Editing Dangerous (1935 film)

{{short description|1935 American drama film}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use MDY dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Dangerous
| image          = DangerousPoster.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Alfred E. Green]]
| producer       = [[Harry Joe Brown]]<br />[[Hal B. Wallis]]<br />[[Jack L. Warner]]
| writer         = [[Laird Doyle]]
| narrator       =
| starring       = [[Bette Davis]]<br />[[Franchot Tone]]<br />[[Margaret Lindsay]]
| music          = [[Ray Heindorf]]<br />[[Heinz Roemheld]]
| cinematography = [[Ernest Haller]]
| editing        = [[Thomas Richards (film editor)|Thomas Richards]]
| distributor    = [[Warner Bros.]]
| released       = {{Film date|1935|12|25}}
| runtime        = 79 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| gross     = $2.2 million        
}}
[[File:Dangerous lobby card.jpg|thumb|right|260px|[[Bette Davis]] and [[Franchot Tone]] ]]
'''''Dangerous''''' is a 1935 American drama film directed by [[Alfred E. Green]] and starring [[Bette Davis]] in her first [[Academy Awards|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.

==Cast==
* [[Bette Davis]] as Joyce Heath
* [[Franchot Tone]] as Don Bellows
* [[Margaret Lindsay]] as Gail Armitage
* [[Alison Skipworth]] as Mrs. Williams
* [[John Eldredge (actor)|John Eldredge]] as Gordon Heath
* [[Dick Foran]] as Teddy
* [[Walter Walker (actor)|Walter Walker]] as Roger Farnsworth 
* [[Richard Carle]] as Pitt Hanley
* [[George Irving (American actor)|George Irving]] as Charles Melton 
* [[Pierre Watkin]] as George Sheffield 
* [[Douglas Wood (actor)|Douglas Wood]] as Elmont 
* [[William B. Davidson]] as Reed Walsh (as William Davidson)

==Production==
[[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]].<ref name="tcm.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/72196/dangerous|title=''Dangerous'' at Turner Classic Movies|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref>  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.<ref>''Mother Goddam'' by Whitney Stine, with a running commentary by Bette Davis, Hawthorn Books, 1974, pp. 70-71 ({{ISBN|0-8015-5184-6}})</ref>

Based on [[Laird Doyle]]'s short story ''Hard Luck Dame'', the $194,000 film had six [[working title]]s 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 at Dawn'', ''Tomorrow Ends'' and ''But to Die''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1994-03-06-9402260493-story.html|title=MOVIE DIDN'T IMPRESS BETTE DAVIS|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref>

[[Image:Bette Davis and Franchot Tone in Dangerous trailer.JPG|175px|left]][[Franchot Tone]], who recently had completed ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]'', was borrowed from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] to bolster Davis' marquee value.

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]].

In 1941, the film was remade as ''[[Singapore Woman]]'' as a [[B movies (Hollywood Golden Age)|second feature]] with [[Brenda Marshall]] in the lead role. It coincidentally utilized some of the sets from ''[[The Letter (1940 film)|The Letter]]'', the 1940 film starring Davis.<ref>''Mother Goddam'', p. 73</ref>

Davis won the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]] for her performance, but always felt it was a consolation prize for not having been nominated for ''[[Of Human Bondage (1934 film)|Of Human Bondage]]'' the previous year,<ref>''The Life of Bette Davis'' by Charles Higham, [[Macmillan Publishing Company]] (1981), p. 76 ({{ISBN|0-02-551500-4}})</ref> and believed that [[Katharine Hepburn]] should have won the award for her performance in another 1935 film, ''[[Alice Adams (1935 film)|Alice Adams]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schulman |first1=Michael |title=Oscars Spotlight: The Unusually Wide-Open Actress Races |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/oscars-spotlight-the-unusually-wide-open-actress-races |access-date=July 12, 2024 |work=[[The New Yorker]] |date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529132747/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/oscars-spotlight-the-unusually-wide-open-actress-races |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2002, [[Steven Spielberg]] anonymously bought the Oscar Davis had won at auction at [[Sotheby's]] and returned it to the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]. The statuette had been part of the memorabilia displayed by the [[Planet Hollywood]] restaurant chain.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Archerd |first1=Army |title=Spielberg gets the Oscar . . . from Sotheby’s |url=https://variety.com/2002/voices/columns/spielberg-gets-the-oscar-from-sotheby-s-1117877678/ |access-date=July 12, 2024 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=Dec 18, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307141338/https://variety.com/2002/voices/columns/spielberg-gets-the-oscar-from-sotheby-s-1117877678/ |archive-date=March 7, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Critical reception==
[[File:Bette Davis.jpg|thumb|right|For her performance, [[Bette Davis]] won the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]].]]

Australian film historian [[John Baxter (author)|John Baxter]] wrote that 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 seductive 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."<ref>Baxter, 1974 p. 177</ref>

''The New York Times'' wrote "That Bette Davis has been unable to match the grim standard she set as Mildred in ''[[Of Human Bondage (1934 film)|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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/12/27/archives/at-the-rivoli.html|title=At the Rivoli.|date=27 December 1935|access-date=16 November 2021|website=Nytimes.com}}</ref>

''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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117790226.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=dangerous+bette+davis|title=''Variety'' review|website=Variety.com|access-date=16 November 2021}}</ref>

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."
<ref>{{cite journal |last= Greene|first= Graham|author-link= Graham Greene|date= 19 June 1936|title= Dangerous/Big Brown Eyes|journal= [[The Spectator]]}} (reprinted in: {{cite book|editor-last= Taylor|editor-first= John Russell|editor-link= John Russell Taylor|date= 1980|title= The Pleasure Dome|url= https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/81|page= [https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/81 81–82]|isbn= 0192812866}})</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Baxter, John. 1970. ''Hollywood in the Thirties''. International Film Guide Series. Paperback Library, New York. LOC Card Number 68-24003.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Dangerous (film)}}
* {{IMDb title|id=0026261|title=Dangerous}}
* {{tcmdb title|id=72196}}
* {{AFI film|id=3968|title=Dangerous}}

{{Alfred E. Green}}

[[Category:1935 films]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:1935 drama films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Alfred E. Green]]
[[Category:Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award–winning performance]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
[[Category:Films set in New York City]]
[[Category:Films set in country houses]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language drama films]]