Dangerous (1935) DVD5 - Uncompressed - A Bette Davis Film [DDR]

Dangerous is a 1935 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Bette Davis in her first Oscar-winning role. The screenplay by Laird Doyle is based on his story Hard Luck Dame.

CAST:-
Bette Davis as Joyce Heath
Franchot Tone as Don Bellows
Margaret Lindsay as Gail Armitage
Alison Skipworth as Mrs. Williams
John Eldredge as Gordon Heath
Dick Foran as Teddy
Walter Walker as Roger Farnsworth
Richard Carle as Pitt Hanley
George Irving as Charles Melton
Pierre Watkin as George Sheffield
Douglas Wood as Elmont
William B. Davidson as Reed Walsh

MOVIE REVIEW:- Dangerous (1935)
Don Bellows (Franchot Tone), a prominent New York architect, is engaged to the beautiful and wealthy Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay) when he meets down-and-out Joyce Heath (Bette Davis), 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 (John Eldredge), 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.


PRODUCTION NOTEs:- Dangerous (1935)
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.[1] She 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.

Franchot Tone, who recently had completed Mutiny on the Bounty, was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to bolster Davis' marquee value. Davis was immediately drawn to the actor, who was engaged to Joan Crawford at the time. Producer Harry Joe Brown later revealed he had walked in on Davis and Tone in a compromising position. Crawford apparently knew about the liaison, but didn't break the engagement. Most biographers believe this was the start of the alleged feud between the two actresses.

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 with Brenda Marshall in the lead role. It coincidentally utilized some of the sets from The Letter, the 1940 film starring Davis.

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 the previous year. 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.

Not even considered a good film back in 1935, Dangerous is held together by the mesmerizing performance of Bette Davis. The star is cast as alcoholic, self-destructive stage actress Joyce Heath, a character obviously based on Jeanne Eagels. Wealthy architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) becomes convinced that Joyce can be rehabilitated with the "right" stage vehicle, and begins pulling strings to bring her back to the footlights. She rises to the occasion, falling in love with Don in the process. But Joyce becomes convinced that she's a jinx to any man who gets near her, as proven by her spineless, dissolute husband, Gordon Heath (John Eldredge), who refuses to give her a divorce. Deliberately hurting Don's feelings so he will escape her "curse," Joyce determines to rid the world of both herself and her husband. But things don't work out that way, and as a result Joyce is left in an inextricable Ethan Frome-like dilemma at film's end, while Don finds happiness with his socialite Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay). It is generally conceded that Bette Davis won her Academy Award for Dangerous because she was denied the Oscar for her performance in the previous season's Of Human Bondage. Dangerous was remade (and considerably reshaped) in 1941 as Singapore Woman

SYNOPSIS:- Dangerous (1935)
Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec:  AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams:  2
Audio Languages:English
RunTime 79 mins
Subtitles: Francais
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 79 mins