Review of Marked Woman (1937) by Paul Z — 21 Oct 2008

Set in the "underworld" of Manhattan, Marked Woman has Bette Davis as a woman who has the nerve to defy one of the city's most powerful, yet surely the most unbelievably stupid, gangsters. The women of the story are "hostesses." What is not acknowledged obviously is that they are essentially prostitutes. They work in a gambling house in the city.

Davis briefly meets and befriends a young man who confides in her that he is not able to pay off the debt he has amassed, not surprised to find out later that he has been murdered. Interrogated by investigator Humphrey Bogart, Davis and the other women refuse to rat out their retarded employer, Johnny (it's always a Johnny) Vanning. They fear him, and while behind closed doors loathing him are helpless to free themselves from him. Davis's younger sister, a goody-good college girl, comes to visit, oblivious to the risky circumstances she has walked into, and gets recklessly, inexplicably, is drawn very quickly into the world, against the urging of her older sister.

Look, whether this is dated or not, it displays some of the very worst acting I have ever seen. Yes, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart headline the cast, but they are so tacky, almost like they are characters in later movies that love old black and white movie pictures and recite lines from ones they've seen a million trillion times. They are not the only ones. The worst actor is the one who plays the worst character, Johnny Vanning, a hilariously stupid Italian mob boss. He is an actor who cannot act his way out of a paper bag playing a character who cannot think or talk his way out of a paper bag. One of the funniest moments:

Johnny runs joints and takes over joints. They all seem to be officially called "joints," even by the city. Never are they ever referred to as anything else. He changes their names to less clever things:

One's name is Le Intime. He says, "What does that mean?".

"It means intimate.".

"What does that mean?".

"Affectionate. Being together.".

"Well why doesn't it say what it means? Charlie. Tell them to change it.".

He really does not know anything and relies on his henchmen and the people around him, but nobody ever vocalizes this.

All of the dialogue is overacted and scripted and corny, the chemistry between all the "hostesses" is trite, and all of my laughter was against the intent of the filmmakers.