Femmes marquées

A night-club owner called Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) was exploiting his hostesses, one of whom was Mary Dwight (Bette Davis). She was asked with her companions of the Club Intime to induce clients to drink, gamble and spend freely…

A few nights later Mary brings a sucker, Rulph Krawford (Damian O'Flynn) to the club… After Krawford loses a large amount of money gambling and then refuses to pay off the debt, Vanning orders his henchman Charley Delaney (Ben Welden) to get rid of him…

When special prosecutor, David Graham (Humphrey Bogart), questions Mary concerning Krawford's assassination, she denies in providing any helpful information…

Bogart's performance successfully applied malice determination and calmly exhibited compassion and concern… He was particularly effective, both firm, and penetrating, in his courtroom scenes, which served as an early warm-up for similar role twelve years later in Nicholas Ray's "Knock On Any Door."

Mayo Methot was also in the cast as one of the hostesses and it was during the filming that Bogart took her as his second wife

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.

Bette Davis looks as though she was rested (after her hiatus involving litigation) and raring to sink her teeth in a juicy part. Well, she got her wish in this finely directed Lloyd Bacon gangster drama.

Davis is alert, focused, and driven here, putting her all into the dance hall hostess. It's one of her best roles in a film unfamiliar to many movie goers.

The film is notable for some fine work by most talented character actors, and for an unusual "good guy" role for Humphrey Bogart. This crusading D.A. on a mission is skillfully etched by Mr. B. and his scenes with Davis are particularly engaging.

Everyone knows the true life basis for this drama, and the exclaimer at the start doesn't fool anyone. This is a mean expose of some very callus criminals, and has the feel of that period's current newspaper headlines.

A well made drama, worth checking out.

Bette Davis plays Mary Strauber, a nightclub hostess working in club 'Intime' which gets taken over by a gangster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) who soon changes the decor and the name to 'Intimate'. Mary stands up to the gangster right from the start,defending a friend he tries to fire, and letting him know he won't intimidate her. Her resolve is tested to the limit after her younger sister comes to stay, who unwittingly crosses Vanning's path, leading to tragedy. Davis gives a commanding performance and Eduardo Ciannelli is effective as the ruthless gangster. Humphrey Bogart also puts in an appearance - cast against type as an earnest DA. They don't make movies like this any more - enjoy!

'Marked Woman' was most interesting to see acting legends Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart together and in early roles against type. Before their careers properly took off, so a large part of me was really interested in seeing how they would fare. Seeing as when somebody does something different from the moment, it can either be great or out of their depth-like. The idea for the film, actually based upon a true story, sounded great and gave the impression that it would be an intriguing and investable film.

It was to my relief that 'Marked Woman' works well as a film. Neither Davis and Bogart deliver work that is among their best and both went on to much better things, the best of which iconic work in film history. This is before either of them, well certainly Bogart as Davis was already showing some versatility if not quite had perfected it, had properly found their footing and found what they were best at in terms of namely types of roles. That is not to say that 'Marked Woman' is a bad film, in my view it is an interesting and good one that packs a punch, and Davis is served well.

For my tastes though, in an atypically non-gritty role with the gritty type of roles being one that he would embody later, Bogart is a little too subdued (one of the exceptions though being the closing speech which is very powerful) and doesn't seem as fully engaged. He is still watchable and the dynamic presence with Davis works very nicely.

Perhaps at times, 'Marked Woman' is a bit slow in the early stages with the set up taking a little too long to do so. The prison scene with Davis and Eduardo Ciannelli was a slight missed opportunity, that could have been a scene that wrenched the gut and chilled if it stayed with the film's overall uncompromising approach. But it took too much of an easy way out and censorship restrictions may have played some part in this.

However, Davis goes full throttle and gives a performance of intensity and poignancy. Ciannelli is persuasively sinister, while Isabell Jewel lives up to her surname and Allan Jenkins has a fun small role that doesn't jar. The production values are not audacious but to me they weren't that cheap, while the film is beautifully directed, never going too heavy handed or trivialising the subject. The music is haunting without being melodramatic.

The script is taut and thoughtful, also remarkably explicit for back then and not that tame now. Bogart's dialogue towards the end is quite powerful. The story is always absorbing, exploring a bold topic not covered to this much an extent at this particular time in a pulling no punches way. Did appreciate that there wasn't a romance as such, that may have had potential of slowing the film down and taking away from the tautness. When 'Marked Woman' gets going, it is swift in pace.

Summing up, very well done on the whole. 7/10