Bette Davis' famous walk-out from her home studio of Warner Bros. may have hurt her financially, but in the long run it paid off with bigger parts in better films. Like many Warners films of the period, Marked Woman was "torn from today's headlines." Specifically, it was inspired by the recent downfall of gangster Lucky Luciano, who at one time controlled all prostitution activities in New York. The ladies herein are euphemistically characterized as "night club hostesses," but when Luciano look-alike Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Cianelli) shows up at a fancy clip-joint to give the girls their marching orders, the audience can tell exactly what's going on. Been-there-done-that hostess Mary (Davis) is no better than she ought to be, though she has a definite code of honor; she stands up to the dictatorial Vanning at every opportunity, fending of his amorous attentions and seeing to it that her "over the hill"colleague Estelle (Mayo Methot) is retained on the gangster's payroll. At the same time, Mary tries to shield her seedy profession from her virginal sister Betty (Jane Bryan), but the girl discovers the truth and becomes a "B"-girl herself, a rash move that results in her death. Previously frightened into silence by periodic beatings from Vanning's goons, Mary and four of her girlfriends become state's witnesses, providing testimony to crusading District Attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart, playing a character clearly patterned after Thomas E. Dewey). A last-ditch effort to permanently stifle Mary and her friends fails, and the ladies show up in court to put the noose around Vanning's neck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the more striking melodramas of the '30s, it's loosely based on Thomas E. Dewey's sensational prosecution of Lucky Luciano's New York prostitution rackets, with the profession of the women changed to "nightclub hostess" in conformity with the Hays Code. Scripted by Robert Rossen, the film remains surprisingly forceful in its depiction of the brutal treatment meted out to the women who buck the system in any way, betraying its Warner's provenance in the social conscience that seeps in through the gangster movie conventions. Indeed, in Charles Eckert's influential essay "Anatomy of a Proletarian Film: Warner's Marked Woman," he goes so far as to posit the film's wealthy gangsters as the ideologically acceptable objects of the Depression audience's displaced hatred for the affluent. Rossen has always evinced sympathy for those on the lower rungs of the social ladder, and a keen awareness of their fragility in their dependence upon physical attributes and skills to survive, with the mutilation of Davis paralleling the temporary crippling of Paul Newman's pool shark in The Hustler. The film remains tough-minded about the fate of these women even in its conclusion, and the image of the forgotten "hostesses" walking off into the fog as Humphrey Bogart's D.A. chatters away to the press, resonates hauntingly. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Lloyd Bacon - Director, Jack Killifer - Editor, Alexis Dubin - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Composer (Music Score), Bernhard Kaun - Composer (Music Score), David Raksin - Composer (Music Score), Heinz Roemheld - Composer (Music Score), Harry Warren - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Max Parker - Production Designer, George Barnes - Cinematographer, Louis Edelman - Producer, Hal B. Wallis - Producer, Jack L. Warner - Producer, Robert Burks - Special Effects, James Gibbon - Special Effects, Abem Finkel - Screenwriter, Seton Miller - Screenwriter, Robert Rossen - Screenwriter
Also,
marked woman. A person singled out as an object of suspicion, hostility, or vengeance. For example, As a witness to the robbery, he felt he was a marked man, or After her fiasco at the meeting, she was a marked woman--no one would hire her. This idiom was first recorded in 1833.
The film was a major success for Warner Brothers, and was one of Davis' most important early pictures. Davis had recently filed a lawsuit against Warners, with part of her protest being the inferior quality of scripts she was expected to play. Although she lost the lawsuit, she garnered considerable press coverage, and Marked Woman was the first script she filmed upon returning to Hollywood. She was reported to be very pleased with the script and the dramatic possibilities it afforded her. Jack Warner was said to be equally pleased by the huge public reaction in favour of Davis, which he rightly predicted would increase the appeal and profitability of her films.
Co-stars Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot met on the set of Marked Woman and were married in 1938.[1]
Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the film that asserts that the story is fictitious, Marked Woman is loosely based on the real-life crimefighting exploits of Thomas E. Dewey, a District Attorney for Manhattan who became a national celebrity in the 1930s, and two-time Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1940s, due to his fight against organized crime in New York City. Dewey indicted and convicted several prominent gangsters; his greatest achievement was the conviction of Lucky Luciano, the organized crime boss of the entire city. Dewey used the testimony of numerous call girls and madames to convict Luciano of being a pimp who ran one of the largest prostitution rings in American history. Dewey's dramatic achievements led Hollywood film studios to make several films about his exploits; Marked Woman was one of the most prominent. Humphrey Bogart's character, David Graham, is based on Dewey.
Warners purchased the rights to a Liberty series on Luciano, but was forced to make alterations in the story, such as changing the women's profession from prostitutes to "nightclub hostesses", because of censorship concerns.[1]
Plot
Bette Davis as Mary.
Mary Dwight Stauber (Bette Davis), a nightclub hostess who works for the notorious gangster Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) briefly meets and befriends a young man (Damian O'Flynn) who confides in her that he does not have the money to repay the gambling debt he has accrued during the night. He feels that it's a game, but Mary warns him that he is in real danger. She is shocked, but not surprised to learn soon after that he has been murdered, by Vanning's henchman Charlie Delaney (Ben Welden).
Questioned by prosecutor David Graham (Humphrey Bogart), Mary and the other women refuse to implicate Vanning. They fear his retribution, and while privately detesting him are powerless to free themselves from his influence. Mary's younger sister Betty (Jane Bryan) comes to visit, and unaware of the dangerous situation she has entered, behaves recklessly against the advice of her older sister. When she is killed, Mary agrees to testify against the gangster. Beaten by his thugs, scarred and disfigured, she becomes the "marked woman" of the film's title, but rather than silencing her, it strengthens her resolve to testify. Aware that they can only be free of the gangster if they find the strength to stand against him, the other women agree to testify also.
Eduardo Ciannelli bears a physical resemblence to Lucky Luciano.[2]
Hymie Marks, who played the bit part of a gangster named "Joe" in the film, attracted the attention of executive producer Hal B. Wallis, who felt that he didn't look menacing enough – this despite the fact that Marks was a former gangster and henchman of Lucky Luciano, who had been specifically cast by director Lloyd Bacon because of that connection.[3][3]
Warners had originally cast Jane Wyman as "Florrie".[1]
Production
Marked Woman went into production on December 9, 1936[4] at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank[5] under the working title "The Men Behind".[1] Director Michael Curtiz stood in for Lloyd Bacon while Bacon was on his honeymoon.[1]
When Davis was made-up for the scene in the hospital room, she was unhappy with the minimal bandaging that had been used, so on her lunch break she drove to her personal doctor, described the injuries that the script called her character to have, and had him bandage her accordingly. When she returned to the studio, a guard at the gate saw her bandages and called executive producer Hal B. Wallis to tell him that Davis had been in an accident.[3]
