Le cinque schiave

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.

I thought this was a pretty interesting tale of a sassy escort service-type woman (women, plural, if you include all her roommates) who work for a nightclub owner who was supposedly portraying famous gangster "Lucky" Luciano.

The woman featured is the famous Bette Davis, who never looked better. She was "hot" in the 1930s. After 1940 I can't say that, but she was always a great actress. She, as so many in the classic-era period, was also a recipient of soft- lens shots on all closeups.

Eduardo Cianelli plays the gangster does an effective job. Unlike Davis, his is a name that never became well-known. This film also has an up-and-coming actor by the name of Humphrey Bogart along with his soon-to-be-real-life-wife Mayo Methot. Get a load of some of the other female names in the cast: Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell and Rosalind Marquis - all "marked" women!

Lloyd Bacon directed this movie, which should tell you something. This guy was responsible for a ton of entertaining films.

This is a star vehicle for Bette Davis. And she really gives a top performance as a professional hostess in a night club owned by a brutal mobster. The character she plays lives through a kind of moral awakening, and with it Davis' appearance changes also. First she wears heavy make up, at the end of the movie almost none. In between she gets beaten up badly by the mobster's thugs who carve a cross into her cheek. But she is attractive throughout. Incidentally, this is NOT a movie for Bogart fans. For once he is a clean cut good guy, not one of Bogart's fortes. His performance struck me as being one dimensional and totally uninspired.

Marked Woman has a good script by Abem Finkel and Robert Rossen (All the King's Men, The Hustler). Excellent portrayal of the brutal, uneducated mobster by Eduardo Ciannelli. Almost reminded me of Peter Sellers. Every now and then he grandly orders one of his bodyguard to make a note of some unimportant detail – the bodyguard just nods obediently, he does not look like a master of calligraphy. The club the mobster takes over is called Club Intime. „What does that mean, intime?" asks the mobster. „Uh, intimate", answers the intimidated restaurateur. „What does THAT mean?". The restaurateur writhes, presses fore and middle finger together and holds them out. „Like that." „Ah ... THEN WHY DON'T YOU SAY SO!" The chandelier in the club has to go, of course. Indirect lighting, that's the thing. The best line belongs to one of Davis' companions, calling an evening dress „the sugar that makes the flies come round". Max Steiner's musical score for this movie is good and fitting.

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

In New York, the powerful and ruthless mobster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) acquires the Club Intimate and presses the hostesses to entertain the men with dance and drinks and then taking them to gamble to spend money. The party girl Mary "Dwight" Strauber (Bette Davis) and her roommates Dorothy 'Gabby' Marvin (Lola Lane), Emmy Lou Eagan (Isabel Jewell), Florrie Liggett (Rosalind Marquis) and Estelle Porter (Mayo Methot) entertain a group of Wardolf Astoria's guests and Mary's date loses a great amount of money in the casino and gives a bounced check to the thugs. Mary borrows some money for the cab to him but the mobsters follow him.

On the next morning, Mary's sister Betty Strauber (Jane Bryan), who is supported by Mary and does not know the real "profession" of her older sister, visits Mary and the girls. However, police detectives arrive in the apartment and arrest the women. In the precinct, they lean that Mary's costumer was found dead and her address was found in his pocket. The young and ambitious District Attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart) presses Mary to snitch Johnny Vanning, but his lawyer gives instructions to Mary to deceive David and Johnny escapes from justice.

When the naive Betty is invited by Emmy Lou to go to a private party promoted by Johnny Vanning, she has an incident with one costumer. Johnny hits Betty and she tumbles on the stairs and is seriously wounded. However Johnny orders his men to dump her body in the river. When Mary discovers that Johnny has murdered her sister, she seeks out David Graham and promises to put the criminal behind bars. But the task is not easy and the gangsters are violent.

"Marked Woman" is an attractive film of gangsters with and unusual theme – the hostesses in illegal nightclubs. The fantastic Betty Davis performs the lead role of a party girl ahead of time with her attitudes. The screenplay has witty and cynical dialogs with insinuations about the infamous profession of Mary and her roommates. The conclusion with the five hostesses vanishing in the mist after the trial while the spots are on the young district attorney is magnificent.

Betty Davis and Humphrey Bogart are my favorite actress and actor ever, and "Marked Woman" is an unforgettable chance to see them acting together. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mulher Marcada" ("Marked Woman")