Marked Woman (1937) on Netflix
Approved19371h 36mCrimeFilm-NoirThriller
Johnny Vanning runs Club Intimate, a Manhattan nightclub where Mary Dwight works as a hostess. He mistreats the women on his staff. District attorney David Graham brings him to court.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.1/105,570 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
At Club Intimate, a Manhattan nightclub, Johnny Vanning keeps a staff of bar girls: Mary Dwight, Gabby, Emmy Lou, Florrie and Estelle. Vanning mistreats the women to make sure they stay obedient. Mary's work includes drawing a customer into betting more than he can afford. When one man tells her he has no way to repay his debt, she warns him to leave town at once. Two of Vanning's henchmen kill him. District attorney David Graham prosecutes Vanning, and Mary testifies against him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Marked Woman (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bette Davis thought the bandaging for her character's hospital-room scene looked too skimpy, so on a lunch break she drove to her own doctor and had him wrap the script's injuries properly. Back at the studio, a guard saw the bandages and telephoned executive producer Hal B. Wallis to report that Davis had been in an accident.
- Despite an opening disclaimer calling the story fictitious, Marked Woman is loosely based on the real crime-fighting of Manhattan district attorney Thomas E. Dewey, who used testimony from call girls and madams to convict gang boss Lucky Luciano of running one of American history's largest prostitution rings.
- Humphrey Bogart's district attorney David Graham is based on Thomas E. Dewey, the real prosecutor behind the story; Dewey went on to become the Republican Party's presidential nominee twice in the 1940s.
- Because the Motion Picture Production Code barred plots about brothels or prostitution, the prostitutes of the original Liberty series were turned into nightclub hostesses, the villain's racket was switched from a prostitution ring to illegal gambling, and the crime became murder.
- Bette Davis had recently sued Warner Bros. over the inferior quality of roles she was expected to play; she lost the case but gained considerable press coverage, and Marked Woman was her first film upon returning to Hollywood.
- Costars Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot met on the set of Marked Woman, and the two were married in 1938.
