TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

robert-temple-1 This film is a thinly disguised account of the trial and conviction of the real-life New York gangster, Lucky Luciano. In the film he is called Johnny Vanning, and is played with convincing ruthless menace by Enrico Ciannelli. The fact that the film was really a portrait of Luciano was revealed by LIFE Magazine on April 19, 1937. Bette Davis is feisty, outspoken, and a 'realist' who reluctantly turns into an 'idealist' when her kid sister is murdered by Vanning. The film is extremely well directed by Lloyd Bacon, who began his career by directing many silent shorts in 1922 and became famous in 1928 for directing Al Jolson in the early sound film THE SINGING FOOL. He is probably best remembered today as the director of the outstanding film 42nd STREET (1933). The fact that he directed the football film KNUT ROCKNE ALL American (1940) came to the world's renewed attention when Ronald Reagan became President. His patriotic and impressive film THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS (1944) is also highly thought of. His last film (his 130th) was released in 1954, and he died in 1955. The prosecuting attorney who aids Bette David is played by Humphrey Bogart, who delivers his lines very well and forcefully, but who shows about as much emotion as a marble statue. His eyes are numb. A number of young actresses support Bette Davis very well indeed, namely Lola Lane, Isabell Jewell, Mayo Methot, Rosalind Marquis, and Jane Bryan. Of these, Mayo Methot married Bogart the next year, 1938, having met him during the shooting of this film. She was tempestuous and once threatened Bogart with a gun in front of dinner guests. She divorced Bogart in 1945 and died a few years later at the early age of 47 as the result of years of alcoholism. As for Jane Bryan, who was a special protegé of Bette Davis, it was she and her husband who were responsible for persuading their friend Ronald Reagan to run for President. She then served on the Federal Arts Commission and was one of Reagan's closet political advisors. The only one of the five who soon faded from the screen was Rosalind Marquis. She was a concert pianist who briefly turned actress and made 11 films between 1936 and 1938. But after only two years in the business, she retired from films, became a singer for a few years, and then became a 'socialite' in Kentucky, as wife of the wealthy Ed Axton. Both she and Jane Bryan lived to be 90. Sometimes it can be interesting to research some of the supporting actors and actresses in films, as you never know what you will find. This film made a big hit and deserved to, as it portrayed a group of young women who are the only ones to stand up to a gangster who has terrorised New York City, bribed many of the great and good, murdered many of his enemies and 'girls who might talk' and thrown them into the river, and threatened just about everybody else. When corruption goes that far, an honest society becomes impossible. Bette Davis was the perfect choice for the provocative leading role in this challenging film. The fight against corruption never stops, so this film is as relevant today as it was then.

christopher-underwood Back to Hollywood and this is Warners 30s black & white highly dramatic fare starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Not much of Bogart's work from around this time is all that strong but here he almost already seems the big star he would become, most comfortable in the forthright and caring lawyer. He takes nothing away from Davis, of course, though who still shines through a film that is clearly centred around her. It is a very good performance throughout from the not quite dizzy blonde to the pioneering and ruthless dame. The film begins with great scenes inside the clip-joint where the girls work and money and drinks flow as the girls flirt and the gangsters prowl. The film doesn't exactly lose its way in the middle but it just seemed to me that it might be going to lapse into some moralising crusade. Not at all, this really gets into another gear and the violence surprises. Good low key ending too. Impressive with good script, stirring music and fine performances all round.

Stephen Alfieri In more skillful hands "Marked Woman" might have been a classic Warners picture with a very good Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, still early in their careers, showing signs of the major stars that they would, not too soon after this film, become.However, the director Lloyd Bacon, was more widely known for his direction of musicals (Footlight Parade, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1937), one of the writers (Robert Rossen) made his film debut with this film, the other writer (Abem Finkel) had his best work in the years ahead. None of them were up to the task of taking a story "fresh from the headlines" and turn it into a compelling drama. It's not even good melodrama.The story of an up and coming DA (Bogart) trying to put away a gangster with the help of 5 "hostesses". Another story involving one of the hostesses(Davis) and her younger, smarter sister. The story of 5 desperate woman trying to scratch out a meager living, by taking advantage of gentlemen who are only too happy to part with their money, if it means having a lovely girl with them all evening. The problem is, taken separately or tied in all together, none of these stories is particularly interesting.It doesn't help that four of the five hostesses are as exciting as watching a bowl of oatmeal. I won't say who is the worst, it doesn't matter, they are all bad. Of course part of the problem is that they don't have very well developed characters to try to do anything with.If you are a fan of Bogart and/or Davis, rent this one, just to get a good look at where they were in their development. But if you are not a fan of them, don't bother, don't waste your time.5 out of 10

bkoganbing Marked Woman was one of those films that was emasculated by the Code when it came out in 1937. Had it been done a few years earlier the women would have clearly been labeled prostitutes instead the euphemistic 'hostess' at a nightclub clip joint. Of course the inspiration for the story wasn't developed yet when the Code came into affect in 1934.The inspiration for the story is what in real life turned out to be the chink in the armor of crime boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano. The rackets boss controlled prostitution on a large scale and it was the women who worked for him who came to Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey and their testimony is what brought him down. Unlike the crime boss here, Luciano was not charged with murder.Our story in Marked Woman concerns a group of women who worked for boss Johnny Vaning, the Luciano character played with absolute relish by Eduardo Ciannelli. the women are Bette Davis, Isabelle Jewell, Rosalind Marquess, Mayo Methot, and Lola Lane. When a 'john' stiffs on his bill at the clip joint, he's rubbed out and Davis's testimony helps get Ciannelli off. That incidentally was all part of a set up engineered by John Litel as Ciannelli's very shrewd lawyer. Definitely the kind of attorney who really earns his fees from the mob.But when Davis's younger sister Jane Bryan winds up dead, Davis experiences a change of heart. She becomes quite the crusader and this time cooperates with prosecutor Humphrey Bogart for real.Humphrey Bogart is the prosecutor in District Attorney Henry O'Neill's office who is on a mission to take Ciannelli down. His part here is far more of a straight arrow than the usually cynical Bogart we're used to seeing. He's the Dewey figure in the film.When Marked Woman came out Thomas E. Dewey was running for District Attorney of New York County. Dewey was a former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District in New York and was later made a special prosecutor by joint agreement with Governor Herbert Lehman and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. But as luck would have it he was making his first bid for elected office that year. It was as Special Prosecutor not as an elected District Attorney that he brought Lucky Luciano to the bar of justice. I guarantee there was no one in New York County in 1937 who saw Marked Woman and did not know who this film was referring to. It was a great piece of campaign propaganda for him.Of course Ciannelli is convicted and Bogart is the hero of the hour. But it's that last shot of Davis and her friends going off alone and friendless into the night that will stay with you forever. In fact they were the real heroes, but it's oblivion more than likely for them.Marked Woman is an effective, but rather dated film. Davis is good if melodramatic. The best performances are by Ciannelli and Litel. If you want the real story, I highly recommend Richard Norton Smith's excellent biography on Thomas E. Dewey.