The Two Faces of Joan Fontaine: ‘Born to Be Bad’ 1950

 

(L) Joan Fontaine as conniver Christabel in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."
(R) Carol Burnett from her TV show, spoofed this noir soap as "Raised to Be Rotten!"

By the end of "Born to Be Bad," everyone wants to strangle Christabel, even herself!

Born to Be Bad is a film noir soap opera that toys with Joan Fontaine's on-screen persona. In the role referenced in the title, Joan's seemingly demure miss recalls the cinematic bouquet of shy English roses that Fontaine played in the '40s. Here, this rose reveals her thorns, as the poor relation who’s a two-faced schemer. Fontaine's memoir was titled No Bed of Roses, ironic since a Bad character sneeringly refers to her schemer’s life in a rich marriage as such. Fontaine was also known off-screen for her sharp-tongued wit. On-screen, her characters were usually soft, wide-eyed, one brow raised, with a Mona Lisa smile. 

Christabel Caine comes to San Fran! "Born to Be Bad's" Joan Fontaine with her
go-to expression, the arched eyebrow, slight smile, and "Who, me?" expression!

As conniving Christabel Caine, Joan and director Nicholas Ray use the Fontaine image very cleverly. As other movie fans have noted, Christabel's tactics are much like the same year's passive/aggressive villain, Eve Harrington, in 1950’s All About Eve. Fontaine's acting style is also similar to Anne Baxter’s, but much more dialed down. There's the same raised eyebrow, deer in the headlights looks, and lowered voice, but Baxter often went big!  They even have the same severe curled bob that was mysteriously popular post-war. Christabel wants a rich husband and Eve wants to be a star, and anyone in the way gets steamrollered.

Christabel seems to be the bad seed, an orphan raised by a meek relative. She leaves her Aunt Clara in Santa Flora and moves up to San Francisco to go to business school, and live with career girl Donna, who works for Christabel’s uncle. At first, family and friends are taken by the poor "girl"—it’s amusing to think of over-30 Fontaine’s goal to be a secretary. Not to mention the poor relation arrives with a gaggle of Hattie Carnegie dresses, swanned throughout Born to Be Bad! 

Joan Fontaine's Christabel feigns innocence in 1950's "Born to Be Bad." 

Joan Fontaine plays the part in perfect studio era style. The demure diva smirks as the supposedly sophisticated city folk fall for her manipulations. Or the left eyebrow that gets an aerobic workout every time Christabel gets away with her latest scheme. While Joan Fontaine was naturally pretty, it's an eye roll that men are falling all over her or that she's so charismatic that others are blinded by her blatant insincerity. The film’s posters describe Christabel as man-bait and a female savage! Rita Hayworth or Vivien Leigh, she ain’t. The spinster bob, plus a series of shoulderless gowns that accentuate her slightly hunched posture and modest bosom don’t help at all, either.

"Born to Be Bad" hardly lives up to the poster's captions or depicted cup size of Joan!

As Donna, Joan Leslie is natural and surprisingly holds her own. Just 25 at the time, and while no Janet Leigh or Eva Marie Saint, Leslie's playing is straightforward and strong. 

Joan Leslie's Donna realizes that scheming Christabel is "Born to Be Bad!

As the men in Christabel's life, there's Mel Ferrer as Gabriel Broome, the young artist who paints her portrait. Nicknamed “Gobby,” he’s more of a frenemy, and some film fans think he was a coded gay character. No wonder he didn’t fall prey to this perilous mantrap! Then there's Robert Ryan, well-cast as rugged author Nick Bradley, who sees through Christabel but can't help but be captivated by her alleged charms. I loved it when Ryan’s Nick declares he won’t be the vixen’s “backstreet boy!” Another staple of this era's type of film is the "smart" dialogue that comes off campy. And Ferrer and Ryan get the best/worst of the cheesy zingers, usually directed at that devil in disguise, Christabel.

A young Mel Ferrer plays a glib, gay young artist in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."

Robert Ryan is the rugged writer who charms himself & Joan Fontaine
in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."

Zachary Scott, at home in a tux or ascot, is the millionaire in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."

Zachary Scott played many characters who were either charmers, creeps, or both. Remember him as the cad Monty in Mildred Pierce? As Donna's rich fiancé Curtis Carey, he's sympathetic, but falls for Christabel's conniving. In the 90 minute film, Donna's out and Christabel is in by the half way mark! But, she still hankers for that rough-hewn Ryan. Natch, Christabel overplays her hand and soon enough gets caught and tossed out on her ear. Donna and the millionaire are reunited, natch. And Christabel contentedly drives off with a carload of furs. 

