Dangerous is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Bette Davis in her first Oscar-winning role. The screenplay by Laird Doyle is based on his story Hard Luck Dame.
Plot
Don Bellows, a prominent architect, is engaged to the beautiful and wealthy Gail Armitage when he meets down-and-out Joyce Heath, who was once the most promising young actress on Broadway. Don feels deeply indebted to Joyce because her performance as Juliet inspired him to become an architect.
While rehabilitating her, Don falls in love with the tempestuous actress. Joyce, convinced she destroys anything and anyone she touches, warns him she is a jinx. Compelled to save her, Don breaks his engagement to Gail and risks his fortune to back the actress in a Broadway show. Before opening night, he insists they marry, but Joyce resists his proposal, hiding the fact she is married to Gordon Heath, an ineffectual but devoted man who was financially ruined by their marriage.
Joyce goes to Gordon and begs him for a divorce. When he refuses, she causes an automobile accident that cripples him for life. Her own injuries keep her from opening in the show, which fails. Don is ruined, and when he learns that Joyce has deceived him, he accuses her of being a completely selfish woman, her only true jinx.
Joyce briefly considers suicide, but eventually sees the truth in Don's accusation. She re-opens the show and, although she truly loves Don, sends him away to marry Gail. The show is a success, and Joyce, now dedicated to a responsible life, goes to visit Gordon and salvage her marriage.
Bette Davis initially turned down the script, but Warner Bros. studio production chief Hal B. Wallis convinced her she could make something special out of the character, who had been inspired by one of Davis' idols, actress Jeanne Eagels.[1] In fact, one of the characters in the film mentions how Eagels and Davis character Joyce are the only two actresses who can play the lead in the play "But to Die". Davis was determined to look like an actress on the skids, and insisted Orry-Kelly design costumes appropriate for a woman who had seen better days. It was for this film Perc Westmore styled her hair in the bob cut she would favor for the rest of her life.[2]
Based on Laird Doyle's short story Hard Luck Dame, the $194,000 film had six working titles before producer Hal B. Wallis decided on Dangerous. The other titles were Hard Luck Dame, Evil Star (which Davis favored), The Jinx Woman, Forever Ends a Dawn, Tomorrow Ends and But to Die.[3]
Franchot Tone, who recently had completed Mutiny on the Bounty, was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to bolster Davis' marquee value. Davis was immediately drawn to the actor, who was engaged to Joan Crawford at the time. Producer Harry Joe Brown later revealed he had walked in on Davis and Tone in a compromising position. Crawford apparently knew about the liaison, but didn't break the engagement. Most biographers believe this was the start of the lifelong feud between the two actresses, willingly portrayed in the 2017 anthology series, Feud.[1]
Three songs by Harry Warren - "Forty-Second Street," "The Little Things You Used to Do," and "Sweet and Slow" - are heard on the soundtrack. The other song was "Bridal Chorus" by Richard Wagner.
Davis’ performance “is an incomparable portrayal of human desolation moderating to hope and triumph...the peak of her performance is a brief scene, in which, to escape a storm, she and Francois Tone run to a barn stacked with bales of hay...the couple face each other in the damp, electrically charged air. Davis moves her arms in a gesture of secutive negligence, offers a mockingly companionable half-smile and we understand immediately the combination of sexual desire and malicious contempt for men that is both her mood at the moment and the key to her entire life.
Epiphanies are rare in the cinema, and it is to Davis' genius alone that we owe this brief insight into the complexities of human behavior. Here is a talent beyond comparison, and nowhere is it more advantageous displayed than in her films of the Thirties."—Australian-born film historian John Baxter.[6]
The New York Times wrote "That Bette Davis has been unable to match the grim standard she set as Mildred in Of Human Bondage is not to her discredit. In Dangerous, she tries again. Except for a few sequences where the tension is convincing as well as deadly she fails...Say this for Miss Davis: she seldom lets down."[7]
Variety wrote "Laird's dialog is adult, intelligent and has a rhythmic beat. Davis' performance is fine on the whole, despite a few imperfect moments. When called upon to reach an intense dramatic pitch without hysterics, Davis is capable of turning the trick. Yet there are moments in Dangerous when a lighter acting mood would be opportune."[8]
Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a mixed review. Characterizing the story as "poor, [and] the ending atrociously sentimental", and criticizing Margaret Lindsay's portrayal of Gail, Greene also praised Bette Davis for her portrayal of Joyce, and concluded that the film was "a picture to see for [Bette Davis'] sake"—"unusual, but only because of Miss Davis."
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