Perigosa

Bette Davis plays a former actress turned low-life drunk in this highly emotional drama. She is convinced she has a 'jinx' on her because she seems to make bad things happen. A wealthy man recognizes her drunk in a bar and takes her to his country house. Sparks fly. The problem - he's engaged.

Dangerous is a terribly beautiful bittersweet tale and Bette Davis carries it off perfectly. When she is in the scene, your eyes are always on her and nothing else. She is a captivating and riveting actress with pure talent. Her acting style is so easy to like.

The story is incredibly realistic and very thoughtful. The script is very good, every line believable.

Dangerous is a truly good movie with moving, touching and believable performances. Bette Davis shines in her role - one of her earlier dramas. I was surprised and very satisfied with the ending. Wonderful movie.

We're it not for the fact that Bette Davis won her first Academy Award in Dangerous, this film would hardly be remembered by anyone except the most ardent Bette Davis fans. There were a number of films that woman carried by sheer force of nature and this is probably the best example of one.

Her character of Joyce Heath is rather obviously based on Jeanne Eagels who was only dead six years and who many had vivid memories of on stage and screen. In fact at one point in the film it's mentioned that a play that Franchot Tone is interested in being the financial backer of could only be played by Bette's character Joyce Heath and Jeanne Eagels.

Franchot Tone is a dapper successful young architect to the rich and famous and he's got a few bucks himself and he's engaged to society débutante Margaret Lindsay. But one fateful night he meets up with Bette Davis who was once big, but is now down and out. She broke many a heart in her day and even she considers herself a jinx to any who get involved with her. That don't stop Tone who hears his hormones calling.

You will not forget Bette as the hedonistic and reckless Joyce Heath, she really dominates this film. Because of that and because there was a big outcry about her not even being nominated the year before for Of Human Bondage, Davis got a nomination and to her surprise got the Oscar for Best Actress.

If the criteria for winning an Oscar is carrying a mediocre film to glory than Bette deserved it. There have been a few times in Academy history that a performance of a star just totally dominates the film, the best examples I can think of besides this is Jose Ferrer is Cyrano DeBergerac and Susan Hayward in I Want To Live. But both Jose and Susan had a whole lot better material to work with.

Even Davis while proud of the Oscar thought the film mediocre, the way Elizabeth Taylor felt about Butterfield 8. Part of the reason is that the Code had come into being. If this film had been made a year or two earlier we would not have had the absolute cop out of a finish.

Still Bette's fans will love it, no doubt.

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.

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.

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.