Dangerous (4 stars)

Dangerous, from 1935, is a romantic drama starring Bette Davis and Franchot Tone.  Featuring Margaret Lindsay in a supporting role, Dangerous is the film which garnered the fabulous Miss Davis her first Best Actress Academy Award.  Additionally, it is the film which, in many ways, was the catalyst for the long-running feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford---Bette and her co-star Franchot Tone were romantically linked during the filming of Dangerous, and Bette was quite in love with him, but he ended up marrying Joan later that year.  We all know that a woman's jealousy and bitterness over a lost love could definitely bring about a years-long feud/rivalry.

Ever since one of her leading men was killed on opening night, stage actress Joyce Heath has been labeled a jinx.  Though formerly wildly successful, the jinx label has Joyce's career in ruins, and now, a shell of what she once was, she has turned to the bottle.  While drinking gin in a cheap bar one night, Joyce is recognized by one of her ardent fans---architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone); though Joyce really wants to be left alone in her drunkenness, Don proceeds to tell her how moved he was by her performance in Romeo and Juliet.  When Joyce passes out, Don takes her to his home, where she can sleep off the liquor.

With a house in the country---to which he only goes on weekends---Don offers Joyce an invitation to stay for the week.  In the beginning, Joyce drinks first thing in the morning, but by the time Don returns at the end of the week, she has begun to look and feel better.

Though Don's initial intent is to help Joyce rehabilitate her life and, thus, restore her career, things go further than that, and he ends up kissing her.  Eventually, he breaks things off with his fiance, Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay), and asks Joyce to marry him.  Additionally,  though Joyce still thinks of herself as a jinx and tries to talk him out of it, Don puts up the money to produce the play which will re-launch her career.

Rehearsals of the play go well, and it is anticipated that the show will be a huge success.  It seems as if life is smiling on Joyce Heath again and that the jinx is broken...but is it?  How everything plays out is the balance of the film.






Dangerous features another fabulous performance by the simply amazing Bette Davis.  The character she portrays---struggling, boozing Joyce Heath---is complex, and it is those types of characters which allow Miss Davis's talent to shine brightly.  Quite simply, I think she is the best dramatic actress of all time...nearly always turning out an Academy Award-winning performance.  Interestingly, though she won the Oscar for her work in Dangerous, Bette is on record (per Robert Osborne's informational snippet) as saying that she didn't feel she deserved the win for this role.  Though she thought her work in Of Human Bondage (for which she wasn't even nominated) the year before was Oscar worthy, she felt 1935's win belonged to Katharine Hepburn for her work in Alice Adams.  Funny, I've seen Alice Adams, and I am absolutely not in agreement with Bette.  I think she was beyond Oscar worthy here in Dangerous and that The Academy chose the right actress for the win.  At any rate, Bette will absolutely not disappoint in this film.

Franchot Tone was kind and endearing.  I really loved his character---a man of integrity and honesty.  There was great chemistry between him and Miss Davis.  It's easy to understand how love of that man could bring to life a years-long feud.  There is a twist in this film---one which I never anticipated---and though I would have liked a different ending, I do think it had the right ending!!

Definitely see this one if you can.  It's newly out on DVD (released last month), so you ought to be able to track it down.

Happy viewing!!

Sadie McKee (3 stars)

 Sadie McKee, from 1934, is a romantic drama starring Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone, and Edward Arnold.  The third of seven films pairing Crawford and Tone (who would marry in 1935), this sweet little pre-code story, which chronicles the loves of working class-girl, Sadie McKee, is one I enjoyed as part of my Joan Crawford birthday month celebration.

With her mother a cook at the home of the wealthy Aldersons, Sadie McKee (Joan Crawford) has long enjoyed a friendship with the family's son, Michael (Franchot Tone).  Their relationship is strictly platonic, though, as Sadie has a boyfriend...Tommy Wallace (Gene Raymond), a man who has recently lost his job due to his crooked ways.  Sadie, who trusts Tommy completely, doesn't believe he has done anything wrong and runs off to New York with him.

