Peligrosa

A very fast and enjoyable, early Bette Davis movie. She won her first Academy Award nomination and win for this movie, many believe for being overlooked the previous year for her performance in Of Human Bondage. I've seen both and happen to think that the Bondage performance is very overdone (as much as I love her she over acts often) and this performance in Dangerous is deeper and more reserved and yet is still just as riveting, with plenty of scenes for Davis to rip into. Definately worth checking out.

Bette Davis plays a down and out actress who believes she curses everyone she becomes involved with in "Dangerous," one of Davis' Oscar-winning performances.

It is in this film and the earlier "Of Human Bondage" that the Davis image really solidifies - high energy, strong, smoking, and smokin'. If she seems at times a little over the top, it can be attributed to the acting style of those days, which was a carryover from the stage.

What Davis gives is very much a stage performance - with the invention of talkies, the studios raided the theater for actors who could speak, and Bette Davis was among them. Over the years, with the advent of television, acting has become more intimate, more natural, and Davis' complaint about the newer approach was that it can also be boring. She never was.

Davis costars in this film with Franchot Tone, who plays an architect that brings the Davis character out of the gutter, only to find himself face down in it himself. Smooth and classy, he's the type of leading man that one doesn't see anymore, and he's a good romantic lead for her.

The lovely Margaret Lindsay is Tone's discarded fiancé, and there's a wonderful performance by Alison Skipworth as Tone's housekeeper.

Davis, of course, draws all of the focus, with the fire in her eyes, the bite in her voice, and those flashes of vulnerability. She was always a fascinating screen presence, and she won't disappoint you in "Dangerous." "Dangerous" is a little bit dated, but what isn't, 70 years later.

Bette Davis plays the "femme fatale" as no other actress before or since. Every scene she plays gives us a riveting performance even though at times we may think it a trifle theatrical. In "Dangerous" she plays the role of Joyce Heath, a great actress, yearning for love which is denied to her. Her frantic outbursts make life for those around her difficult to comprehend. Desperate situations require desperate remedies and in a fit of madness Joyce Heath decides to resolve her difficulties in her own dangerous way.

The ending may appear rather glib but the actors themselves give performances not to be missed and Bette Davis is a worthy recipient of an Academy Award.

Contrary to what another commentator to this forum says, Bette Davis was not nominated the year before for an Oscar for her excellent work in "Of Human Bondage", a much better film than this one. In 1935, the year after being bypassed for the Academy Award, Hollywood, acting in a forgiving manner, gave her the award as Best Actress. By Ms. Davis' own admission, Katherine Hepburn should have won for "Alice Adams".

We are not saying she wasn't worth it, on the contrary, Ms. Davis always gave her best in all her films. Sometimes, contributors to IMDb, upon sending their comments, have a way of predicting that the film they are reviewing, or one of its actors will receive the nomination, or the award come Oscar time. In fact, as it seems to be in most cases, bypassed actors on a particular year get awards for work, later on, for inferior work they did that year and were overlooked by the fickle voting members of that body before.

"Dangerous" was directed by Alfred Green and based on a story by Laird Doyle. The story of an actress who has fallen victim to alcoholism makes good melodrama. As such, Joyce Heath, Ms. Davis' character, is seen at the beginning of the film as a woman who wants to forget it all, in order to do some serious drinking.

Donald Bellows is a man that was deeply impressed by the actress, who he saw as Juliet in the New York stage, and became obsessed by her artistry. When he meets her at the dive where she is drinking cheap liquor, he believes he can save this woman who is wasting her talent. Joyce, eventually, falls in love with Don, but she is reluctant to marry him, which is a puzzle to us. Little do we know about the secret Joyce Heath is hiding from Don, which comes to haunt her at the end of the film.

Bette Davis transforms herself from the opening scenes where she looks disheveled into the glamorous actress of the theater she really is. Her performance is good, but we have seen much better performances by this glorious actress, before this film, and after. Franchot Tone makes an appealing Donald Bellows, the man who tries to save his idol from her addiction to the bottle. Margaret Lindsay plays Gail, who is engaged to be married to Donald.

This is a film that merits a look by all of Bette Davis' fans, as it will not disappoint.

In Dangerous, Davis plays Joyce Heath, a former stage star who believes she's cursed and has fallen into despair and drunkenness. Don Bellows (Franchot Tone), an architect engaged to Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay), finds Joyce destitute and drunken in a dive bar. Struck by her past brilliance, he takes her to his farmhouse to dry out, where she exhibits her fiery, self-destructive nature. Despite her erratic behavior, Don becomes obsessed and vows to revive her career by producing her dream play, But to Die. Don demands that they marry before the play opens, but they cannot because Joyce is already married to someone else, someone Don knows nothing about.

She goes to her estranged husband and begs for her freedom, but Gordon loves her and the big lug refuses to divorce her, ever. In a desperate act to free herself, she crashes Don's car with Gordon inside, proclaiming, "If you're killed, I'll be free... If we both die, good riddance!" The crash leaves her hospitalized and Don financially ruined. Nobody died in her crash, she got none of her wishes, AND she's jinxed another person - Don. How will this work out? Watch and find out.

Dangerous and Of Human Bondage showcased Davis's groundbreaking acting style: a raw, emotionally charged intensity that revolutionized the femme fatale persona. Davis's performance, under Alfred E. Green's direction, is theatrical and mesmerizing, marked by dramatic gestures and rapid emotional shifts. Franchot Tone also shines as her intelligent yet conflicted admirer, making this film a highlight in both their careers.