ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

jacobs-greenwood Who does 33 year old Joan Fontaine think she's fooling, playing a business college student? Other than that incredulity, and the fact that others are so easily manipulated by her seemingly inconsequential acts and words, she plays a conniving bitch to rival Anne Baxter's title character in that year's All About Eve (1950), though Fontaine's cute little smiles and feigned (yet knowing) look- asides will wear on most viewers as the movie progresses. There is lots of great dialogue, mostly one-liners by Robert Ryan's character like "I love you so much I wish I liked you", but there is absolutely no subtlety.Directed by Nicholas Ray, with an adaptation by Charles Schnee and a screenplay by Edith Sommer from an Anne Parrish novel with additional dialogue provided by George Oppenheimer and Robert Soderberg, this less than credible though highly watchable drama features Fontaine as Christabel, the niece of publisher John Caine (Harold Vermilyea), who comes to live with Caine's employee Donna Foster (Joan Leslie) while going to business college in San Francisco. She proceeds to ruin Donna's engagement to the family wealthy Curtis Carey (Zachary Scott) by planting seeds of doubt that his fiancée is a gold-digger.Meanwhile, Christabel is irresistibly drawn to writer come author Nick Bradley (Ryan!) - the two have an illicit affair while she disposes of Donna (who leaves for London) and simultaneously hooks Curtis for herself. Mel Ferrer plays Gobby, a non-judgmental third party witness to the goings-on, a painter who manages to hobnob with these wealthy persons as their friend despite his lack of financial means; he oozes just enough charm to have them pay his way into their group. Christabel had grown up living modestly with her Aunt Clara (Virginia Farmer), Caine's sister. Bess Flowers plays an untypical, credited role, Mrs. Worthington; Kathleen Howard plays a philanthropist, Mrs. Bolton. Irving Bacon plays a jewelry salesman.Of course, after Christabel has Curtis, or at least his money, she avoids him until Nick comes back in town ... but he's a stand-up guy who refuses to fool around with a married woman! Obviously she's found out in time for a contrived happy ending.

vincentlynch-moonoi A mistake that some directors make is having a film with no "good guys". And this film gets pretty close to that.The ultimate "baddie" in the film is Joan Fontaine, who plays a spoiled and conniving woman whose every thought is selfish. Her first love interest is Robert Ryan, who doesn't care that he ultimately continues to see Fontaine, even after she is married (and, BTW, Ryan is hardly a convincing actor to play a love-lead). Joan Leslie is sort of a sap as "the other woman". Mel Ferrer is stereotypical and goofy as a painter. Harold Vermilyea and Virginia Farmer have odd roles an older relatives. That leaves Zachary Scott as the only significant role in the film that approaches being a "good guy", although he dumped his fiancé for Fontaine to begin with. So to enjoy this film, you have to not like any of the characters.The plot is pretty decent. Incredibly selfish woman ruins the lives of several people, eventually including her own. The main problem with the plot is that it builds slowly to her comeuppance, and then ends all to quickly.It's an "okay" movie that has nothing to do with an earlier film by the same name. Watchable, but not likely to find its way to your DVD shelf. Give me sis (Olivia deHavilland) any day!

Billie "Born To Be Bad" is basically a really bad variation on the classic Bette Davis film "All About Eve", without the theater background, and it is not a good movie. It's a really bad film in fact, but bad in a great way. It's a cheesy 1950's B-film, hilarious without intending to be - the best kind of classic camp."Born To Be Bad" has a surprisingly stellar cast, including Joan Fontaine (in the lead as the conniving Christabel Caine), Zachary Scott, Robert Ryan (at his hunky bad-guy best), Joan Leslie, and Mel Ferrer. The story centers around Christabel Caine, who seems innocent on the outside...but is pure opportunistic bitch on the inside.That's about all the plot line you need.Joan Fontaine is her usual melodramatic self, complete with her signature eyebrow antics - her left eyebrow always seemed to have a mind of its own - also apparent in her performances in films such as "Rebecca", "Suspicion" and well, every film she was ever in, come to think of it), but her role in "Born to Be Bad" suits her mannerisms well. She makes a great little sweet-faced bitch. The dialogue is completely over-the-top, and coupled with the melodramatic mannerisms of most of the cast (Robert Ryan and Joan Fontaine's scenes together are some of the best), makes for a very entertaining camp film.Nicolas Ray (who 5 years later directed the classic "Rebel Without A Cause") has created a total bomb, a classic of camp film that is worthy viewing for lovers of the genre.

Poseidon-3 In one of director Ray's earlier films, Fontaine portrays a young blonde woman whose polite and coy exterior masks a savagely ambitious and passionate core. Fontaine's uncle Vermilyea arranges for her to live with his secretary Leslie while she attends business college and she "just happens" to arrive one night early, in time for a party full of wealthy and appealing men. Though robust author Ryan immediately likes Fontaine, she actually has her sites set more on Leslie's rich fiancé Scott! As one can guess, the machinations kick in as Fontaine wrangles everyone around her as much as she can, but will she be happy when and if she ever gets what it is she's after? Fontaine is too old for the part she's playing, but her performance is interesting enough most of the time to get past that. She's saddled, especially through the early portion of the film, with a rather fluffy, unruly, bleached hairstyle that does her fewer favors than she probably imagined or intended. Her gowns by Hattie Carnegie are in most cases far less attractive, complimentary to her and striking than those of Leslie's, which were done by Michael Woulfe. Again, this was surely not the intention! Ryan is excellent throughout. He is given several saucy lines and delivers them effectively. He adds a liveliness to his part, along with the deep feeling, that is most welcome. Scott, an actor who excelled at shifty and slimy characters, is the more upright person here and does well, even eliciting some sympathy. One of the real surprises is Leslie, who offers up a pretty, lively and appealing presence despite the demands of the script, which calls for her to come off as a little bit dim. Just as her overall styling is superior to that of the other Joan, her hair is beautifully arranged throughout. She would soon leave the business to raise her family. Ferrer, in one of his earliest film roles, portrays a starving artist who is gossipy and spongy and could be read as gay, though it is never outright suggested, of course. There is a scene, however, in which he and Ryan are pictured so closely together and in such a way that it could almost be snapped, cropped and used in a suggestive Confidential article or something! Vermilyea, as Fontaine's somewhat knowing uncle, and Farmer, as her completely unknowing aunt, lend solid, sometimes amusing support. The film has a solid directional hand in it thanks to Ray and moves along nicely. While it isn't necessarily believable, it is usually entertaining. It is also, for 1950, pretty straightforward about the sexual relationships that are taking place. Ryan even uses the words "sex attraction" at one point. Fans of the stars ought to enjoy it quite a bit.