Born to Be Bad

Rating:
Summary: BORN TO BE DISMAL ON DVD
Review: "Born to Be Bad" is a very uncharacteristic Cary Grant movie. Uncharacteristic because it's at the beginning of his career, features him in an almost non-comedic role and has him cast as a man double-crossed by a woman of easy virtue in an almost maudelin plot. The story concerns Grant hitting the son of a woman of easy virtue (Loretta Young) with his car. He then having to make the mends. The rest is pure melodrama but pulled off with such panache that you'd scarcely mind any of the hockum. Truly, this is a very, very good movie.
TRANSFER: Unfortunately the same can't be said for FOX's transfer. We get a very dirty, very gritty, very grainy transfer that - although free of digital anomalies - is so heavily damanged by age that seeing the film is hardly worth the effort. Black and contrast levels are extremely weak, fine detail is lost in practically every scene and the ravages of time are glaring and obvious throughout. The audio hasn't been cleaned up either for a slight hiss and some unexpected pops along the way.
EXTRAS: Trailers from the other Grant films. Boring, unworthy and disappointing.
BOTTOM LINE: Someone should point out to studio executives that films pre-Star Wars are worth the time, effort and, oh yes, the MONEY that is required to make them sparkle like they did when they were premiered. Really, history is getting shafted here!!!

Rating:
Summary: Suprisingly Very Entertaining.
Review: "Born To Be Bad", released in 1934, tends to get mixed opinions by Cary Grant fans. It's one of those films which you are even going to really like, or really hate. It's short, running barely over one hour in length. Cary Grant - and Loretta Young, for that matter - appeared in better movies, for sure, but this one is not to be missed. You may come away from it very suprised, you may not.

Loretta Young plays Letty. A Young, single mother, who has been through some hard times, growing up for part of her life on the streets. Her son, Mickey - who has been raised up, in some peoples views, badly - is going along the streets on his rollerskates, when Mal (Cary Grant) accidentally collides into him with his truck. Mickey is not really injured too badly, but Letty finds out that Mal is a rich man, and she tries to take benefits of getting some good money out of this incident. Her plan doesn't work, and she is found out, also making people realize she is a bad mother, her son is taken away from. Mal and his wife, Alice, who cannot have children of their own, are the couple who take Mickey, to look after. Mickey begins growing attached to the two, and Letty becomes jealous, and tries all the mean schemes she can think of, to get her son back, and ruin the couples marriage.

The acting, especially from Cary Grant, is very good. Loretta Young has been a lot better in other movies, but she does not let this movie down in any part of her performance. She was never anything less than an enjoyable actress to watch, for the most part, and she appears young, and entertaining here. The supporting cast is fairly impressive, and for a small, fairly unknown movie like this, it holds up well, and is a good film to watch more than once. Not for everyone though.

This DVD from 20th Century Fox is reasonably good in terms of picture quality. Its completely watchable throughout, but it does indeed contain a good deal of scratching, and the other occassional artifacts, but, this is a very old movie. The extras are useless, like most DVDs from this company, but its a welcome release to my collection, atleast.

Rating:
Summary: BORN TO BE DISMAL ON DVD
Review: "Born to Be Bad" is a very uncharacteristic Cary Grant movie. Uncharacteristic because it's at the beginning of his career, features him in an almost non-comedic role and has him cast as a man double-crossed by a woman of easy virtue in an almost maudelin plot. The story concerns Grant hitting the son of a woman of easy virtue (Loretta Young) with his car. He then having to make the mends. The rest is pure melodrama but pulled off with such panache that you'd scarcely mind any of the hockum. Truly, this is a very, very good movie.
TRANSFER: Unfortunately the same can't be said for FOX's transfer. We get a very dirty, very gritty, very grainy transfer that - although free of digital anomalies - is so heavily damanged by age that seeing the film is hardly worth the effort. Black and contrast levels are extremely weak, fine detail is lost in practically every scene and the ravages of time are glaring and obvious throughout. The audio hasn't been cleaned up either for a slight hiss and some unexpected pops along the way.
EXTRAS: Trailers from the other Grant films. Boring, unworthy and disappointing.
BOTTOM LINE: Someone should point out to studio executives that films pre-Star Wars are worth the time, effort and, oh yes, the MONEY that is required to make them sparkle like they did when they were premiered. Really, history is getting shafted here!!!

Rating:
Summary: Nice Pre-Code
Review: I don't want to be too extensive. I only want to tell you this short (61 minutes of running time) Pre-Code, is a goody-goody, with Cary Grant, and especially Loretta Young, who is great in it...she looks ravishing, great gowns, slim-fitted, beautiful face-eyes, fresh beauty, great spunk.

