Marked Woman (1937) ***

Release Date: April 10, 1937

Running Time: 84 minutes

Cast: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Eduardo Ciannelli

Director: Lloyd Bacon with assistance from Michael Curtiz

Bette Davis leads this film in the type of role she would be famous for, the brassy no nonsense woman who fears no man. Yet underneath that facade there is a vulnerability that a lesser actress would have struggled to portray. Davis is more than up to the task and shows throughout this film why she became and remained such a big star for as long as she did. Marked Woman is carried on her back and, like Atlas, she is able to support it with ease. 

The story follows five women who work as nightclub hostesses for a club that has just been taken over by crime czar Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli). Upon looking over the women Johnny is at first planning on dismissing one of them, Estelle (Mayo Methot), over her looks and demeanor. Mary (Davis) stands up to the gangster and convinces him to keep Estelle on. Some time later Mary is arrested when a man, whom she tried to help flee after he racked up gambling debts to Johnny without the ability to pay, turns up dead with her name written on paper in his pocket. Attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart) is determined to take Vanning down and uses this as leverage to try and force Mary to testify against the gangster but, fearing retaliation, she refuses. Graham puts her on the witness stand anyway but her refusal to testify leads to an acquittal. When Mary’s younger sister Betty (Jane Bryan) comes to visit and ends up dead at Vanning’s hand, Mary finally decides to rally the other girls together to finally take Vanning down for good. 

There isn’t much originality behind the plot behind Marked Woman. It is a story that has been told many times before and since and it isn’t done better here in any way that would elevate it above its B-movie roots. It’s relatively tame as well considering the time if was made. Had it been made a decade earlier it would have had more of an edge it it. The original treatment had the women working as prostitutes for Vanning yet when the film went into production the Hays Code prevented this and it was softened down to nightclub “hostesses,” only hinting at the possibility of things being a bit more seedy. 

Eduardo Ciannelli is superb in a role that threatens generic baddie. He imbues his character with a level of sadness the screenplay lacks, providing a between the lines interpretation of what drives this man. He is threatening and manipulative, yet when things come to a boil in the climax he sensibly orders his men to not go after the women who have banded together to send him to jail. He has done many evil things and is facing a very long sentence and a few more murders won’t do much to that sentence yet he is willing to let them go unpunished. 

Humphrey Bogart is in over his head as the prosecuting attorney. He is never convincing and is completely wooden. This becomes painfully obvious in the final moments between him and Bette Davis where he struggles to get any sentences out naturally. He looks like a man trying to remember his lines, not a real person speaking candidly. He feels checked out in this film. Incidentally, it was this film that introduced him to his third wife, Mayo Methot. The two married shortly after the

Is film and fought bitterly until divorcing in 1945. Alcohol and depression eventually led her to an early death in 1951. 

This is a pretty decent gangster film complete with all the trappings and clichés of the era. It suffers from being forced to pull it punches by the Hays Code as well as some weaker performances in key roles. The finale is telegraphed in advance and the ultimate resolution isn’t convincing but the solid performance by Bette Davis helps smooth out those bumps in the road.