Executive producers: Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis. Copyright 2 January 1936 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rivoli, 25 December 1935. U.S. release: 6 December 1935. U.K. release: June 1936. Australian release: 4 March 1936. 8 reels. 78 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Joyce Heath, a sort of Jeanne Eagels character, whose brilliant but short career in Theatre is eclipsed by her dipsomania, is picked up, washed off, and given a second chance by the elegant young star-struck architect, Franchot Tone.
NOTES: Academy Award, Best Actress, Bette Davis. "It's a consolation prize. This nagged at me. It was true even if the honor had been earned, it had been earned last year. There was no doubt that Hepburn's performance deserved the award."*
Re-made in 1941 as "Singapore Woman" with Brenda Marshall directed by Jean Negulesco.
COMMENT: A melodrama that tries to be smart and sophisticated — and succeeds in neither realm. The melodrama is unintentionally ludicrous and what passed for wit in 1936 is painfully jejune today — or at least the samples in this film are. The stiff acting and incompetent direction don't help either. Miss Davis acts with a peculiar lack of her usual intensity. It's as if she didn't believe in the part either and was content to act it out with a display of superficial mannerisms. Franchot Tone gives an equally shallow characterization, while George Eldredge's portrayal of Miss Davis's husband (admittedly, he has some incredible lines) must rank as one of the most amazingly inept of the 1930s. The rest of the cast is a bit more competent, though, aside from Margaret Lindsay's attractive socialite and Alison Skipworth's housekeeper (she is wasted in this menial part), the roles are quite small.
For the most part, director Alfred E. Green is content to handle the action in long, almost static takes, with cut-in close-ups. All in all, the direction shows not an atom of imagination or flair. Ernest Haller's photography is always flattering to his stars, so much so in fact that it is quite impossible to believe that Miss Davis is the frowzy, drunken sot the script would have us believe.
The film was obviously lensed on a modest budget. Other production credits are par for the course.
As a film, "Dangerous" will interest only soap-opera loving fanatics, or film buffs with a yen for the by-ways of mid-thirties production.
* Quoted from "The Lonely Life: An Autobiography by Bette Davis, with Sandford Dody" (Putnam, New York, 1962). Miss Davis feels she should have received the Award for her work in "Of Human Bondage" (which was not even officially nominated) the previous year. In addition to Hepburn's Alice Adams, the other 1935 Best Actress contenders were Elisabeth Bergner for Escape Me Never, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds, Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp and Merle Oberon in The Dark Angel.
SYNOPSIS: Joyce Heath, a sort of Jeanne Eagels character, whose brilliant but short career in Theatre is eclipsed by her dipsomania, is picked up, washed off, and given a second chance by the elegant young star-struck architect, Franchot Tone.
NOTES: Academy Award, Best Actress, Bette Davis. "It's a consolation prize. This nagged at me. It was true even if the honor had been earned, it had been earned last year. There was no doubt that Hepburn's performance deserved the award."*
Re-made in 1941 as "Singapore Woman" with Brenda Marshall directed by Jean Negulesco.
COMMENT: A melodrama that tries to be smart and sophisticated — and succeeds in neither realm. The melodrama is unintentionally ludicrous and what passed for wit in 1936 is painfully jejune today — or at least the samples in this film are. The stiff acting and incompetent direction don't help either. Miss Davis acts with a peculiar lack of her usual intensity. It's as if she didn't believe in the part either and was content to act it out with a display of superficial mannerisms. Franchot Tone gives an equally shallow characterization, while George Eldredge's portrayal of Miss Davis's husband (admittedly, he has some incredible lines) must rank as one of the most amazingly inept of the 1930s. The rest of the cast is a bit more competent, though, aside from Margaret Lindsay's attractive socialite and Alison Skipworth's housekeeper (she is wasted in this menial part), the roles are quite small.
For the most part, director Alfred E. Green is content to handle the action in long, almost static takes, with cut-in close-ups. All in all, the direction shows not an atom of imagination or flair. Ernest Haller's photography is always flattering to his stars, so much so in fact that it is quite impossible to believe that Miss Davis is the frowzy, drunken sot the script would have us believe.
The film was obviously lensed on a modest budget. Other production credits are par for the course.
As a film, "Dangerous" will interest only soap-opera loving fanatics, or film buffs with a yen for the by-ways of mid-thirties production.
* Quoted from "The Lonely Life: An Autobiography by Bette Davis, with Sandford Dody" (Putnam, New York, 1962). Miss Davis feels she should have received the Award for her work in "Of Human Bondage" (which was not even officially nominated) the previous year. In addition to Hepburn's Alice Adams, the other 1935 Best Actress contenders were Elisabeth Bergner for Escape Me Never, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds, Miriam Hopkins in Becky Sharp and Merle Oberon in The Dark Angel.