Dangerous

We're it not for the fact that Bette Davis won her first Academy Award in Dangerous, this film would hardly be remembered by anyone except the most ardent Bette Davis fans. There were a number of films that woman carried by sheer force of nature and this is probably the best example of one.

Her character of Joyce Heath is rather obviously based on Jeanne Eagels who was only dead six years and who many had vivid memories of on stage and screen. In fact at one point in the film it's mentioned that a play that Franchot Tone is interested in being the financial backer of could only be played by Bette's character Joyce Heath and Jeanne Eagels.

Franchot Tone is a dapper successful young architect to the rich and famous and he's got a few bucks himself and he's engaged to society débutante Margaret Lindsay. But one fateful night he meets up with Bette Davis who was once big, but is now down and out. She broke many a heart in her day and even she considers herself a jinx to any who get involved with her. That don't stop Tone who hears his hormones calling.

You will not forget Bette as the hedonistic and reckless Joyce Heath, she really dominates this film. Because of that and because there was a big outcry about her not even being nominated the year before for Of Human Bondage, Davis got a nomination and to her surprise got the Oscar for Best Actress.

If the criteria for winning an Oscar is carrying a mediocre film to glory than Bette deserved it. There have been a few times in Academy history that a performance of a star just totally dominates the film, the best examples I can think of besides this is Jose Ferrer is Cyrano DeBergerac and Susan Hayward in I Want To Live. But both Jose and Susan had a whole lot better material to work with.

Even Davis while proud of the Oscar thought the film mediocre, the way Elizabeth Taylor felt about Butterfield 8. Part of the reason is that the Code had come into being. If this film had been made a year or two earlier we would not have had the absolute cop out of a finish.

Still Bette's fans will love it, no doubt.