Born to Be Bad (1934)

Born to Be Bad
Directed by Lowell Sherman
1934/USA
20th Century Pictures
First viewing

Malcolm Trevor: You’re just a beautiful bad girl.

Loretta Young plays Letty Strong, an unwed mother who works as a “model” and “sales promoter” to support herself and her seven-year-old son, Mickey.  Life has made her hard as nails and she is raising her son to be the same.  She sees a way to cash in when a dairy truck driven by Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant) runs into Mickey.  They sue and Mickey fakes an injury.  When Trevor’s side proves this, the judge takes Mickey away from Lottie and puts him in an institution.  Trevor and his wife volunteer to take care of Mickey.  Lottie seduces Trevor in hopes of blackmailing him into returning her son.

Henry Travers zips up Loretta Young’s dress

This movie is Pre-Code and how.  We don’t even have to look up the date of release to know this.  Young is disrobing down to her lacy lingerie within five minutes of the opening and we have a plot featuring illegitimacy, loose living, and adultery.  Unfortunately, the film could be better.  I have never seen Cary Grant act quite so badly as he does here.  To be fair, the script doesn’t do him any favors.  Loretta Young is good but not completely convincing as a “bad girl”.  I can recommend this mostly for the beautiful gowns and a glimpse at a world that will not appear in Hollywood films for the next 30 years.  It is just over an hour long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Qu8aj3toA

Clip