She ain't nursing no machine gun sister but she sure is as mean and soulless as Paul Muni in SCARFACE. This is a dark crime movie disguised as a woman's drama. It doesn't paint a particularly pleasant picture of mankind, it doesn't cheer you up but it's very expertly put together.
Just because something is well-made, acted very intelligently and beautifully photographed doesn't make it enjoyable. It's just personal taste but I found this a little too bleak. Now I love a good bit of bleak despair and unmitigated misery as much as the next man but to reach those Tennessee Williams levels, that misery has to be so over the top, so hyper emotional that your brain tells you that such desolation could never happen in your world. This isn't quite crazy enough here, it's just horrible enough to be real. Bette Davis is particularly believable as the sociopathic candle, luring her moths to her cold as ice flame.
What's different, almost modern about this for an early thirties film is that the supporting characters are all well thought out proper people. They have real personalities and story arcs. In this melange of moods and atmospheres we get to know who these are. The police aren't all ignorant imbeciles, the newspaper men aren't all arrogant vultures, the criminals aren't all one-dimensional heavies. Occasionally Lyle Talbot put in a fabulous performance but this was not one of those times. In this he tries to act - he tries to be a broken man, eaten away the pernicious darkness of his'relationship with Bette Davis. The way he shows his erosion to an empty husk, denuded of any spirt however comes across as so lifeless that you can't feel anything for him. Even so, this approach gives this picture extra depth and authenticity.
Hugh Herbert - who is running at level 11 on the irritating scale, isn't just the annoying, unfunny bumbling idiot he seems to be. His utter disregard for the horrific events going on around him and his sole focus on getting a picture and lack of empathy for anyone else is actually quite a biting bit of satire. Just a shame he's so annoying!
The weak link in this picture is Margaret Lindsay. Her character, the naive goody-goody nice sister just isn't strong enough to give us someone to root for. She's genuine enough but sometimes being ordinary doesn't grab you, you don't engage emotionally.
Just because something is well-made, acted very intelligently and beautifully photographed doesn't make it enjoyable. It's just personal taste but I found this a little too bleak. Now I love a good bit of bleak despair and unmitigated misery as much as the next man but to reach those Tennessee Williams levels, that misery has to be so over the top, so hyper emotional that your brain tells you that such desolation could never happen in your world. This isn't quite crazy enough here, it's just horrible enough to be real. Bette Davis is particularly believable as the sociopathic candle, luring her moths to her cold as ice flame.
What's different, almost modern about this for an early thirties film is that the supporting characters are all well thought out proper people. They have real personalities and story arcs. In this melange of moods and atmospheres we get to know who these are. The police aren't all ignorant imbeciles, the newspaper men aren't all arrogant vultures, the criminals aren't all one-dimensional heavies. Occasionally Lyle Talbot put in a fabulous performance but this was not one of those times. In this he tries to act - he tries to be a broken man, eaten away the pernicious darkness of his'relationship with Bette Davis. The way he shows his erosion to an empty husk, denuded of any spirt however comes across as so lifeless that you can't feel anything for him. Even so, this approach gives this picture extra depth and authenticity.
Hugh Herbert - who is running at level 11 on the irritating scale, isn't just the annoying, unfunny bumbling idiot he seems to be. His utter disregard for the horrific events going on around him and his sole focus on getting a picture and lack of empathy for anyone else is actually quite a biting bit of satire. Just a shame he's so annoying!
The weak link in this picture is Margaret Lindsay. Her character, the naive goody-goody nice sister just isn't strong enough to give us someone to root for. She's genuine enough but sometimes being ordinary doesn't grab you, you don't engage emotionally.