Carol Burnett as "Christinabelle" in her takeoff of "Born to Be Bad," called
"Raised to Be Rotten!" With Harvey Korman, so good at spoofing Scott's rich guys.

Carol Burnett was famed for her television show’s film takeoffs and she lampooned this type of film perfectly. Here, Born to Be Bad is called Raised to Be Rotten. Carol kicks it up a few notches, playing crafty "Christinabelle!" By the end of the skit, she’s a pickpocket to everyone along the way out. Burnett's spoof cleverly skewers every time Christinabelle and the rugged writer go into a clinch, she swoops into his arms, and the music swells. Or when guest star Richard Crenna as Ryan's writer tells Christinabelle to shorten her name! Carol's got Joan's arched eyebrows and smirk down pat and her bad girl aptly tells Crenna’s bad boy to “take your cheap repartee and get out!” This parody is so close to the bone it reminds me of Carol’s take off of Joan Crawford’s Torch Song.

One thing that makes me laugh about Robert Ryan's rugged artsy type is his proclamations about Christabel as a woman. It reminds me of Dane Clark as the opinionated artist giving Bette Davis guff in A Stolen Life or Steven Boyd's editor to new girl Hope Lange in The Best of Everything. The gist of which is generally: "You know what your problem is? You're afraid of being a real woman!" And their characters surely had a solution for what ailed the leading ladies’ “problem.”

"Read any good books lately?" Joan Fontaine's schemer is feeling Zachary Scott
but looking at Robert Ryan, in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."

Born to Be Bad is one of those post-war film noir soaps that served as showcases for its leading lady. Monster hit Mildred Pierce in '45 was surely the inspiration. Joan Crawford herself did a series of such films in the late '40s through the '50s, as did many established female stars. The formula was the film diva was either a woman in jeopardy or a scheming vixen. The latter usually afforded a film fashion show for the star. The supporting cast was usually a bevy of leading men who were knocked over like bowling pins by the star's feminine wiles. Any women in the movies, while usually younger than the star diva, were no competition. Even if the star's character paid for her sins at the finale, she had a lot of fun along the way. And so it is with Born to Be Bad. Enjoy!

Here’s the film that mixed film noir and soap opera, brought Joan Crawford back and created a subgenre for strong female stars.  My look at Mildred Pierce: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-joan-crawford-became-mildred-pierce.html

"Portrait of Joanie?" Mel Ferrer's artist creates this masterpiece
of Joan Fontaine's charismatic schemer in 1950's "Born to Be Bad."

Harry Belafonte’s Bleak “Odds Against Tomorrow” 1959

 

Happy here, Harry Belafonte stars in the grim noir "Odds Against Tomorrow."

Odds Against Tomorrow has been called the last film noir by some, but for me, it's a fascinating character study, with a clear-eyed look at mid-century NYC.

Dave Burke, a bitter ex-cop, has a “surefire” plan to hold up a specific bank. He enlists two men who badly need the money. Johnny Ingram is a black musician and gambler who owes big time to some small-time gangsters. Earle Slater is an ex-con with a bad temper, and relies on his good-hearted girlfriend for dough. Two big problems: One, neither man has ever committed robbery. Second, Earle is an old-school racist and Johnny is a modern black man who doesn't kowtow to whitey. Need I say that this well-planned heist is doomed from the start?

An eerie moment when Robert Ryan's racist goes out of his way to grab the little black girl.

As well-done as the script is in leading to the bank robbery, the story of these two desperate men is what makes this movie compelling. Much has been written about this cult film, so I'll just refresh the basics: Odds Against Tomorrow would considered an indie film today. Shot on a modest budget, the talent involved wanted to work with hot young star Harry Belafonte, who also helped put this film together. That, plus respected director Robert Wise, who was just coming off of I Want To Live! The cast is an intriguing mix of veteran stars like Robert Ryan, Ed Begley, Shelley Winters, and Gloria Grahame, opposite Harry Belafonte, plus future name actors like Wayne Rogers, Richard Bright, Zohra Lampert, and Cicely Tyson, as the nightclub bartender. 

Right, Cicely Tyson is the amused bartender at the club where Belafonte's Johnny sings.