After making plans to meet Tommy at City Hall, where they will be married, Sadie hits the New York streets, leaving Tommy behind at a cheap boarding house.  When another tenant in the house flirts with him, Tommy flirts right back and ends up not only standing Sadie up, but abandoning her as well.  Brokenhearted, yet determined to succeed, Sadie takes a job as a dancer in a club, where she meets drunken millionaire Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold).

Completely smitten with Sadie, the wealthy Mr. Brennan asks her to marry him.  However, his good friend and lawyer is none other than Michael Alderson---and he no longer trusts Sadie.  Insisting that she's nothing more than a chiseler, who will take the kindhearted man for everything he's got, Michael warns Sadie to stay away.

Will Sadie take Brennan for everything?  Does she care about him?  And what happens when Tommy, for whom Sadie still carries a torch, comes back into her life?  And what exactly are Michael's feelings toward his childhood friend?  These are the questions which play out in this sweet little film.

Sadie McKee is an interesting, enjoyable film, and although Joan Crawford gets top billing and does a great job in her role, the absolute star of the show is Edward Arnold.  He is beyond fabulous as the drunken millionaire.   The way he played every scene was completely perfect!!  Joan is quite lovely at this point in her career, and her portrayal of Sadie was extremely heartwarming.  I really came to care about Sadie.  Franchot Tone was solid...and dashing as always.   Gene Raymond, whose character is hardly likeable, strums a ukulele and sings "All I Do Is Dream of You," a song written specifically for this film.

Initially, I was going to go with 4 stars on this; however, the ending was rather abrupt and didn't seem to flow right, so I went with 3.  Even so, though, this is a good, solid film, which I recommend---especially to Joan Crawford fans.

The film is out on DVD so it ought to be fairly easy to track down.  Happy viewing!!

The Unguarded Hour (3 stars)

The Unguarded Hour, from 1936, is a crime drama of the whodunit kind.  Starring Loretta Young

and Franchot Tone,

this film takes place in England, where Tone's character, Sir Allen Dearden, is slated to become the next attorney general.  Sir Allen and his wife, Lady Helen (Loretta Young), host a formal dance in their home, and a man unknown to both of them crashes his way into the ballroom.  As the stranger dances with Lady Dearden, he lets her know that he has in his possession, love letters which Allen had written to a former mistress; although the letters were written prior to Allen's marriage to Helen, since the woman was married to another man, they could prove damaging to his career.  In order for Helen to get her hands on the love letters and, thus, keep her husband from scandal, the man demands a sum of money; anxious to keep Allen's political hopes alive, Helen meets the man's demands, without ever saying a word to Allen about the situation.

As Helen is making her way back from the money drop-off point, she is aware that a man and a woman are walking towards her on the cliff path, and hoping not to be seen, she hides behind a rock.  Later that day, the newspaper reports that the man had pushed his wife from the cliff and had been charged with murder.  Vehemently denying the accusation, and maintaining that his wife fell from the cliff, the man claims that he passed a woman on the path...a woman who could verify that he was far behind his wife...that he called to her to be careful on the cliffs.  The police don't believe such a witness exists; in fact, they call her a phantom witness.  The case is sent to trial, with none other than Allen Dearden trying it.

Helen is in a panic, for, knowing how much the attorney general appointment means to her husband, she doesn't want to do or say anything which might create a scandal.  She realizes that to tell the truth would totally ruin Allen's career; yet to not tell the truth would send an innocent man to the gallows.  In the midst of Helen's agony of conscience, Allen himself has a dilemma of his own, as the woman to whom he wrote the letters wants to try her hand at blackmail as well.  How everything plays out is the balance of the film.


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Although not a spectacular film, The Unguarded Hour is very interesting and enjoyable, though I did feel it dragged just a tiny bit at one point...not enough to cause me to quit watching or to lower the rating, however.  Loretta Young, always so elegant and classy, was definitely so in this role.  Franchot Tone was dashing and handsome...even when wearing the white wig of an English barrister.  They played well off one another and made a delightful couple.

The film is not out on DVD; however, TCM airs it fairly regularly.  I've caught it on there at least twice in the last year.  It may also be on YouTube.  At least I've seen it there before, though I cannot find it now.

Happy viewing!!