Watch Born to Be Bad For Free

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I didn't like the abrupt finish! The movie runs only 59 minutes on the Fox DVD. Not exactly good value for the money! I actually bought this 2005 Fox DVD in Australia and it cost me $21.00.Was it worth the money? Yes, just! Although you would think that a rich film-maker like 20th Century Fox would have thrown in a few extras - especially as the movie ends with this unexpected fade-out rather quite suddenly and very abruptly. But right up to it's somewhat abrupt and disappointing finish, "Born To Be Bad" (presumably the title is supposed to refer to the Loretta Young character) is very well acted, particularly by the leads, Loretta Young and Cary Grant - and also by the young boy whom I've not heard of before! (His name, according to the Fox DVD is Henry Travers! Perhaps giving people wrong or defective names is some sort of new publicity ploy that Fox have dreamed up to give their DVD releases greater mileage with critics and pressmen. It's a novel idea, I'll admit, but I don't like it and have no wish to encourage it).Anyway, according to the Fox DVD, the director was someone called Lowell Sheerman. Never heard of him either! But I do know Lowell Sherman - a top director, in my opinion. Brilliant in fact! I think this was his second last film as a director. The only later title I have for him is "Night Life of the Gods" (1935).But getting back to the movie, I'd say again that under Lowell Sherman's brilliant direction, both Young and Grant never gave better performances. That fact alone makes "Born to be Bad" worth seeing.

This picture was right on the cusp of the Motion Picture Production Code, and as such it ran into quite a bit of trouble before its release.This film is on another "cusp" -- right during that period from about 1932-1934 when films were beginning to be sophisticated. This film was more sophisticated than some, but not as sophisticated as others.And interestingly, this film was made when Cary Grant had been making films for only a little over a year, and it shows Cary Grant before he was...well, Cary Grant. You see none of the Cary Grant persona here. He's just another actor near the beginning of his climb "up".So this film is interesting in the annals of film-making for several reasons, but that is not saying it's a very good film. It's overly simple and almost funny in a few places where it's not supposed to be. Loretta Young is quite good here, but her character is almost as low as they go...so you're not apt to like her role very much. But, she sure was beautiful.Watch this film...once...for the time frame in which it was made. But I doubt you'll come back a second time.

Loretta Young looks gorgeous. She gets to wear a lot of clothes. It's a little hard to buy her as an amoral, manipulative man-trap. But she works hard and this is partly because we know her oeuvre.I have recently watched a lot of her early movies, which are not substantial enough to comment on. These include "Road To Paradise," "Party Girl," and "Big Business Girl." These are all early sound pictures and very creaky.Here, though, Young is costarred with youthful and handsome Cary Grant. He hasn't quite become the Cary Grant who is rightly a fable in the history of Hollywood. But he's of course handsome and they are well matched -- if not necessarily plausible romantically.The rest of the cast is OK. But the director was Lowell Sherman, who was excellent and has been underrated in later decades.

This melodrama from 1934 almost works.Henry Travers, as always, is excellent. Cary Grant does a good job as a the male lead who is not a star, but who is supposed to support the acting of the lead. He comes off as thoughtful,kind and wise.Loretta Young, however, cannot quite pull off her leading role as the woman who, kicked around by life, decides to kick back. Jackie Kelk, as her barely pre-Code bastard son, is simultaneously whiny and predatory in an oh-gosh-gee-whiz sort of way.The entire thing has the air of having been cut down to serve as a second feature: some extra scenes might have been helpful. Give it a miss unless you want to see what Cary Grant was like while working his way up the Hollywood star system.