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With: Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie, Mel Ferrer, Harold Vermilyea, Virginia Farmer, Kathleen Howard, Bess Flowers
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Written by: Edith Sommer, Charles Schnee, Robert Soderberg, George Oppenheimer, based on a novel by Anne Parrish
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Directed by: Nicholas Ray
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Running Time: 94
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Date: 07/15/1950
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Christabel Ringer
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
One of Nicholas Ray's trashiest movies, Born to Be Bad is like the fun flip-side to All About Eve, without the theater or the luster. Joan Fontaine stars as Christabel, a supposedly sweet-n-innocent young thing who is actually a master manipulator. Her uncle John (Harold Vermilyea), a publisher, asks his employee Donna (Joan Leslie) if Christabel can stay with her while she's attending school in San Francisco. (The movie contains many lovely exterior shots, but was clearly shot on a sound stage.) Christabel proceeds to drive a wedge between Donna and her wealthy fiance Curtis (Zachary Scott) and seduces both Curtis and author Nick Bradley (Robert Ryan). And artist "Gobby" (Mel Ferrer) tries to paint her portrait; Gobby isn't specifically identified as gay, but is clearly in that camp. (He shows no sexual interest in Christabel.) It's hard to believe that Ray directed this after the masterpiece They Live by Night, and it seems like he's slumming a bit, but it's hard to deny that the film is well-made and entertaining.
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