Dangerous

Unlike some users ,I do not consider "Dangerous" one of Davis's best parts.Her career is so rich that you can name at least twenty movies that are far superior to this old hat melodrama:have you heard about " little foxes" "All about Eve" "Now voyager "whatever happened to Baby Jane" and the unfairly unknown "lo scopone scientifico" which might be the most extraordinary part she ever played.

"Dangerous" casts Davis as an alcoholic has been actress ;Tone wants her redemption ,so he sacrifices everything,money and fiancée to make the dream come true.The story is finally terribly sententious ,in "the magnificent obsession" mold ,but without Stahl's "enough is enough" side,which makes that director's works so priceless.

This movie was directed by Alfred Green and stars Bette Davis and Franchot Tone. This was Davis's first academy award and was probably given to her because she was passed over the previous year in Of Human Bondage. The movie starts out with Tone engaged to Margaret Lindsay and one night in a bar he sees Davis drinking alone. Tone remembers she once was a great actress but she had some bad luck and is now just a drunk and can't get hired. Tone tries to help her to quit drinking and they become friends. Davis falls in love with him and he loves her too and he wants to get married. Tone's willing to give up everything to be with her but it turns out she's married and her husband won't divorce her. It's a pretty good movie but Davis made some better movies then this one.

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.

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.

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.