I cannot understand why (I've read it) Loretta was "stereotyped" and "dismissed", mainly in the 1930's as being a so-so or bad actress, and being only a "clotheshorse"...untrue...she's radiantly good (Well BAD) (chuckles) here.

It's difficult to think of this LORETTA...when one thinks of the 1940's Loretta in "The Farmer's Daughter"....or her other teaming with Cary Grant, the excellent & cute & sentimental "The Bishop's Wife"...a completely different stuff.

I wanna watch more early '30s Loretta, not only her virginal-good characters (like "Zoo in Budapest" (I'd "kill" to see this one) or "The Crusades" (here she's mostly "decorative" IMHO)....but stuff like "Midnight Mary" (I've read it's TOP) "Employee's Entrance", "Taxi". "The Hatchet Man".....

The quality of the DVD is pretty good.

Pre-Code lovers watch it!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting pre-code film
Review: I quite enjoyed this film - it's an interesting pre-code that was released about 6 weeks before enforcement of the production code. Loretta Young's acting is pretty good but Cary Grant is kind of dull - definitely not his best role. Some of the pre-code plot elements in this film include Loretta Young's unspecified "profession" and lifestyle that involves men and clothes and some of the rather risque shots of Loretta in her underwear. I think the release of this pre-code movie, which was previously unavailable, is to be applauded.

Rating:
Summary: Too Boring to Be Bad
Review: Movie: ** DVD Quality: ** DVD Extras: ****

I've seen enough of Loretta Young's and Cary Grant's early work to know that this movie surely represents some kind of nadir for both stars. Despite their considerable skills, no one could possibly turn this sow's ear of a script into anything resembling a decent film. Loretta plays a 22-year-old never- married mother of a 7-year-old son; the kid is being raised to be just as morally compromised as Mom. Enter Cary as a victim of one of their scams; before you can say, "What the hey?!!!?", Cary and his wife are raising Loretta's son ... Loretta's moving in on Cary to get her boy back ... Cary's wife is all-forgiving of her husband's dalliance ... Loretta does the "noble" thing by walking away and abandoning her son to Cary and wife's care. This all takes a scant 61 minutes that drags on f-o-r-e-v-e-r because no one does anything but talk, talk, and talk ... oh! they also slam doors - lots of doors - in Cary's lavish mansion. It couldn't have been fun for the actors to make this rubbage, but at least they must have known enough to stay away from the finished film!

Certainly whoever wrote the insert notes for this Fox Home Video release never watched the movie! They identify Cary's character as a "dairy farmer" (he's actually the very wealthy head of a dairy corporation); they name aged 50-something character player Henry Travers (Clarence the Angel in "It's a Wonderful Life") as the actor playing Loretta's 7-year-old son; and they describe the film as a "heartwarming, well-made classic" as well as a "gripping classic" (maybe they had this confused with Cary and Loretta's later film, "The Bishop's Wife", which really is a classic).

I doubt that whoever was in charged of transferring the film to video paid much attention to the movie, either. The picture is grainy throughout with some noticeable jumps (indicating bad splices); and the sound is frequently muddy as well. At least Fox doesn't claim it was restored. There is a nice selection of trailers from other movies Grant starred in at Fox, including "I Was a Male War Bride" (1949), "People Will Talk" (1951), "Monkey Business" (1952), "Kiss Them For Me" (1957), and "An Affair to Remember" (1957) ... but the trailer to this film isn't among them. There's also a small photo gallery.

Overall, I can't in good conscience recommend this DVD to anyone except the most diehard Young and Grant fans. But if for some reason you insist on watching it, check out the jurors in the trial scene ... doesn't the man on the front row to the right of your screen bear a resemblance to the producer of the film, Darryl F. Zanuck?

Rating:
Summary: They should have kept this one on the vault shelf.....
Review: Someone should educate 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment about classic movies. Just because a movie is old, doesn't make it a classic, and certainly doesn't justify a DVD release.

Fox is sitting on hundreds of great unreleased films, while they end up releasing junk like BORN TO BE BAD. A more accurate title would be FILMED TO BE BAD. Dull and boring (in a poor transfer), this is a waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT CLASSIC MOVIE!!
Review: THIS GREAT CLASSIC 1934 MOVIE STARRING LORETTA YOUNG AND CARY GRANT IS ABOUT AN EVIL UNWED MOTHER.IT'S A MUST SEE!!