Crime

Drama

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Marked Woman

First National Pictures

Warner Bros. Pictures

United States of America

English

Bette Davis

Humphrey Bogart

Lola Lane

Isabel Jewell

Rosalind Marquis

Mayo Methot

Jane Bryan

Allen Jenkins

Eduardo Ciannelli

John Litel

Ben Welden

Damian O'Flynn

Henry O'Neill

Raymond Hatton

Carlos San Martín

William B. Davidson

Kenneth Harlan

Robert Strange

Archie Robbins

Arthur Aylesworth

John Sheehan

Sam Wren

Edwin Stanley

Jack Norton

Guy Usher

Herman Marks

Milton Kibbee

Harlan Briggs

Tom Coleman

Lew Hicks

Mike Lally

Frank McLure

Carlyle Moore Jr.

Wendell Niles

Paul Panzer

Scott Seaton

Harry Hayden

John J. Richardson

Charles Sherlock

Dorothy Tree

Noble 'Kid' Chissell

Robert Morgan

Lyle Moraine

Billy Wayne

Max Hoffman Jr.

Al Herman

John Harron

Frank Faylen

Wilfred Lucas

Jack Mower

Jeffrey Sayre

James Conaty

Charles K. French

Harry Hollingsworth

Alphonse Martell

Jack Byron

Philip Sleeman

Mark Strong

Alexander Pollard

Leo Sulky

Ralph Dunn

Lew Harvey

Emmett Vogan

Miriam Marlin

Larry Steers

Gordon Hart

Pierre Watkin

Bob Reeves

Milton Royce

Ronald R. Rondell

Ethelreda Leopold

Leo White

Alan Davis

Jimmy Aye

Allen Mathews

Norman Willis

Theodore Lorch

Eddie Sturgis

Edwin August

Harold Miller

Frank Bruno

Lloyd Bacon

Robert Rossen

George Barnes

Jack Killifer

Max Parker

Orry-Kelly

Harry Warren

Al Dubin

Abem Finkel

Leo F. Forbstein

Michael Curtiz

Seton I. Miller

Louis F. Edelman

Hal B. Wallis

Jack L. Warner

Bernhard Kaun

Heinz Roemheld

Margaret Donovan

Louis Baum

Eddie Larkin

Richard Maybery

Herbert Plews

Everett Alton Brown

Robert Burks

James Gibbons

Gene Davenport

Bob Galbraith

James Manatt

George Gordon Nogle

Elmer Ellsworth

Mary Dery

Eugene Joseff

Harvey Brooks

M.K. Jerome

David Raksin

Hostesses Arrested In “Clip-Joint” Murder. 

Marked Woman is directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel. It stars Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Mayo Methot and Eduardo Ciannelli. Music is collectively arranged by Bernhard Kaun, Heinz Roemheld and David Raksin, and cinematography by George Barnes. 

In spite of the film’s disclaimer put out at the pic’s beginning, Marked Woman is an adaptation of the real life case of Lucky Luciano, who the previous year was found guilty of compulsory prostitution after sterling work by U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Ciannelli plays Luciano as Johnny Vanning, Bogart plays Dewey as David Graham and Davis is “madame” Cokey Flo Brown as Mary Dwight Strauber. 

Unsurprisingly for the time it was made, Marked Woman is a distinctly sanitised version of events, full of euphemisms and hinted at unlawfulness, with the beatings et al off camera. However, it still packs a punch, both in narrative thrust as the underworld shenanigans are brought to life, and as an acting curio to see the young Davis and Bogart bouncing off each other before their respective stars were about to be ignited with petroleum.  

Interesting aspect of the picture is that it is in essence a gangster movie, with a good guy/bad guy scenario at the core, yet it’s the women who rightly dominate the story. The girls are held up as bastions of hardship and heroism, and it gives the production a riveting edge, as well as some much needed glamour in amongst the sordid machinations. 

Well acted, well told and well interesting. 7.5/10

Marked Woman trailer (1937)

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Marked Woman

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Bette Davis

Humphrey Bogart

Lola Lane

Isabel Jewell

Rosalind Marquis

Mayo Methot

Jane Bryan

Allen Jenkins

Eduardo Ciannelli

John Litel

Box office

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