tragically at the age of 35. Joyce Heath (Bette Davis) is a has-been stage actress whose career died when she was labeled a 'jinx'. She's now an embittered, penniless, slovenly lush whom architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) runs into in a beer joint when out slumming with his friend Teddy & socialite fiancee Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay).
From there, the plot starts to get screwy, as Don makes it his mission to her rehabilitate Joyce ... all because he saw her onstage & her performance inspired him to leave Wall Street to become an architect {okayyy}. Don whisks Joyce away to his Connecticut country home to sober up, regain her dignity, & overcome the belief that she's a jinx ("I'm bad for people. I don't mean to be, but I can't help myself."). Don then finances a show ("But to Die") for $80,000 with a leading producer that ensures she will return to glory on Broadway {does she even WANT to return? Who knows}. Don inexplicably falls for the now-recovering Joyce {why, I don't know ... she's sickeningly nasty to him, as well as his dutiful housemaid}. And so, Don suddenly breaks off his engagement with a less-than-devastated Gail.
Later, a grateful-for-her-career-back Joyce reveals to us (not Don, who is curious as to why she won't immediately marry him) that she is already married to a weakling named Gorton (John Eldredge), who goes on to tell her that he won't give her a divorce. What happened next? Well, we then see a desperate Joyce intentionally crash her car into a tree hoping to kill her husband passenger and/or both of them to escape the shame. She survives with a slight concussion {don't know how, was a head-on collision at high speed}, & her husband is paralyzed. When Joyce finally returns to the stage, she's a hit. Our boy Don still wants her as a bride {even though she's a jinx who lost all his $$ when she didn't open the Broadway show}, but Joyce is now cripplingly guilt-ridden over what she has done that she dissuades Don's love, which sends him running back to marry Gail, and she'll dedicates her life to taking care of weak, deranged, milquetoast Gorton. Eek.
Though 'Dangerous' contains good actors doing the best they can with the plot, it really IS a poorly-conceived melodrama with an absolutely ludicrous ending that made me question everything I'd just seen for the prior 75 minutes (who was I supposed to root for, exactly? Because nothing anyone does makes much SENSE). Franchot Tone - SO good in his Oscar-nominated role for Mutiny on the Bounty - comes across like a fool; for naively believing he could bring the notoriously damaged Joyce back from the brink in only a few short days. And when he hastily breaks-off his engagement to Gail - out of NOWHERE - I lost any respect I might have had for him. Similarly, Joyce is a mean, self-centered wretch, so it's hard to care about what SHE goes through in the final 15-20 minutes or so, as well.
Yes, Bette Davis entrances us, as she always can. And she gives this flamboyant role some needed dimension (a deeply flawed femme fatale with a plethora of personal demons). The scene where Joyce pleads with her husband for her freedom is a good example of her talent (as well as a rare example when the script works, as a lot of complex character/narrative ground is covered in a short amount of time). The fact that she is willing to kill her husband and/or herself in the very next scene makes the set-up scene before it all the more crazily powerful. Before I end this review, I must mention that Davis' lifelong rivalry with Joan Crawford may have existed because Davis entered an affair with Franchot Tone while he was engaged to Crawford. But that’s just some fun juicy gossip.
Given the too-soapy plot & the cop-out ending, the only real reason to even seek out this film is to watch Bette Davis do her thing and/or be an Oscar completist (to see all the winning performances). Even Bette Davis found the script for this film to be maudlin & felt that Katherine Hepburn deserved to win for Alice Adams.
From there, the plot starts to get screwy, as Don makes it his mission to her rehabilitate Joyce ... all because he saw her onstage & her performance inspired him to leave Wall Street to become an architect {okayyy}. Don whisks Joyce away to his Connecticut country home to sober up, regain her dignity, & overcome the belief that she's a jinx ("I'm bad for people. I don't mean to be, but I can't help myself."). Don then finances a show ("But to Die") for $80,000 with a leading producer that ensures she will return to glory on Broadway {does she even WANT to return? Who knows}. Don inexplicably falls for the now-recovering Joyce {why, I don't know ... she's sickeningly nasty to him, as well as his dutiful housemaid}. And so, Don suddenly breaks off his engagement with a less-than-devastated Gail.
Later, a grateful-for-her-career-back Joyce reveals to us (not Don, who is curious as to why she won't immediately marry him) that she is already married to a weakling named Gorton (John Eldredge), who goes on to tell her that he won't give her a divorce. What happened next? Well, we then see a desperate Joyce intentionally crash her car into a tree hoping to kill her husband passenger and/or both of them to escape the shame. She survives with a slight concussion {don't know how, was a head-on collision at high speed}, & her husband is paralyzed. When Joyce finally returns to the stage, she's a hit. Our boy Don still wants her as a bride {even though she's a jinx who lost all his $$ when she didn't open the Broadway show}, but Joyce is now cripplingly guilt-ridden over what she has done that she dissuades Don's love, which sends him running back to marry Gail, and she'll dedicates her life to taking care of weak, deranged, milquetoast Gorton. Eek.
Though 'Dangerous' contains good actors doing the best they can with the plot, it really IS a poorly-conceived melodrama with an absolutely ludicrous ending that made me question everything I'd just seen for the prior 75 minutes (who was I supposed to root for, exactly? Because nothing anyone does makes much SENSE). Franchot Tone - SO good in his Oscar-nominated role for Mutiny on the Bounty - comes across like a fool; for naively believing he could bring the notoriously damaged Joyce back from the brink in only a few short days. And when he hastily breaks-off his engagement to Gail - out of NOWHERE - I lost any respect I might have had for him. Similarly, Joyce is a mean, self-centered wretch, so it's hard to care about what SHE goes through in the final 15-20 minutes or so, as well.
Yes, Bette Davis entrances us, as she always can. And she gives this flamboyant role some needed dimension (a deeply flawed femme fatale with a plethora of personal demons). The scene where Joyce pleads with her husband for her freedom is a good example of her talent (as well as a rare example when the script works, as a lot of complex character/narrative ground is covered in a short amount of time). The fact that she is willing to kill her husband and/or herself in the very next scene makes the set-up scene before it all the more crazily powerful. Before I end this review, I must mention that Davis' lifelong rivalry with Joan Crawford may have existed because Davis entered an affair with Franchot Tone while he was engaged to Crawford. But that’s just some fun juicy gossip.
Given the too-soapy plot & the cop-out ending, the only real reason to even seek out this film is to watch Bette Davis do her thing and/or be an Oscar completist (to see all the winning performances). Even Bette Davis found the script for this film to be maudlin & felt that Katherine Hepburn deserved to win for Alice Adams.