Fresh and Exciting

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

. . . Betty Davis portrays "Mary Dwight." Ms. Dwight (nee Strauber) earns a facial scar in the form of a cross carved into her cheek toward the end of MARKED WOMAN. Though she doesn't take any potshots at a sitting American president as did Manson groupie Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme, Mary does lead her own sister to a watery doom while under the sway of mercenary sex cult leader "Johnny Vanning." Mr. Vanning is so frightening that Richard Nixon--who made headlines by declaring JV wannabe Charles Manson "guilty" immediately upon the latter's arrest--would have babbled, "He is NOT a crook, he is NOT a crook" had Vanning been arrested during his administration. Since MARKED WOMAN takes place in the 1930s, History spares us such a milquetoast Milhouse. But the real question you'll be asking yourself after watching MARKED WOMAN is, "What about Bob?" Mr. Robert Crandall--would be molester of innocent coeds--seems to get off "scot free" (or "Cosby Clear," for Gen X'Ers). Or, maybe you'll be wondering, "What about Ralph?" Why do Vanning's henchmen allow this bozo from the sticks to run up a one-night dinner club debt of $2,184 (or $62,400, adjusted for inflation)? White Castle would not have sold this deadbeat a slider on credit, so why aren't the duped thugs taken for a ride, instead of Ralph? At least MARKED WOMAN can answer questions about how New York City's bordering rivers got so polluted, with their corps of corpses, compliments of folks like Vanning.

Mob czar takes over swanky nightclub and turns it into a "clip joint", keeping the hostesses on to tempt and tantalize the male clientèle and using his gorillas as bouncers; when a customer is murdered after trying to skip out on his bill, the Chief Prosecutor hopes one of the working girls will rat her bosses out in the courtroom. Thinly-veiled chronicle of Thomas E. Dewey's real-life legal showdown with Lucky Luciano, now with much of the emphasis placed on Bette Davis' role as tough-talking broad-cum-caring big sister. Screenplay by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel is unusually taut, while Lloyd Bacon's direction manages to be compact and yet artistically solid. Humphrey Bogart's attorney isn't the dynamic character one is expecting, and his performance seems a little slow and dull. Davis, on the other hand, is at full-throttle, with big, incredulous eyes, nifty costumes, and a flip, exasperated manner. She's the reason to watch. **1/2 from ****

After watching this film, I'm surprised it was released as late as 1937. Given that the main characters are call girls and this fact is central to several plot points, I expected to find it was pre-code. Still, thinking back on it, this fact is made clear without direct references. The most direct notice of the nature of their work is given by the reaction of the little sister when this is made a point in court by the defense attorney.Another point in my casual mis-dating of this film is the quality of the picture. There is a black haze that rounds out the corners, but this may be due to the way the film was stored so many years ago. It gives the movie a sense of being a few years older than it is. Call it character.Bette Davis gave a good performance in this movie, walking the line between under and over-acting, with a very balanced treatment of the main role. She was also prettier than I've ever seen her. Humphrey Bogart had a bit of dash in his appearance as the clean cut assistant District Attorney, spending much of his time arguing the case for the prosecution..It's interesting to look back a the way the trial was handled. There isn't a lot of excess drama in those scenes. They are very direct in their approach to the necessary exposition, treating it almost as quick action which gets to the heart of the story. Besides some last minute badgering of a sobbing witness, there isn't much to compare to the stirring soliloquies of more modern courtroom scenes. Even the way the cameras shot the scene is pretty basic, with only the occasional interesting perspective.The plot is easy to follow, revolving around a minor crime lord, a group of call girls and the ability of the court system to triumph. The ending is satisfying in terms of plot, but this is the biggest clue that this is a reflection of the direction Hollywood went in the mid to late 30s. Good always wins. The ending for the characters is not so certain and this is one of the most dramatic parts of the film as the characters go their separate ways to uncertain destinies.

Marked Woman was one of those films that was emasculated by the Code when it came out in 1937. Had it been done a few years earlier the women would have clearly been labeled prostitutes instead the euphemistic 'hostess' at a nightclub clip joint. Of course the inspiration for the story wasn't developed yet when the Code came into affect in 1934.The inspiration for the story is what in real life turned out to be the chink in the armor of crime boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano. The rackets boss controlled prostitution on a large scale and it was the women who worked for him who came to Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey and their testimony is what brought him down. Unlike the crime boss here, Luciano was not charged with murder.Our story in Marked Woman concerns a group of women who worked for boss Johnny Vaning, the Luciano character played with absolute relish by Eduardo Ciannelli. the women are Bette Davis, Isabelle Jewell, Rosalind Marquess, Mayo Methot, and Lola Lane. When a 'john' stiffs on his bill at the clip joint, he's rubbed out and Davis's testimony helps get Ciannelli off. That incidentally was all part of a set up engineered by John Litel as Ciannelli's very shrewd lawyer. Definitely the kind of attorney who really earns his fees from the mob.But when Davis's younger sister Jane Bryan winds up dead, Davis experiences a change of heart. She becomes quite the crusader and this time cooperates with prosecutor Humphrey Bogart for real.Humphrey Bogart is the prosecutor in District Attorney Henry O'Neill's office who is on a mission to take Ciannelli down. His part here is far more of a straight arrow than the usually cynical Bogart we're used to seeing. He's the Dewey figure in the film.When Marked Woman came out Thomas E. Dewey was running for District Attorney of New York County. Dewey was a former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District in New York and was later made a special prosecutor by joint agreement with Governor Herbert Lehman and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. But as luck would have it he was making his first bid for elected office that year. It was as Special Prosecutor not as an elected District Attorney that he brought Lucky Luciano to the bar of justice. I guarantee there was no one in New York County in 1937 who saw Marked Woman and did not know who this film was referring to. It was a great piece of campaign propaganda for him.Of course Ciannelli is convicted and Bogart is the hero of the hour. But it's that last shot of Davis and her friends going off alone and friendless into the night that will stay with you forever. In fact they were the real heroes, but it's oblivion more than likely for them.Marked Woman is an effective, but rather dated film. Davis is good if melodramatic. The best performances are by Ciannelli and Litel. If you want the real story, I highly recommend Richard Norton Smith's excellent biography on Thomas E. Dewey.