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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well done soap opera aided by Nicholas Ray/Robert Ryan /Joan Fontaine, November 21, 2006
I have noticed that most reviews of Nicholas Ray's works usually don't mention this film. Perhaps people expect and want a film that shows Ray's distinctive style of film making. Screenplay is well written, acting very good, direction as usual competent Ray. Ryan able to successfully interpret the writer role. His scenes with Fontaine project the requisite sexual chemistry to make their interactions fascinating. One wonders whether they had something going on behind the scenes.
The drama is not as intense as it could have been, but the story is nevertheless engrossing. Fontaine's portrayal of the venal central character was subtle enough to make her scenes more interesting than they could have been in the hands of another actress. Some reviewers have stated that the story wasn't convincing because nobody in real life could ever be bamboozled by Fontaine's character. I beg to differ, because I have met a number of people in my day who were narcissistic in the same manner. The various characters' reactions to Fontaine's character were entirely logical to me.
The only unfortunate fact about the film is that the ending was recut to reflect a less depressing conclusion. The whole bit about Zachary Scott coming to his senses by flying his plane seems to reflect Howard Hughes' meddlesome habit of ordering films to be endlessly recut. There were a number of Robert Ryan films done at RKO that suffered a similar fate in the editing room.
I have Born To Be Bad on laserdisc, and the picture is quite clear. If anyone wants a better picture than the VHS, their only choice is a laserdisc. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for someone to decide to put it on DVD. The same fate goes for a number of other Robert Ryan films. See the film for a more than adequate foray into 50s cinema and to see Ryan in a romantic role. Actually, although most people think that Ryan played mostly unsavory characters, he in fact had many more positive film portrayals. They just weren't as good as his bad guy films for the most part.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
NICHOLAS RAY, OPUS 5, June 25, 2008
This review is from: Born to Be Bad [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)
***1/2 1950. Based on Anne Parrish's All Kneeling and directed by Nicholas Ray. Christabel Caine Carey is an opportunist and a social climber. She seduces her cousin Donna's wealthy fiancé, marries him while also trying to keep in touch with Nick Bradley, a writer she's sexually attracted to. Firstly, it's interesting to observe the resemblance between Curtis Carey, the billionaire who likes to fly, and Howard The Aviator (Two-Disc Special Edition) Hugues, the real life owner of RKO pictures, a production company which precisely produced BORN TO BE BAD. Then, what strikes the most in this film, is the way Nicholas Ray describes the male characters. They are passive, spectators, properly manipulated by Joan Fontaine even if the painter Gobby Broome and the writer NICk bRAdleY, two cinematic brothers of the director, won't be totally fooled. They are the only ones who will understand the double face of the young woman, another familiar theme of Nicholas Ray. Recommended.
This zone 2 DVD release will attract those of you who own a multizone DVD player. The copy is average, the Spanish subtitles can't be removed and the bonus scarce.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Citizen Hughes, July 20, 2006
Director Nicholas Ray managed to take his revenge on RKO's Howard Hughes with this real life "Citizen Kane". Hughes was obsessively pursuing Joan Fontaine whose post WWII career was going nowhere. Like Hearst's intervention in Marion Davies' career, Hughes got Fontaine the lead in Ray's "Born To Be Bad" and then meddled in the production to insure that the film became a promotional vehicle for her.
Whatever Ray may have thought of this it was not a complete disaster. Although the 32 year-old Fontaine is not credible in the role of a young business school student, if you suspend disbelief about the age factor, her performance is the equal of Anne Baxter's in "All About Eve". The same thing could be said of Davies; while her career was mismanaged by Hearst's inappropriate casting, her talent was still able to shine through.
Although not give final cut, Ray somehow was able to turn "Born To Be Bad" into a self- parodying melodrama that reflected much of the Hughes-Fontaine relationship. Even making Fontaine's mark (wealthy Curtis Carey-played by Zachary Scott) into a Hughes look- alike, complete with pencil mustashe and a passion for flying.
Unlike Orsen Welles, Ray made a lot of women's pictures, a quality "Citizen Kane" does not share with "Born To Be Bad". Fontaine plays master manipulator Christabel Caine (not Kane), not quite a sociopath but a woman with little sign of a conscience. Unlike most of these women's pictures, it is the men who she has trouble fooling with her innocent act. Cunning gay artist Gobby (Mel Ferrer)) finds her a kindred spirit and novelist Nick (Robert Ryan) is turned on by her greed and lack of moral/ethical boundaries.
Ray has Fontaine play the character in a nice self-parodying style that actually makes her somewhat sympathetic to the viewer, at least for those who can take a guilty pleasure watching her turn on the charm. Unlike her sister, the eternally earthy Olivia deHavilland, age made Fontaine brittle and well suited to villainess roles. With cute little smiles and feigned reaction shots Fontaine keeps the film vicious for its entire length.
Like Ray's "Johnny Guitar", this is a film about two women, one good and one bad (there is no subtlety), who vie for the same man. It is a battle of Joans, as Donna is played by gorgeous Joan Leslie ("Sgt. York"). Donna is a publishing house editor, postwar America was still adjusting to the vocational progress women had made during the war. But the evil Christabel explicitly rejects career opportunities (one can't imagine her contributing to the war effort) in favor of setting herself up for life by landing a rich husband she can set up for a lucrative divorce settlement.
Leslie and Ferrer are especially good in the film. Leslie gives the only restrained performance, which is more powerful because it contrasts so sharply with the overplayed performances Ray gets from the rest of his cast.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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