The movie is a moody snapshot of late '50s NYC, with director Wise using infrared film for some exterior scenes to give the city a bleak, cold look. This film is throwback to the economic storytelling from Wise’s early career, and one of the best, Dede Allen, was the film editor. The taut, no-nonsense script was by blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky, working under a pen name. The great jazz score is by John Lewis, which creates a melancholy mood. Unlike most studio movies at the time, life in the Big Apple isn't prettified for audiences here. One of the men in the park scene asks the cops why nobody goes to the park at night anymore. His answer is, those darn kids. The ex-cop lives in a grand old apartment building, which has seen better days. The gambler/musician lives the night life while his ex-wife is mingling with white folks over PTA luncheons. Racism isn't romanticized, either. In Earle’s first scene, he side steps into a group of kids playing, grabs a little black girl, and tells her to be careful, calling her a "pickaninny."

Gloria Grahame gives a quirky take on Ryan's oddball neighbor in "Odds Against Tomorrow."

Shelley Winters as Lorry, Ryan's sympathetic girlfriend, in "Odds Against Tomorrow."

The realistic acting and storytelling really are what’s riveting about Odds Against Tomorrow. Shelley Winters is truly unglamorous as Earle's long-suffering girlfriend, who can't help but mother hen him, which further infuriates him. Gloria Grahame is the neighbor who’s turned on by Earle's prison past. Gloria plays the role in a peculiar fashion, which seems like something out of Touch of Evil or Twin Peaks. Richard Bright, who became a popular character actor in the "New Hollywood," was just a baby here. As Coco, he’s of the gangsters who just happens to be gay, and loves to come on tauntingly to Johnny. Wayne Rogers makes a strong impression as a soldier who makes the mistake of picking a bar room fight with Earle. Zohra Lampert is the bar girl he's trying to impress. In the night club scene, Diana Sands and Cicely Tyson are uncredited but instantly recognizable as the hostess and bartender, observing Belafonte's drunken antics.

Richard Bright as Coco, who's just wild about Harry in "Odds Against Tomorrow."

What's great about Ed Begley's ex-cop, Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan's ne’er-do-well cohorts, are that they aren't rationalized, but aren't demonized, either. Begley's former cop Dave is embittered at being sold out by his superiors, but seems like a decent man, in terms of his offer to the two men. Begley, who excelled at corrupt creeps, is most believable as a man who just wants his perceived due. Belafonte's musician is a player and a bad gambler, but Johnny is aware of his flaws as a man. Belafonte, who could be a bit stiff as an actor, luckily had charisma and good looks to spare. And Harry gives one of his best performances here. He's strong and intense, playing a John Garfield-like character. In the scenes where he's up against an ex-wife, mobsters, and a racist partner, he's convincingly desperate. The most difficult character is Earle, who has been in prison twice for assault, and is a walking time bomb. Luckily, the subtle script is in sure hands with the brilliant Robert Ryan. The actor was equally great playing heroes and villains, so here he captures the complicated racist loser. 

Infrared photography for "Odds Against Tomorrow" exteriors makes racist relic Earle look ghostly.

Odds Against Tomorrow is really more than a noir or a heist film. It's about two men trying to live in modern America. Belafonte's Johnny, though smart and proud, doesn't seem to fit in. His gambling life and fast living aren't getting him anywhere, and he resents seeing his wife mainstreamed into white society. Ryan's racist is most timely to today’s film viewers. Earle was a war hero, but is considered a middle-aged relic. The young soldier in the bar room reminds him that Earle was in the last war, his solving problems with his temper and fists have landed him in prison twice, and his knee jerk racism rankles those around him.

The finale bank robbery's a bust. Ed Begley gives great support in "Odds Against Tomorrow."

Odds Against Tomorrow is a good look at what makes a racist, the individual who feels the world has passed them by, and is looking for a scapegoat. In the film, Earle constantly looks to blame Johnny for any mistakes or missteps in their planned heist. Dave's ringleader more than once has to tell Earle to back off, but he just can't help himself, and ultimately his hate and distrust is responsible for the heist going awry. 

Some film fans find the ending of Odds Against Tomorrow a bit too clever. I can see their view, but the ultimate point is still the truth. When you're dead, it doesn't matter what color you are.

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page. 

Check it out & join!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/

Robert Ryan & Harry Belafonte relaxing on the set of "Odds Against Tomorrow."