The Fourth Annual Bette Davis Blogathon – Dangerous (1935)

This is the first of three posts dedicated to The Fourth Annual Bette Davis Blogathon being held over at In The Good Old Days of Hollywood.

Tnx Crystal for letting me take part!

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“Take a look at yourself. Take a good look. Drunken. Ill-kept. The only feeling that you can arouse in a man is pity.” – Don Bellows

Number of Times Seen – 1 (7 Apr 2019)

Brief Synopsis – A former actress plagued by jinxes during her career is taken under the wing of an architect ho believes in her and wants to make her a star.

My Take on it – This is actually a film that I’ve been meaning to see for years since it features an Oscar winning performance by Bette Davis.

The premise of the film is intriguing and it’s interesting to see how such a plot plays out in a film made 84 years ago.

Davis definitely stands out here and her performance makes the film much more enjoyable and fascinating to watch.

She finds a way to make here character seem believable throughout the film no matter the various predicaments that she finds herself in along the way.

The film has a great overall message about believing in one’s self and not seeking to find superstitions or jinxes as excuses for successes or failures in life.

It’s quite easy to understand how Davis could win an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance here.

The story gets a bit out of hand in a few instances but still manages to find a way to ground things to a point where they seem realistic regardless.

Bottom Line – Interesting premise that works quite well due to Davis’ performance. She manages to make us believe her character in the various situations and predicaments that she finds herself in during the course of the story. The overall message about believing in one self in order to shed the feelings of jinx is done well and it’s easy to understand how Davis could win an Oscar as Best Actress for this role. Parts of the story seem a bit far-fetched, but they still find a way to make things seem realistic throughout. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia #1 – Though Bette Davis was very proud of the Oscar she won for this film, she didn’t think she deserved it that year – in her opinion, Katharine Hepburn should have won for Alice Adams (1935). Davis always thought she won as compensation for not even being nominated for her star-making performance in Of Human Bondage (1934) the previous year. (From IMDB)

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia #2 – According to notes on the film at TCM, producer Harry Joe Brown walked in on an intimate moment between Franchot Tone and Bette Davis. Tone was engaged to Joan Crawford at the time. This supposedly was the beginning of the famous Crawford-Davis feud. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)